Softball Plays Final Nonconference Tournament at No. 23/24 Kansas

Game Notes | Live Stats | Audio for Kansas Game

POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State softball team plays its final nonconference tournament this week at No. 23/24 Kansas. The Bengals play Nebraska Omaha on March 13 (5 p.m. MDT) , UMKC (10:30 a.m. MDT) and No. 24 Kansas (1 p.m. MDT) on March 24 followed by a March 15 contest against Saint Louis (8:30 a.m. MDT). Live stats will be available for all games and audio will be available for the Kansas game on isubengals.com.

ISU vs. Nebraska Omaha
Nebraska Omaha is 9-9 and led by the play of Lia Mancuso, who is hitting .333. The team is hitting .248 and the pitching staff is led by Kat Barrow's 3.03 era and 3-2 record. Nebraska Omaha leads the series 1-0 as they beat the Bengals, 6-3, on Feb. 9, 2014.

ISU vs. UMKC
Idaho State leads the series 1-0 with the only meeting being a 7-4 victory in 2008. UMKC is 10-8 and hitting .311 as a team. Katie Kelley is hitting .448 with nine home runs and 29 RBIs. Cinda Ramos leads the pitching staff with a 5-1 mark and a 3.82 era.

ISU vs. Kansas
Kansas leads the series 1-0 with the lone victory being 3-1 in 2007. Kansas is 21-2 and hitting .343 as a team. Briana Evans leads the offense with a .430 average. The pitching staff has a 2.76 era and is led by Alicia Pille's 1.62 era and 12-0 mark.  Saturday's game against Kansas is the fifth game against a Top 25 team since the start of the season.

ISU vs. Saint Louis
This is the first meeting between the two schools. Saint Louis is 12-6 and hitting .314 as a team. Alex Nickel leads the offense weith a .431 average. Brianna Lore leads the pitching staff with a 1.48 era in 52 innings of work.

Burnett Earns National Honor
Kacie Burnett was named the NFCA National Player of the Week for her performance last week against the University of Nevada. She is the first Bengal to ever win a National Player of the Week honor. From the plate, Burnett was 10-for-12, good for an .833 batting average. She scored seven runs and was a perfect seven-for-seven stealing bases. Burnett was also the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week and the US Bank Bengal Athlete of the Week.

Bengals Among NCAA Stats Leaders
Several Bengals are making a splash in the NCAA stats. Vicky Galasso ranks 11th in the nation in RBIs per game (1.55), sixth in home runs (9) and eighth in RBIs (34). Kacie Burnett has the 32nd best batting average (.500), ranks 35th in stolen bases per game (.64), sixth in runs per game (1.36) and 42nd in on base percentage (.576). Katelyn Marquez is 18th in triples per game (.18) and fourth in total triples (4). Hailey Breakwell ranks 10th in sacrifice flies with three.

Up Next
The Bengals open Big Sky Conference play on March 21-22 against the University of Montana. The Bengals play a double header against the Griz on March 21 at 1 p.m. and a single game on the 22nd at 1 p.m.

Galasso Continues Climb in the Record Books
Early into Vicky Galasso's senior season she is already breaking  nearly every ISU offensive career records. She is first in the career records for runs (157), hits (218), home runs (51), RBIs (183), walks (70) and total bases (414). She is second in the career records for doubles (35) She is seven doubles from become the all-time leader in those categories.

Marquez Becomes All-Time Steals Leader
Junior Katelyn Marquez is now the ISU all-time steals leader. She broke Becky Molyneaux's record over the week at Santa Clara. Marquez has 43 stolen bases on 49 attempts, breaking Molyneaux's record of 37 on 43 attempts.

Tough Schedule
Four of Idaho State's 11 losses have come against Top 10 teams. ISU opened the season losing to No. 6/7 UCLA 13-3 in six innings. The Bengals then lost three closes games to No. 7 Louisiana Lafayette last week. ISU lost a close 3-1 contest at Cal State Fullerton, a team that was receiving votes in the Top 25. The Bengals play at No. 23/24 Kansas on March 14. On Feb. 7, Utah lost 2-0 to Utah, a team that is also receiving votes in the poll.

Bengal Bites
-  Vicky Galasso has a seven-game hitting streak.
- Hailey Breakwell has reached base in 15 straight games.
- Kacie Burnett has 11 mulitple hit games and Vicky Galasso has 11 multiple RBI games.
- ISU has won the Big Sky Conference regular season championship the last two seasons.
- Julie Wright boasts a  75-54 record at ISU since the start of the 2013 season. ISU is 26-8 in the Big Sky Conference.

And the winner is...
For the fourth straight week a Bengal has garnered Big Sky Player of the Week honors.  Kacie Burnett earned the honor for her performance vs. Nevada where she was 10-12 at the plate with seven runs scored. She was a perfect seven-for-seven stealing bases. Vicky Galasso won the honor last week her performance at UNLV where she hit .667 (10-for-15) with three home runs and nine RBIs. Hailey Breakwell earned it last week for her performance at Santa Clara. Breakwell hit .545 with four runs scored, six RBIs and had a .909 slugging percentage.  Kacie Burnett and Sophie Slagle became the first Bengals to earn conference player of the week honors for their performance at Louisiana Lafayette. Burnett was named the Big Sky Player of the Week for hitting .429 with six hits, six runs scored and five RBIs at the Mardi Classic at Louisiana Lafayette. Slagle posted a 1-1 mark in 16.1 innings, striking out 12 and allowing five runs. Opponents only hit .207 off her in three appearances.

Bengals Against Ranked Opponents
The Bengal softball program is looking for its first win against a nationally ranked team. The Bengals are 0-23 against nationally ranked programs. Six of those 23 games have been against Arizona State.  The highest ranked team ISU has faced was No. 2 Arizona State in 2007.

Preseason Favorites
The Idaho State softball team was picked to finish first by the coaches in the preseason poll that was released by the Big Sky Conference. This is the second consecutive year ISU has been picked first in the preseason polls.  Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team in the poll.

The Bengals are the two-time Big Sky Conference regular season champions, finishing the 2014 season with a 35-20 record and a 13-4 mark in Big Sky Conference play.

The Bengals return the 2014 Player of the Year in shortstop Hailey Breakwell and the unanimous 2014 Freshman of the Year, outfielder Kacie Burnett.

Vicky Galasso, the 2013 Big Sky Conference MVP and two-time first-team all-conference catcher, returns for her senior season.   Also returning for the Bengals is second-team pitcher Jessica Tolmie along with Maddy Hickman, Micheala Taylor, Sarah Hayes and Katelyn Marquez. All four earned honorable mention all-conference in 2014 and Hickman was the 2013 Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year.

Preseason Softball Poll
Team Points
1. Idaho State 48 (6)
2. Sacramento State 42 (1)
3. Northern Colorado 34
4. Southern Utah 32 (1)
5. Weber State 29
6. Portland State 16
7. Montana 14
8. North Dakota 10
(First-place votes in parenthesis)