Rough start

The Portland State softball team stumbled out of the gate at the Kajikawa Classic, where the Vikings amassed a disappointing record of 2–4 over the weekend. The vaunted pitching staff lived up to their billing as the Pacific Coast Softball Conference’s top squad, with freshman Anna Bertrand and senior Tori Rogers propelling the Viks to both wins. 

Thursday’s opening game provided an apt allegory for the Vikings’ weekend, as the pitching roster shut down Ohio’s lineup while the offense sputtered. Portland State won 2–0 behind six stellar innings from Rogers. She walked three batters and gave up just two hits before giving way to Bertrand in the top of the seventh. Bertrand promptly put the game away with three strikeouts in her collegiate debut.  

The offense, however, was persona non grata in a game that offered many opportunities. Ohio’s Emily Wethington walked four batters over six innings, but the Vikings were unable to capitalize on her erratic evening and collected only four hits and stranded seven runners. PSU’s offense escaped Ohio with a subpar performance, but the Vikings would not be so lucky through the remainder of the weekend.

In the tournament’s six games, Portland State’s offense was almost entirely absent, as the team’s combined on-base plus slugging percentage of .405 was less than half the .839 their opponents produced. Poor plate patience led to Vikings’ batters striking out 29 times to the 15 walks they were handed. 

Not all was doom and gloom though for the Vikings offense over the weekend. Freshman Sadie Lopez batted .308 over the tournament and drove in the deciding runs in a close 3–2 win over Purdue.

The Vikings were snake-bitten by errors in the games against Ole Miss and North Dakota State, but returned the favor in their win over Purdue. Lopez’s game-deciding RBIs came after a third-base error by Purdue’s Molly Garst. Senior center fielder Brandi Scoggins hit Portland State’s lone extra base hit of the tournament, a double in a loss to Ole Miss.  

Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk believes that a lack of cohesion and the tough tournament schedule served as primary culprits to the club’s offensive woes. 

“It’s more [about] offensive production,” she said. “We need to definitely put some more runs on the board and work together a little bit better as a team. On the other side, it was a pretty hard weekend to open up with. We played a lot of good teams and big schools.”

Blowout losses against two ranked Pac-10 teams skewed the team’s final pitching line. Portland State lost 14–0 on Friday to No. 5 Arizona State, and 8–0 to No. 12 California on Sunday. Although junior pitcher Nicole Latham was lit up in both games, surrendering 14 runs (13 earned) in just 4.2 innings, Echo-Hawk sees no reason to worry about last year’s staff ace. 

“She faced two top teams, and two Pac-10 teams. The outcome isn’t exactly what she would have wanted, but it was nice to get her some innings and face some good competition,” she said. “Even though the score didn’t say it—as far as progressing from one inning to the next from ASU to the Cal game—she got better and better as she went along.” 

Bertrand immediately showed why she’s been tabbed as a future stalwart of Portland State’s rotation. Aside from her seventh-inning save in the win over Ohio, Bertrand started twice. She split her starts, 1–1, but led the team with 17 strikeouts pitched in just over 14 innings. 

Over the span of the tournament, Bertrand chalked a 1.43 ERA and Rogers allowed no earned runs over 13.2 innings, but did allow five unearned runs. The ability of both to pitch out of trouble drew praise from Echo-Hawk. 

“I saw them get into some jams, but also get themselves out of them—which is huge as far as moving from tournament to tournament and constantly getting better,” she said. 

Though the weekend was not the opening statement the team may have hoped to make, Echo-Hawk emphasized that the team is ready to move forward.

“They didn’t put their heads down. After the game against Cal, they were very verbal as far as saying that they aren’t satisfied with the outcome. They know they’re better than that, and they are aware of the things they need to work on and that we are going to be a good team. They’re still being positive and there’s a lot of fight in them,” Echo-Hawk said.

Kajikawa Classic Scores

Thursday
Portland State 2, Ohio 0

Friday
North Dakota State 2, Portland State 1
Arizona State 14, Portland State 0

Saturday
Ole Miss 5, Portland State 3
Portland State 3, Purdue 2

Sunday
California 8, Portland State 0