'Dogs to Battle No. 1 & No. 2

Fresno State heads to the Cathedral City Classic this week.

Courtney Moore and the 'Dogs take on four ranked teams this week.

Feb. 23, 2010

FRESNO, Calif. - The Bulldog softball team heads south this week to the Cathedral City Classic to take on four nationally ranked teams in No. 1 Washington, No. 2 Arizona, No. 14 Texas and No. 17 Ohio State. The `Dogs will also face a tough Utah team. The Bulldogs' five opponents this week boast a 38-9 record heading into this weekend. Fresno State is 7-1 on the year, its best start since the 2001 team posted the same record. The `Dogs went 1-1 last weekend at the Stanford/Nike Invitational, dropping the opening game to Illinois and downing UC Riverside 10-2 in five innings. The `Dogs had their final two games rained out vs. Sacramento State and Stanford.

Cathedral City Classic
The annual Cathedral City Classic is one of the biggest tournaments in the country and yearly boasts numerous top ranked teams in its field of 30+ teams. This year, the tournament includes 14 teams ranked in the top 25 in both the ESPN.com/USA Today and the NFCA polls and six receiving votes between the two, including No. 1 Washington, No. 2 Arizona, No. 5 UCLA, No. 10 Stanford, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 13 Cal, No. 14 Texas, No. 17 Ohio State, No. 19 Fresno State, No. 20 Massachusetts, No. 21 Tennessee, No. 23 Northwestern, No. 24 Texas A&M, No. 25 BYU, Baylor, Hawai'i, Oklahoma State, San Diego State and Cal Poly. All games will be held at the Big League Dream Sports Park in Cathedral City, Calif., near Palm Springs. Games will be played on six different fields from Thursday-Sunday. Oregon State University is once again the host. Complete tournament schedules and results can be found on Oregon State's website at: http://www.osubeavers.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/cathedral-classic.html, or on the official tournament website: http://palmspringssoftballclassic.com/.

Live Audio/Stats
Live stats for all Fresno State games during the Cathedral City Classic can be found through gametracker at www.gobulldogs.com. All five games this weekend can also be heard live with free audio provided by Alyssa Chambers at www.gobulldogs.com. The pre-game show for each game is 10 minutes prior to game time.

Scouting Texas
The Longhorns are 11-0 on the season and the only undefeated team in either of the top 25 polls. They moved up six spots in the NFCA poll this week to No. 14 and two spots in the ESPN.com/USA Today poll to No. 13. The `Dogs will look to be the first team this season to hand the Horns a loss as the two meet in one of the first games of the tournament at 1 p.m. on Wrigley Field on Thursday. Last weekend, Texas went 5-0 with wins over UTSA, No. 16 Louisiana-Lafayette, Iowa State, Houston and Purdue. The Horns have already defeated six ranked team this season. Also at the Cathedral City Classic, Texas takes on No. 3/5 UCLA, Syracuse, UC Davis and Oregon State. They are led by sophomore Courtney Craig with a .412 batting average and 14 hits. In the circle, freshman Blaire Luna leads the way with a 0.46 ERA and a perfect 5-0 record. She also has 45 strikeouts in 30.1 innings pitched. Texas leads the overall series with the `Dogs 5-4. The two teams last met in the Cathedral City Classic in 2008 with Fresno State coming away with an exciting 9-7 victory in which Morgan Melloh and Ashley Cox shined in the circle and Caitlin Stiglich, Haley Gilleland and Brooke Phipps came up big at the plate.

Scouting Utah
The Utes are the only unranked team on the slate for the `Dogs this week but can not but overlooked. Utah is 7-3 on the season with wins last week over Cal State Fullerton and Indiana. They went 2-3 last week, also dropping games to No. 12/11 Cal, No. 21/21 Northwestern and Hawai'i. Utah plays Oregon at 3 p.m. on Thursday before its meeting with the `Dogs that same night at 5:30 p.m. on Yankee Field. Also this week for Utah at the tournament they will take on Baylor, Long Beach State and UC Davis. Utah is led by junior Jasey Jensen with a .571 batting average and senior Ashley Sumda with a 7-0 pitching record and 1.74 ERA. The `Dogs lead the overall series 35-10, including the last 10. The last time Utah won in the series was back in 1998. In 2008, the last meeting, the `Dogs defeated Utah 9-6 at the Judi Garman Classic where Morgan Melloh had nine strikeouts in 3.2 innings and picked up the win. Caitlin Stiglich was 3-for-3 from the plate with three RBIs and Andrea Ortega was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, respectively.

Scouting Ohio State
Ohio State is 6-4 on the year after going 2-3 last week, dropping three games to No. 8 Alabama and picking up wins over Stetson and Rhode Island. They are ranked No. 17/16 in the polls, dropping three spots in the NFCA poll and two spots in the ESPN.com/USA Today poll from last week. Fresno State meets Ohio State on Wrigley Field at 10:30 a.m. on Friday for the Buckeyes' first game of the tournament. This week, Ohio State will also face Tennessee, Oregon State, Long Beach State and UCLA. Ohio State is led by Sam Marder with a .462 batting average and a 1.385 slugging percentage. Courtney Pruner has 14 hits. Melanie Nichols is the leader in the circle with a 1.25 ERA and a 2-0 record. Lindsay Bodeker has a team-high 26 strikeouts in 22.1 innings pitched. The `Dogs lead the overall series 5-4 but have dropped the last two in the series in 2008 and 2007. The 2008 game was a 1-0 Buckeye victory at the Cathedral City Classic in which Morgan Melloh had eight strikeouts but suffered the first loss of her career.

