CEDAR CITY, Utah. - The Southern Utah softball squad completes the 2021 regular season with four games in five days this weekend at Kathryn Berg Field in Cedar City, Utah.
SUU faces BYU on Tuesday, May 4 at 3 p.m. MST before closing out the regular season with a three-game set against Big Sky foe Sacramento State May 7-8.
Big Sky Team Standings
Southern Utah is currently tied for second place in the Big Sky Conference based on record alone. With series loss to Northern Colorado this past weekend, the Thunderbirds would finish with the third seed if the season ended today.
Sacramento State, this weekend's opponent, is tied for fourth overall with Montana with 7-8 marks. The Hornets own the tiebreaker over Montana with a three-game sweep to open up April.
Rank, Team, Conference Record
1, Weber State, 13-2
T2, Southern Utah, 8-7
T2, Northern Colorado, 8-7
T4, Montana, 7-8
T4, Sacramento State, 7-8
6, Portland State, 8-10
7, Idaho State, 3-12
SUU Single-Season School Record Trackers
With her home run against Northern Colorado last weekend, Brooke Brown moved within just a single home run of the single-season home run record. Lindi Kennedy holds that mark with 15 in 2007. Brown has blasted 14 balls over the fence thus far this season.
Meanwhile, Josey White is tied for sixth on the charts with 12 home runs. She's tied with Mikkel Griffin (2012) and Tiffany Burt (2006).
Rank, Name (Season), Home Runs
1, Lindi Kennedy (2007), 15
2, Brooke Brown (2021), 14
T3, Kadi Henderson (2014), 13
T3, Bobbi Jo Merrill (2007), 13
T3, Marci Pratt (2006), 13
T6, Josey White (2021), 12
T6, Mikkel Griffin (2012), 12
T6, Tiffany Burt (2006), 12
Brown also is on pace to break the single-season slugging percentage mark with a .787 thus far this year. She's ahead of Sarah Murphy's 2018 record of .765. White is also on the charts with a .750 to stand third, while Kalena Shepherd is fifth with a .178.
Rank, Name (Season), Slugging Percentage
1, Brooke Brown (2021), .787
2, Sarah Murphy (2018), .765
3, Josey White (2021), .750
4, Marci Pratt (2006), .748
5. Kalena Shepherd (2021), .718
Brown also is moving up the charts for the single-season RBI record with 46 this year. She is still 12 runs shy and would need a monster close to the season to take down Marci Pratt's 2006 mark of 58.
Rank, Name (Season), RBI
1, Marci Pratt (2006), 58
2, Lindi Kennedy (2007), 57
3, Kortny Hall (2006), 54
4, Tiffany Burt (2006), 52
5, Bonnie Cahill (1981), 51
T6, Brooke Brown (2021), 46
T6, Kadi Henderson (2014), 46
T6, Bobbi Jo Merrill (2007), 46
T6, Erin Niederhauser (2007), 46
Shepherd, meanwhile, has a chance at the single-season record for batting average with a .412 so far this season. Denise Johnson (1993) and Luann Weston (1988) share that record with matching .405s in their seasons.
Rank, Name (Season), Batting Average
1, Kalena Shepherd (2021), .412
T2, Denise Johnson (1993), .405
T2, Luann Weston (1988), .405
T4, Mikkel Griffin (2012), .404
T4, Debbie Bone (1978), .404
T4, Natalie Smith (1978), .404
7, Christy Burge (1998), .398
8, Lacee LePrey (2004), .397
9, Kristen Carmichael (2005), .395
10. Josey White (2021), .390
SUU also could see a pair of single-season team marks fall as well.l.
Slugging Percentage in a season: .482 (35 games, 1984)
Current: .488 (42 games)
On-Base Percentage in a season: .416 (31 games, 1978)
Current: .376 (42 games)
Big Sky Stat Leaders
Brooke Brown, Kalena Shepherd, Dayna Hokanson, Josey White and Makall Whetten are among Big Sky stat leaders heading into the final regular season weekend.
Brown leads the league in slugging percentage (.787), RBI (46) and home runs (14). White, meanwhile is atop the charts in doubles (13) and total bases (102).
Hokanson paces the conference in runs scored (37), while Whetten is a magnet for being hit by a pitch with 17 HBP, nearly double that of Hokanson's second-ranked 10 HBPs.
NCAA Stat Rankings
Thunderbirds can be found throughout the NCAA Top 50 Stat Rankings
Individual Rankings:
Doubles: Josey White, t26th, 13
Hit By Pitch per game: Makall Whetten, 12th, .40
Home Runs: Brooke Brown, t33rd, 14
Home Runs per game: Brooke Brown, t3th, .33
On-Base Percentage: Kalena Shepherd, 49th, .519
RBI: Brooke Brown, t24th, 46
RBI per game: Brooke Brown, 33rd, 1.10
Team Rankings:
Double Plays per game: 39th, .40
Home Runs per game, 27th, 1.24
Slugging Percentage: 43rd, .488
Weekend Preview
BYU is 29-15 overall and 8-1 in the West Coast Conference.
Rylee Jensen, Hannahjo Peterson and Violet Zavodnik are the top offensive threats for the squad.
Jensen bats .394 with a .463 on-base percentage and .810 slugging percentage. She has 11 doubles and 16 home runs with 35 RBI.
Peterson owns a .286 batting average with a .347 on-base percentage and .534 slugging percentage. She has eight doubles, two triples and seven home runs with 32 RBI.
Meanwhile, Zavodnik boasts a .410 batting average with a .527 on-base percentage and a .846 slugging percentage. She also has eight doubles to go along with five triples and 11 home runs with 36 RBI.
Autumn Moffat-Korth is BYU's ace with a 17-8 record and 2.19 ERA. She has 132 strikeouts in 163 innings pitched.
Sacramento State is 13-23 overall and 7-8 in the Big Sky Conference heading into this weekend.
Alondra Mejia and Lewa Day lead the way offensively for the Hornets.
Mejia bats .313 with a .330 on-base percentage as well as a.573 slugging percentage. She has two doubles, four triples, five home runs along with 10 RBI this year.
Day, meanwhile, has a .274 batting average, .395 on-base percentage, and .611 slugging percentage. She has hit five doubles and nine home runs with 20 RBI.
The ace for the pitching staff is Marissa Beruccio. She sports a 3.75 ERA in 115.s innings pitched. Her overall record is 9-14 with 12 complete games as well as 71 strikeouts.
Game Day Information
All four games this week will take place at Kathryn Berg Field in Cedar City, Utah.
BYU heads to Cedar City on Tuesday, May 4 at 3 p.m. to complete SUU's non-conference season.
Sacramento State then heads into Cedar City with a three-game Big Sky series on May 7-8. The series opens with a doubleheader on Friday, May 7 starting at 1 p.m. MST. A single contest closes the regular season on Saturday, May 8 at 12 noon MST.
Live stats can be found at tbirdstats.com.
Last Time Out
Southern Utah softball had a tough time on the road in Greeley, Colo. with a trio of losses to the Bears. SUU fell 3-2 in eight innings, 4-3 and 4-0 in the three-game set.
The top highlight of the weekend occurred when Brooke Brown moved within one home run of Southern Utah's single-season record with her 14th moon shot of the season. Only Lindi Kennedy has hit more in a Thunderbird uniform with 15 in 2007.
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