SAN DIEGO - San Diego softball (6-9) will face its first set of road tests on Tuesday, March 9 and Friday, March 12 at Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.
 
The pair of matchups will mark the second time the Toreros will face both the Beach and the Titans. San Diego swept the Beach last week in double header action and split with Cal State Fullerton earlier in the season.
 
GAINING MOMENTUM

• The Toreros have flipped the switch on a 2021 campaign that saw a slow start out of the gate
• San Diego has now won six of its last 10 contests, scoring 20 runs along the way
• The Toreros are coming off of a 3-1 week, where USD swept Long Beach State and split double header action against Utah State
• The 15 game homestand included matchups against two opponents who ranked in the top 20 nationally in RPI after the 2020 season (Washington, Cal State Fullerton)

PITCHING BY COMMITTEE

• San Diego has continued to use its pitching staff with four pitchers seeing action in at least three contests so far in 2021
• Freshman McKenna Braegelmann leads the Toreros in ERA at 1.21 and currently ranks first in the West Coast Conference in the category. The righthander is currently 3-0 on the year having earned two starts in 17.1 innings of work
• Madison Earnshaw has seen the most innings on the Toreros staff pitching 39 innings, striking out a team-high 22 batters on the year

THE TRIO OF OFFENSIVE LEADERS

• Freshmen Sofia Delgado and Amanda Limon continue to be offensive sparks for the Toreros leading the team in on base percentage at .400 and .412 respectively
• Veteran Lauren Hendrickson has found her rhythm in the box lately to rank second on the team in batting average at .326 and third in on base percentage at .356
• The trio have been consistent starters for San Diego seeing action in at least 14 games as starters
• Hendrickson has strung together the most multi-hit games with four, followed by Delgado and Limon with three.
• All three hitters are currently on a hitting streak with Hendrickson's being the longest at five games

LOOKOUT SMALL BALL

• Small ball has been the name of the game for the Toreros as USD has scored multiple runs this season off of suicide squeezes
• Halle Kyler leads the small ball onslaught with four sacrifice bunts on the year. Rion Simms and Elisia Princic also have more than one SAC bunts
• Kyler ranks second in the WCC in sacrifice bunts per game behind Saint Mary's Marissa Nishihara

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST LONG BEACH STATE

• The Toreros are now 5-8 all-time against Long Beach State and are currently on a two-game winning streak
• On the road, the Toreros are 0-1 all time

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST CAL STATE FULLERTON

• Cal State Fullerton leads the all-time series against the Toreros at 8-3 after the split double header action earlier this season
• San Diego has one only one game on the road all time and is 1-6 in trips to Fullerton