Softball Hosts Getterman Classic to Open Season
2/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 3, 2005
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Complete Getterman Classic Live Coverage
#17 BAYLOR (0-0) HOSTS THE GETTERMAN CLASSIC
Feb. 4-6, 2005
Getterman Stadium • Waco, Texas
THE SCHEDULE
Friday, Feb. 4
Illinois vs. Centenary, 10:00 a.m.
UL-Monroe vs. Centenary, 12:15 p.m.
Baylor vs. UL-Monroe, 2:30 p.m.
Illinois vs. Baylor, 4:45 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 5
Centenary vs. Baylor, 10:00 a.m.
UL-Monroe vs. Illinois, 12:15 p.m.
Baylor vs. Illinois, 2:30 p.m.
Centenary vs. UL-Monroe, 4:45 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 6
Illinois vs. UL-Monroe, 9:00 a.m.
UL-Monroe vs. Baylor, 11:00 a.m.
Centenary vs. Illinois, 1:00 p.m.
Baylor vs. Centenary, 3:00 p.m.
Home Team Listed First
THE SERIES
Baylor vs. Centenary: Baylor leads 10-0
Baylor vs. Illinois: Baylor leads 3-1
Baylor vs. UL-Monroe: Baylor leads 8-6
LIVE COVERAGE
Radio: None
Live Audio: None
Live Stats: www.BaylorBears.com
Television: None
MEDIA RELATIONS
Softball Contact: Michael Collins
Office Phone: (254) 710-3065
Cell Phone: (254) 709-4657
Office Fax: (254) 710-1369
E-mail: Michael_Collins@baylor.edu
No. 17 Baylor opens the 2005 softball season on Feb. 4 when the Lady Bears host the fourth-annual Getterman Classic at Getterman Stadium. The Lady Bears welcome No. 22 Illinois, Centenary and Louisiana-Monroe to this season's renewal of the round-robin tournament.
The tournament opens on Fri., Feb. 4, at 10:00 a.m. as Illinois faces Centenary with the Lady Bears opening play at 2:30 p.m. when Baylor faces Louisiana-Monroe.
Baylor enters the 2005 season with its highest ranking in school history after a successful 2004 campaign. The Lady Bears enter the year with seven starters returning from last year's squad that went 48-17 and advanced to the NCAA Softball Championships for the first time in school history.
Baylor's meeting with Illinois on Friday, Feb. 4, at 4:45 p.m. marks a re-match from last year's NCAA Tournament, when the Fighting Illini eliminated the Lady Bears with a 2-1 victory at Getterman Stadium.
HEAD COACH Glenn Moore
Glenn Moore begins his fifth season as head coach at Baylor and his seventh full season as a collegiate head coach. Moore, who was selected to guide the Lady Bear program in June 2000, enters the 2005 season with a career record of 302-128 (.702). His teams have won at least 30 games in all six seasons of his Division I career.
The 2004 Baylor softball season saw Moore guide the Lady Bears to unprecedented success. For the first time in the program's history, Baylor was selected to participate in the NCAA Softball Championships and the Lady Bears' home field, Getterman Stadium, was selected as one of eight NCAA host sites.
Along the way, Moore's 2004 version of the Lady Bears established new school records for wins (48), conference victories (11) and winning percentage (.814). In addition, Moore helped the Lady Bears climb to their highest national-ranking in school history, finishing the season ranked 19th in the country.
At one point during the season, Baylor won 27 of 28 games and established a new school record with a 14-game winning streak. During the year, Baylor defeated seven teams ranked in the top 25, including a series sweep of No. 9 Oklahoma, a team that advanced to the NCAA Women's College World Series.
The 2004 season also saw Baylor advance to the Big 12 Conference Tournament semi-finals for the first time ever. After finishing fourth in the conference during the regular season, tying Baylor's highest-ever conference finish, the Lady Bears advanced to the semi-finals of the conference tournament for the first time ever before falling to Nebraska.
During Baylor's historic run at the conference tournament, the Lady Bears helped Moore reach a career milestone. Rallying to defeat rival Texas A&M 2-1 in an elimination game, the Lady Bears gave Moore his 300th career victory, a milestone that was recognized by the NFCA at its annual convention this past winter.
During Moore's tenure, three Lady Bears have received CoSIDA Academic All-America honors (Kim Wilmoth twice), and 10 players have received NFCA All-Midwest Region honors; Cristin Vitek earned all-region accolades twice. 11 Lady Bears have earned 14 all-Big 12 Conference selections (Miller, Levesque and Vitek twice twice), while numerous Lady Bears have earned academic all-conference honors.
Prior to coming to Baylor, Moore spent two-plus seasons as head coach at Louisiana State and four years total with the Tigers' program. Moore led LSU to the Southeastern Conference championship in 1999 and 2000. While at LSU, Moore amassed a 117-25 (.820) record.
Before his stint at LSU, Moore spent one season as the head coach at William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Miss. Moore was 22-17 that season and guided William Carey to a second-place finish in the Gulf South Conference.
SCOUTING THE GETTERMAN CLASSIC FIELD
No. 22 Illinois, Centenary and UL-Monroe travel to Getterman Stadium this week to face the Lady Bears in the fourth-annual Getterman Classic. Baylor owns an overall record of 21-7 against teams participating in this year's field, including a perfect 10-0 record against Centenary.
Illinois is highlighted by Jenna Hall, a two-time First Team All-Big Ten selection and senior outfielder LeeAnn Butcher, an all-conference selection last season.
