28-25 in 2007 is long forgotten.
The No. 16-ranked Long Beach State softball team is the 2008 Big West Champion and shut out the rest of the conference in doing so. Up next: LBSU’s 18th NCAA Regionals bid.
Behind freshman pitcher Brooke Turner’s LBSU single season-high 17th shutout Saturday, the 49ers (39-15, 15-6 Big West) followed Friday’s conference-clincher with a convincing 1-0 win over Pacific (25-34, 7-14) at the 49er Softball Complex.
Turner (26-4), much like Friday’s dominance of the Tigers, was a nightmare for the Pacific hitters Saturday, as she struck out seven en route to tie her sister Michelle for the school single season wins record.
Turner battled with Pacific pitcher Alyce Jorgensen for six innings. Jorgensen (7-10), however, struck out only two and needed the help of her defense to keep the 49er hitters at bay, all except sophomore designated hitter Ashley Weber and junior rightfielder Danielle Linke.
Weber’s RBI triple in the second inning scored Linke, as the single run proved to be the deciding factor for The Beach, which celebrated Senior Appreciation Day for the departing senior players – shortstop Jessica Beaver, catcher Brooke LeSage, leftfielder Lacy Tyler and centerfielder Franciska Morlet.
Morlet spoke about the team’s long road back to the top of the conference.
“It’s amazing,” Morlet said. “We’ve worked since September. It was so hard just to get to our first goal. It’s a great feeling especially from last year. We have so much pride, so much energy.”
The last time LBSU was in the NCAA Regionals was in 2006 at UCLA, where The Beach came up short on escaping the regional round with consecutive losses to UCLA and San Diego State. The 49ers haven’t been to the College World Series since 1993 and have been eliminated during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament nine times since then. However, this 49er team has played a number of teams that will be in the upcoming postseason tourney and their seven wins against ranked opponents this season could help The Beach’s chances wherever it goes for the first round.
“We want to win regionals,” Morlet said. “We are The Beach; we know we can beat any team in the nation.”
Head coach Kim Sowder, who reached the College World Series three out of four seasons as a LBSU player, said the team shouldn’t forget how it got to the tournament.
“They need to just remember how good they are,” Sowder said. “I’ll tell them to play with confidence and continue to play the same they have all year.”
Junior third basewoman Jennifer Griffin, who played for 2007 College World Series runner-up Tennessee last year, believes her current LBSU team has the tools much like her past team to make a run.
“This team has a lot of potential to do really well as long as our hitting, pitching and fielding are real well,” Griffin said. “We had all of that at Tennessee. We had one of the best pitchers [in the nation at Tennessee]. I see a lot of that here.”
The 49ers will await their NCAA Regionals selection Sunday at 7 p.m., when tournament participants are selected.
