FULL NOTEBOOK IN PDF FORMAT


SEASIDE, Calif. -- Off to its best–ever start at 15–3 (7–1 CCAA), the 13th–ranked Cal State Monterey Bay softball team will look to match (then exceed) the school record winning streak when it host CCAA rival Cal State East Bay for four games Mar. 2–3 at the Otter Sports Complex.

While the Otters are rolling right now, sixth year Head Coach Andrea Kenney knows continuing at their current pace will not be easy.

“Competing in the CCAA provides new challenges each week,” says Kenney. “We need to be prepared well for every opponent. There is never a moment to relax.”

The Otters extended their current win streak to seven games with a sweep of Cal State San Bernardino last weekend in the 2012 CSUMB home openers. The Otter offense continued to produce at a prodigious pace, needing just 36 hits to explode for 40 runs.

Freshman P/2B Cori Reinhardt (Riverside Poly HS) leads the Otter attack with a .511 average and a .851 slugging percentage. She leads the CCAA with four triples and ranks No. 2 in average, slugging percentage and on base percentage (.603).

The quartet of freshman Nina Villanueva (San Diego/Mt. Carmel HS), sophomore Nikki Rodriguez (San Jose/Evergreen Valley HS) and seniors Jamie Moon (Torrance HS) and Jackie Serna (Corona HS) all follow Reinhardt: Villanueva (.449), Moon (.434), Serna (.434) and Rodriguez (.405) each hit better than .400. 

Otter pitching, meanwhile, has more than kept pace. Sophomore Kylie Linnane (Salinas/Notre Dame HS) is a spotless 6–0 on the season and leads the CCAA with a 1.03 ERA. Reinhardt is 7–1 with a 1.68 ERA.

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Otter Softball Odds & Ends


LIVING LARGE: The Otters have not just been scoring prolifically, they've been scoring in bunches so far this season. CSUMB has scored at least two runs in an inning in 17 of 18 games and has posted a four-run (or more) inning in 13 games. In total, the Otters have scored multiple runs in an inning 30 times in 18 games.

HAVE MERCY: The Otters won two more games via the 8–run rule last weekend vs. San Bernardino, marking the fourth and fifth times this season they've done that—already tied for the third most in a season in school history. The 2009 and 2010 Otters each posted 10 run–rule wins.

BEST…START…EVER: At 15–3, the Otters are off to their best start ever. Their previous best start after 18 games was 13–5 by the 2010 Otters.

LUCKY NUMBER 13: The Otters pulled off a rare feat, scoring a school record 13 runs in the first inning of Friday's 14–0 win over Cal State San Bernardino. Most remarkably, all 13 runs scored with two outs.

(UN)LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN: The Otters have been here before this season. CSUMB enters Friday's games riding its second seven–game win streak of the season. The previous time, Central Washington pulled off the upset on Feb. 12 to leave the Otters one win shy of the school record eight consecutive wins, set twice previously (last from Feb. 5–20, 2010).