Scouting Arizona
Arizona is No. 2 in both polls for the second-straight week with a 7-1 record with wins over Northwestern, Purdue, Nevada, Cal State Fullerton and Missouri. The Wildcats only loss is to Missouri, 10-5 last week. Arizona takes on BYU at 3 p.m. on Friday before its meeting with Fresno State at 5:30 p.m. that night on Yankee Field. In the tournament, they will also face Cal Poly, Hawai'i and Baylor. The Wildcats are led by Brigette Del Ponte with a .545 hitting percentage and .909 slugging percentage. Lauren Schutzler (.478) and Brittany Lastrapes (.478) both also hit above .500. Kenzie Fowler leads the way in the circle with a 0.92 ERA and a perfect 5-0 record. She also has 52 strikeouts in 30.1 innings pitched. Arizona leads the overall series vs. Fresno State 34-14 and has won the last seven. The `Dogs last defeated Arizona 1-0 in the national championship game back in 1998.

Scouting Washington
The defending national champion Washington Huskies are No. 1 in both polls again this week despite losing their first game of the season to Utah State last weekend. The Huskies are 7-1 overall and went 2-1 last weekend, picking up wins over UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State. The 2009 WCWS MVP Danielle Lawrie returns for her senior season and last week was named the National Player of the Week for throwing a perfect game. She is a perfect 5-0 on the season with a 0.21 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 33.0 innings pitched. Lawrie hits .440 at the plate with a team-high 14 RBIs, six home runs and a 1.240 slugging percentage. Jenn Salling leads the team with a .474 hitting percentage. The overall series is tied 8-8 with Washington winning last year's meeting 3-0 in 11 innings at the Judi Garman Classic.

`Dogs to Appear on ESPNU
ESPNU announced that it will televise the Louisiana Tech at Fresno State Western Athletic Conference softball game Friday, May 7 at Bulldog Diamond. First pitch has been moved to 8 p.m.

The `Dogs have made 14 appearances throughout the year on national television, this will make the 15th. The `Dogs are 25-4 all-time vs. Louisiana Tech.

ESPNU is a multimedia college sports brand, highlighted by a 24-hour television network and Web site - ESPNU.com. The ESPNU schedule features more than 550 live events (regular-season and championships) annually. Action includes a variety of top football and men's and women's basketball mixed with baseball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse, ice hockey, wrestling and more.

The network also has a wide-ranging, long-term agreement with the NCAA calling for extensive coverage of 22 NCAA Championships, including sports from each of the three collegiate seasons.

ESPNU is available nationwide in more than 68.5 million households and has long-term carriage agreements with nine of the top 10 providers - Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV (Channel 614), DISH Network (Channel 141), Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS TV and AT&T U-verse.

Schedule Change
Fresno State's schedule has changed for the San Diego Classic I March 5-7. Instead of playing Buffalo on the final day of the tournament, the `Dogs will now face Oregon on Sunday, March 7 at 9 a.m. at San Diego State. Fresno State leads the overall series 29-3 and won the last meeting in 2008 4-1 also at SDSU.

Chasing Records
Several Bulldogs will look to move up the Fresno State, WAC and NCAA career record books this season. Head coach Margie Wright continues to set records of her own. She picked up her 600 victory at Bulldog Diamond in the season opening win vs. Santa Clara. Now with 1,189 wins at Fresno State, Wright needs just 11 wins to reach 1,200. Wright is also 48 wins away from 1,400 in her career.

Morgan Melloh is on pace to break the Fresno State and WAC strikeout record this season along with moving up in total appearances, games started, wins, complete games, innings pitched, strikeouts per 7 innings, shutouts and saves. In Fresno State history, Melloh is No. 8 in appearances with 117 (needs one for 7th), No. 10 in games started with 94 (needs one for 9th), No. 9 in wins with 76 (needs one for 8th), No. 9 in complete games with 85 (needs nine for 8th), T9th in innings pitched with 708.1 (needs 40 for 8th), No. 2 in strikeouts with 951 (needs 49 for 1,000 and needs 370 for No. 1), No. 9 in shutouts with 39 (needs four for 8th), No. 3 in saves with five (needs five for No. 2).

Junior Haley Gilleland has 42 stolen bases in her career and needs just 10 to tie Becky Witt's school record of 51. She was 3-for-4 for stolen bases on opening weekend and picked up her fourth of the year vs. UC Riverside.

Sophomore Michelle Moses hit her 11th home run of her young Bulldog career on opening weekend and ranks 10th all-time at Fresno State. She is two shy of Wende Ward in the ninth spot with 13th.

"We Are Your Team" - The 2010 Fresno State softball team heads to the Cathedral City Classic next week to take on Washington, Arizona, Ohio State, Utah and Texas.