Cougars Face Toughest Tournament Yet in Fresno
PROVO -- The BYU women's softball team (9-4) will travel to Fresno, Calif. for the Hedrick's Hallowell Chevrolet Classic Tournament hosted by Fresno State this weekend. The team will play host Fresno State on Wednesday and Saturday and will face No. 1 UCLA on Thursday. BYU will also play No. 15 DePaul on Friday along with its third meeting with Cal Poly. The Cougars will finish the tournament on Saturday against St. Johns and Fresno State.
The team is coming off a two-week break due to weather that cancelled last weekend's tournament in St. George hosted by the University of Utah. The team had a chance to rest minor injuries and there are no injuries keeping anyone from playing this weekend.
The Cougars are 0-2 all-time against Fresno St. and will be looking to even their record with the opening and closing games for the team this weekend. BYU has a chance to avenge a 10-2 loss last season against the top-ranked team in the nation, UCLA.
The games against St. Johns and No. 15 DePaul will mark the first-ever meetings between the schools. The Cougars lost to Cal-Poly 7-6 in the opening weekend of the season and turned around to beat them 11-2 in five innings in the final game, the most recent played by BYU, of the UCSB Tournament.
BYU currently leads the Mountain West Conference with a 9-4 record and also leads the conference in batting average (.277), RBI (65), runs scored (71) and home runs (14). All-American Oli Keohohou leads the conference in slugging percentage (.743), walks (13), on base percentage (.531) and is tied with teammates Ashlyn Russell and Brooke Cadiente in home runs with four apiece.