Softball begins season on the road in Arizona
Joe Hollak / AMR
The Bulldog softball team is in Arizona for the Kajikawa Classic. Fresno State's Kristin Sylvester looks to build on her .286 average from a year ago. |
By Bradley Hart
The Collegian
The Bulldog softball team will kick off its season today when the squad travels to Tempe, Ariz. for the Kajikawa Classic tournament.
Fresno State will kick off its season by playing against Cal State Fullerton and Texas A&M this afternoon.
On Saturday the team will take on Wisconsin and Northwestern University. They will close out the tournament on Sunday with a game against Cal State Northridge.
Fresno State is historically 19-9 in season-opening games with a 15-5 record under current head coach Margie Wright. The team has won eight of their last nine openers and has played its first games of the year at the Kajikawa Classic for the past five years.
Against the tournament’s field of teams, the Bulldogs have a current overall record of 82 wins and 56 losses.
The team’s past successes and prospects for this season have already received recognition.
In national preseason polls, the Bulldogs are currently ranked No. 20 by the coaches’ poll and No. 17 in the USA Today/Coaches poll, which is chosen jointly by coaches and members of the media.
The Bulldogs currently have games against 12 teams on their season schedule that are either ranked or have received votes in preseason polls, including No. 2 ranked UCLA and No. 4 ranked Texas.
In addition, the Bulldogs will host the 2006 WAC softball tournament on May 11-13.
For the tenth time in 11 years, Fresno State has been picked to capture the league title this year. The Bulldogs received five first place votes and one second-place vote in the preseason poll, which picked Hawaii as the team’s biggest competitor for the title.
 The team also did well in the 2006 WAC preseason awards with senior shortstop Christina Clark being selected as Player of the Year and freshman pitcher Robin Mackin receiving Pitcher of the Year.
In all, three of six players who received honors last year will be returning to the team.
Head coach Margie Wright was also honored as WAC coach of the year for the fifth time.
Fresno State softball has a long history in the NCAA Division I rankings, owning the record for the longest consecutive streak, 178 weeks in all, in the Top 25 poll.
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