Although Illinois lost star pitchers Amanda Fortune and Sherri Taylor from last year's squad, Illinois returns junior Jackelyn Diekemper, who hails a 7-0 career record, and sophomore Mary Miller to complement freshman Claire DeVreese.
After winning the Mid-Continent Conference tournament in their first year of conference play, the Centenary softball team has been tabbed as the preseason favorite to repeat in the 2005 season.
Back for the Ladies are sophomores Micah Rhodes and Megan Hall, both selected first-team All-Conference last season. Rhodes led Centenary with a .348 batting average and .652 slugging percentage, both third-best in the Mid-Con, and was named Mid-Con Newcomer of the Year for her efforts. Hall hit .289 with a five doubles and a pair of triples.
ULM suffered through its worst season ever last spring, finishing 13-48 overall and 3-23 and last in the Southland Conference in 2004.
ULM's top returning player is senior outfielder Kristen Baker, who has made the all-conference third team the last two years and made the preseason second team this year. The team's leadoff hitter, she hit .270 last year, led the conference in triples with six and led the team in stolen bases with nine.
800th CAREER STRIKEOUT IN SIGHT FOR VITEK
Senior left-handed pitcher Cristin Vitek continues to climb up the career charts in several categories, including strikeouts where she enters the season as Baylor's career leader with 644. In fact, Vitek has a good shot at becoming Baylor's first-ever 800 strikeout performer as the lefty is only 156 strikeouts shy of the milestone.
Last season, she became only the second player in school history to record 600 strikeouts in her career when she struck out Tina Boutelle of Texas in the sixth inning at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
BAYLOR FOURTH IN BIG 12 PRESEASON POLL
Returning seven starters and two pitchers, the Baylor softball team has been tabbed to finish fourth in the Big 12 Conference.
Texas is the Big 12 softball coaches' preseason favorite to win the league title this season. The Longhorns, with 77 points, received six of the possible 10 first-place votes to edge out Oklahoma, which tallied four first-place votes and 75 points. Texas A&M (61 pts.) ranked third followed by Baylor (fourth - 58 pts.), Nebraska (fifth - 48 pts.), Missouri (sixth - 43 pts.), Oklahoma State (seventh - 32 pts.), Kansas (eighth - 24 pts.), Texas Tech (ninth - 20 pts.) and Iowa State (10th -12 pts).
It is the highest Baylor has been picked in the preseason poll since 2002, when the Lady Bears were picked to finish fourth in the conference. The fourth-place preseason selection ties the 2002 squad for the highest predicted league finish in school history.
Baylor returns seven starters, including all-conference selections Carrie Leerberg, Kelly Osburn and Harmony Schwethelm, as well as both pitchers, Lisa Ferguson and Cristin Vitek, from last year's squad that became the first in school history to qualify for the NCAA Softball Championships.
BAYLOR LADY BEARS IN THE CAREER CHARTS
Several Lady Bears are aiming to continue making their way up the leaderboards in the Baylor recordbook in 2004. Below is a list of Lady Bears who currently rank in the top ten in one of Baylor's career categories:
BATTING RECORDS
AT-BATS: Kim Wilmoth (10th, 488)
RUNS: Kim Wilmoth (9th, 72)
HITS: Kim Wilmoth (8th, 140)
MULTIPLE-HIT GAMES: Kim Wilmoth (4th, 33)
TRIPLES: Kim Wilmoth (t-4th, 6); Carrie Leerberg (t-4th, 6); April Luce (t-10th, 3)
HOME RUNS: Kelly Osburn (2nd, 16); Stephanie Pomes (t-8th, 8)
TOTAL BASES: Kim Wilmoth (10th, 167)
WALKS: Kelly Osburn (3rd, 51)
HIT BY PITCH: Kelly Osburn (2nd, 13), Carrie Leerberg (9th, 7)
SACRIFICE FLIES: April Luce (t-9th, 2); Erin Sheek (t-9th, 2); Kelly Osburn (t-9th; 2)
SACRIFICE HITS: Kim Wilmoth (t-8th, 18)
STOLEN BASES: Kim Wilmoth (1st, 66); Carrie Leerberg (2nd, 55); Harmony Schwethelm (6th, 44); Kelly Osburn (9th, 37)
STOLEN BASE ATTEMPTS: Kim Wilmoth (1st, 86); Carrie Leerberg (2nd, 66); Harmony Schwethelm (7th, 53); Kelly Osburn (8th, 47)
PITCHING RECORDS
APPEARANCES: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 132); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 44)
GAMES STARTED: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 87); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 28)
RELIEF APPEARANCES: Cristin Vitek (1st, 45); Lisa Ferguson (8th, 16)
WINS: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 61); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 16)
LOSSES: Cristin Vitek (4th, 32); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 8)
DECISIONS: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 93); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 24)
COMPLETE GAMES: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 39); Lisa Ferguson (6th, 13)
SHUTOUTS: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 16); Lisa Ferguson (4th, 9)
SAVES: Cristin Vitek (t-2nd, 8); Lisa Ferguson (t-2nd, 8)
INNINGS PITCHED: Cristin Vitek (3rd, 613.1); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 191.0)
STRIKEOUTS: Cristin Vitek (1st, 644); Lisa Ferguson (7th, 107)
FIELDING RECORDS
PUTOUTS: April Luce (4th, 597)
ASSISTS: Kim Wilmoth (4th, 349); Stephanie Pomes (8th, 184); Carrie Leerberg (10th, 162)
UP NEXT...
Baylor hosts McNeese State in a doubleheader on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at Getterman Stadium. First pitch against the Cowgirls is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
