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Yellowjackets Soar to New Heights in Softball
BILLINGS, Mont. - It was a season of firsts and records for Montana State Billings. The Yellowjackets finished 30-10 to win the GNAC (Great Northwest Athletic Conference) Championship, the first softball title and the first GNAC championship in any sport in school history. MSUB finished 39-17 overall and qualified for the NCAA Championships for the second time in the program’s history.
"I think for the most part, you can look at our season and say it was successful,” said Head Coach Anthony Stone. “We accomplished some things, first GNAC title for the school and first conference title for the program, setting records in home runs and stolen bases, along with leading the conference in batting average and ERA. But, I think we'd trade a few of those to make it farther into the postseason. That's what our team is all about. Not stats and records, rather it's about the postseason, let’s get there on an annual basis and let’s see how far we can go. We got a taste of that this year, and I think when we return in the fall, we are going to be of the mindset to get back and make the most of it.”
The bull’s-eye was put on the Yellowjackets right from the start as they were picked to win the GNAC crown in the preseason poll. MSUB responded to the pressure by going 3-1 at the prestigious Best of the West Invitational. Following a loss, the Jackets swept a doubleheader from Cal State Dominguez Hills, who had made the regionals the year before.
Montana State Billings hit a bit of a tough stretch after that. It went 2-3 at the Lead Off Classic and dropped the first two games of the GNAC season to Western Oregon. Those loses dropped the Jackets to 7-7 on the season.
The turning point of the 2009 campaign came when the Yellowjackets beat Western Oregon, 6-5 on Feb. 22. That was the first of six straight wins for MSUB. The Jackets ended up winning 32 of their last 42 games.
Montana State Billings entered the weekend of Apr. 23-25 with a one game lead in the GNAC over Central Washington. Both squads had a slate of six games with the Yellowjackets playing two against Saint Martin’s and four against Northwest Nazarene while CWU would played all six of its games against Western Oregon.
After losing the first game to SMU, the Jackets won the nightcap and then took all four games from Northwest Nazarene. The Wildcats kept right on their heels by winning three of the first four games against Western Oregon. WOU then made the Jacket faithful happy by sweeping the final two games against CWU.
This gave the Yellowjackets a three game lead with four games against the Wildcats in Billings remaining. In the opening game of the series on May 1, CWU led 1-0 after four innings. MSUB struck for four runs in the fifth to propel it to the GNAC title with a 5-3 win.
Montana State Billings headed to Arcata, Calif., as the fifth seed at the NCAA West Regional. The Yellowjackets took a tough 5-0 first game loss to Cal State Stanislaus. In an elimination game, MSUB gave defending national champs, Humboldt State, everything they could handle. The Jackets led 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh before two errors allowed the Lumberjacks to win 3-2.
Montana State Billings ended up winning three of the five individual awards in the GNAC. Stone shared the Coach of the Year award while Kasie Conder was Freshman of the Year and Whitney Whittemore was Newcomer of the Year.
Conder was 16-4 with 151 strikeouts and a 1.52 ERA in 129 and one-third innings of work. Whittemore had five doubles and four home runs, scored 26 runs, drove in 15 runs, stole eight bases and batted .324.
MSUB earned all-region and academic all-district honors for the first time since 2005. Steph Gosselin was selected to the Daktronics All-West Region first team while Conder was a second team selection. Gosselin was also named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District second team.
Gosselin had a solid senior season for the Yellowjackets. She had 11 doubles and 14 home runs, scored 42 runs, drove in 45 runs, stole 14 bases, slugging percentage of .695 and batted .377. Gosselin set school records in RBI’s and total bases (116), tied the GNAC record for home runs and ranked among the top 30 in the country in home runs.
Montana State Billings launched an assault on the school record book. Individually there were 40 additions to the top 10 list with five school records. As a team, the Yellowjackets had 14 school records among their 18 additions to the top five list. The Jackets also broke career individual career school records.
“I do wish we could've ended on a more positive note for the seniors,” Stone continued. “We had an extremely tough loss to wind out our season against the defending national champion, Humboldt State. But, we take a real positive out of that game in that we know we can compete with anyone in the country. I don't think anyone on our team can say they're happy about the way it ended, but I do believe that we learned something about ourselves as a team, and I think it certainly lit a fire under our rear ends to ensure we work hard to get another shot, at the postseason, at the best in the country because that's where we want to be, in the same conversation as the best in the country. I don't think we're too far off."
