Jacket Softball Opens Home Schedule Saturday (3/9/06)

BILLINGS, MT – After starting the season with 19-straight games on the road, the Montana State-Billings softball team will open the home portion of its 2006 schedule Saturday afternoon when the Yellowjackets host Dickinson State.  First pitch for the non-conference doubleheader is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Cenex Stadium. 

The Yellowjackets are 5-14 overall after playing in three early season tournaments.  MSU Billings is a young squad with 12 freshmen or sophomores on the 20-player roster.  All three of the Jackets’ pitchers this season are true freshmen facing their first collegiate hitters.

As is true of most young teams, the Yellowjackets have battled some inconsistency so far this year.  With a demanding early season schedule, that inconsistency has resulted in some frustrating losses for the Yellowjackets and first year head coach Sean McGary.  Of the Yellowjackets’ 14 losses, four have been to teams currently ranked in the national top 10.  MSU Billings has also shown flashes of being good, knocking off the current No. 6 team in the nation, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, early in the season.

Senior Christy Wankel (Great Falls, MT) has been the Jackets’ top hitter so far, batting .339 with six runs and nine RBI.  She also has two home runs and has posted the team’s longest hitting streak of the season at five games.  A four-year starter in the outfield, Wankel is currently chasing numerous school career records.  She needs 26 hits, eight home runs, and 10 RBI to break those respective school records.

Jenna Haacke (So., Billings, MT) is on a current three-game hitting streak and is batting .281 for the season.  She leads the team with four home runs and shares the team lead for runs scored with seven.  Junior Rachel Quarnburg (Billings, MT) batted .286 and scored seven runs through the Jackets’ first 11 games, but she missed the recent trip to the Central Washington Invitational because of injury.

The Yellowjacket pitching has hinged on three freshmen, Terina Stacks (Washougal, WA), Lisa Moore (Bakersfield, CA) and Rebekah Tsatsa (Eagle, ID).  Stacks is 0-5 with a 4.60 earned run average.  She has struck out 32 in 35 innings of work.  Moore is 3-6 with a 4.77 ERA, striking out 43 in 54 1/3 innings.  She struck out 14, one short of the school record, in the upset win over SIUE.  Tsatsa is 2-3 with a 5.73 ERA.

Dickinson State will be playing its first games of the season on Saturday.  The Blue Hawks were the No. 3-ranked team in the NAIA Region III preseason poll and were picked to finish second in the DAC.  Dickinson lost in the Region III championship game last year to University of Mary.  The Blue Hawks will be led by Courtney Blanleil, the NAIA Region III player of the year last season.  Tiffany and Tanya Saatzer from Laurel, Mont., were each all-conference selections last year.

Following Saturday’s double-dip with the Blue Hawks, the Yellowjackets will take to the road for 16 games in a row between March 18 and April 4.  When they return to Cenex Stadium on April 7, the Lady Jackets will finish out their regular season with a dozen-straight home games.