Individual Honors
All-GNAC
1st Team – Kasie Conder, Leslie Davis, Steph Gosselin, Kelly Parsons, Terina Stacks
2nd Team – Lisa Moore
HM – Whitney Whittemore
GNAC Coach of the Year – Anthony Stone
GNAC Freshman of the Year – Kasie Conder
GNAC Newcomer of the Year – Whitney Whittemore
All-GNAC Academic
Leslie Davis, Steph Gosselin, Kelly Parsons. Terina Stacks, Bekah Tsatsa
CoSIDA Academic All-District
2nd Team – Steph Gosselin
Daktronics West Region
1st Team – Steph Gosselin
2nd Team – Kasie Conder
STATISTICAL RANKINGS
GNAC – TOP 10
Hits
1 – Terina Stacks – 72
T3 – Steph Gosselin – 63
10 – Leslie Davis - 48
Home Runs
1 – Steph Gosselin – 14
T8 – Kelly Parsons, Terina Stacks - 6
RBI’s
1 – Steph Gosselin – 45
T5 – Terina Stacks – 34
8 – Kelly Parsons - 28
Runs
2 – Steph Gosselin – 42
T3 – Terina Stacks – 38
7 – Leslie Davis - 33
Slugging Percentage
2 – Steph Gosselin - .695
7 – Kelly Parsons - .551
8 – Terina Stacks - .547
Stolen Bases
2 – Steph Gosselin – 14
3 – Leslie Davis – 10
T4 – Terina Stacks – 9
7 – Whitney Whittemore - 8
Doubles
3 – Leslie Davis - 12
T4 – Steph Gosselin, Terina Stacks – 11
T6 – Kelly Parsons - 9
PITCHING
Saves
1 – Kasie Conder – 4
Shutouts
1 – Kasie Conder, Bekah Tsatsa - 4
Strikeouts
2 – Kasie Conder – 151
4 – Lisa Moore – 107
5 – Bekah Tsatsa - 98
Wins
2 – Kasie Conder – 16
3 – Lisa Moore - 11
Complete Games
3 – Kasie Conder – 15
T8 – Lisa Moore, Bekah Tsatsa - 10
Innings
5 – Kasie Conder – 129.3
T9 – Lisa Moore – 106.0
NCAA DIVISION II – TOP 30
INDIVIDUAL
Sacrifice Flies
7 – Steph Gosselin – 5
21 – Terina Stacks - 4
Saves
14 – Kasie Conder
Strikeouts per 7 Innings
23 – Kasie Conder – 8.20
Home Runs
29 – Steph Gosselin - 14
TEAM
Home Runs
22 – 0.96 per game
Additions to the MSUB Season Record Book
INDIVIDUAL
BATTING/FIELDING
At Bats – Terina Stacks – 1st – 192, Steph Gosselin – 9th - 167
RBI’s – Steph Gosselin – 1st – 45, Terina Stacks – T6th - 34
Putouts – Terina Stacks – 1st – 370, Kelly Parsons – 4th - 290
Total Bases – Steph Gosselin – 1st - 116, Terina Stacks – 4th - 105
Hits – Terina Stacks – 2nd – 72, Steph Gosselin – 4th - 63
Home Runs – Steph Gosselin – 2nd - 14
Stolen Bases – Steph Gosselin – T2nd – 14, Leslie Davis – T4th – 10, Terina Stacks – T7th - 9
Slugging Percentage – Steph Gosselin – 3rd - .695
Runs – Steph Gosselin – T4th – 42, Terina Stacks – 6th – 38, Leslie Davis – 7th - 33
Assists – Leslie Davis – 5th – 94, Whitney Whittemore – 10th - 79
Doubles – Leslie Davis – 7th – 12, Steph Gosselin, Terina Stacks – T8th - 11
Batting Average – Steph Gosselin – 9th - .377, Terina Stacks – 10th – .375
PITCHING
Saves – Kasie Conder – 1st - 4
ERA – Kasie Conder – 3rd – 1.52, Lisa Moore – 7th – 2.64, Bekah Tsatsa – 9th – 2.98
Shut Outs – Kasie Conder – T3rd - , Lisa Moore – 5th - 107, Bekah Tsatsa – 7th - 98
Strikeouts – Kasie Conder – 3rd – 151, Lisa Moore – 5th - 107, Bekah Tsatsa – 7th - 98
Wins – Kasie Conder – 3rd – 16, Lisa Moore – T5th - 11
Complete Games – Kasie Conder – T4th - 14
Innings Pitched – Kasie Conder – 4th – 129.3
Games – Kasie Conder – 5th - 27
TEAM
At-Bats – 1st - 1553
Complete Games – 1st - 38
Doubles – 1st - 73
Hits – 1st - 469
Home Runs – 1st - 54
Putouts – 1st - 1135
RBI’s – 1st - 262
Runs – 1st - 299
Saves – 1st - 5
Strikeouts – 1st - 382
Stolen Bases – 1st - 75
Total Bases – 1st - 720
Triples – 1st - 8
Wins – 1st - 39
Assists – 3rd - 436
ERA – 3rd – 2.55
Shut Outs – 3rd - 11
Slugging Percentage – 3rd - .464
CAREER RECORDS BROKEN
Assists – Leslie Davis – 304
At Bats – Terina Stacks - 192
Hits – Terina Stacks – 212
Home Runs – Steph Gosselin – 25
Putouts – Terina Stacks – 865
RBI’s – Steph Gosselin – 111
Runs –Terina Stacks – 118
Total Bases –Terina Stacks – 315
Triples –Terina Stacks – 5
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