Kansas City Heads West for Spring Break Series
3/25/2014 2:09:00 AM | Softball
Date(s): March 25-27, 2014
Site: Kansas City, Mo. / Missouri 3&2 Softball Complex
Live Stats: LMULions.com
Twitter: @KCRoos_Softball
(Kansas City, Mo.) – After a mostly frigid month of softball, Kansas City will migrate toward the warmth of the southwest during the university's spring break, playing three games in Los Angeles, March 25-27, vs. Loyola Marymount and Hawaii, before traveling west of the California-Arizona border for its conference opener at Grand Canyon.
The 'Roos are just days removed from a five-game tournament slate at the University of Missouri's Mizzou Tournament that included a dramatic come-from-behind victory over North Dakota State.
Marlee Maples hit .467 for the weekend, with two doubles and two RBI.
THE VENUEThanks to a gift from Mike and Patty Smith, the Loyola Marymount Lions call one of the top softball fields on the west coast home.
Smith Field features in-ground dugouts, with park dimensions of 200-feet down the lines and 215-feet to dead center. The outfield fence is four-feet high with a grass slope climbing behind for additional lawn seating.
Behind the dugouts on both the left and right field lines are two bullpens with two pitching slabs from which to warm-up. Behind home plate is a 35-foot high net backstop. A state-of-the-art scoreboard greets fans, players, and coaches, alike, and a batting cage is located beyond centerfield.
THE OPPONENTLoyola Marymount encountered an extremely difficult early season slate of games that included five consecutive losses to Kentucky, Cal State Fullerton, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, and UCLA, respectively.
The Lions rebounded thereafter, going 17-8 over their last 25, including victories over WAC foes Seattle and Bakersfield.
Maghan Harman paces the LMU offense with a .348 batting average, and a team-leading seven homeruns and 18 RBI. Junior Sterling Shuster leads the team in hitting at .350.
In the circle, sophomore Sydney Gouveia has been dominant, posting a 0.60 ERA and a 12-1 mark over 82 innings, striking out 133 batters through 10 complete games and four shutouts.
Hawaii is off to a 14-13 start with 21 games in Honolulu thus far. Hawaii knocked off BYU in the Kama'aina Classic before dropping a pair to UCLA at the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic. The Raindows topped Seattle 9-8 and fell to second-ranked Florida 11-1.
Hawaii has a powerful lineup, with four players posting at least four homeruns, including Leisha Li'ili'i, who leads the team with eight homeruns and 19 RBI, while slugging .753 and hitting .356.
THE COACHESNow in her eighth season as the head coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, head coach Meredith Smith Neal has transformed the UMKC softball program into a formidable contender in the Western Athletic Conference and beyond, becoming one of sport's up-and-comers in the process.
Under Smith Neal, Kansas City clinched its third consecutive postseason appearance in 2013, qualifying for The Summit League Tournament with a 6-7 conference record.
In 2008, UMKC finished with an 8-31 overall record, doubling its win total from 2007 despite fielding a team with nine freshmen. The .205 winning percentage was the program's best since 2003, and the modest improvement was the start of a four-year run of increased victory totals.
Smith Neal stands as the program's all-time winningest coach with an overall record of 137-210 (.395).
Gary Ferrin enters his 20th season as head coach of the LMU softball program in 2013-14. The most successful coach in the program's history, Ferrin has a 647-483-1 career record as a head coach, earning conference coach of the year honors three times. He has coached seven Players of the Year in 10 years in the PCSC and has won three PCSC titles, the most of any program in the conference's history...
From 1999-2008, the Lions posted nine consecutive winning seasons and have three Pacific Coast Softball Conference championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances since 2003. In 2010, the Lions became the first PCSC team to reach 100 conference victories and the first to win 250 overall games in the league's history.
Bob Coolen is entering his 24th overall season at the University of Hawai'i and his 22nd season as the head coach of the Rainbow Wahine program. He is UH's all-time winningest softball coach in the 29-year history of the program with a 798-455-1 record. Overall as a head coach, Coolen has amassed an 870-547-1 record.
Coolen is the third longest tenured coach at Hawai'i behind only women's volleyball coach Dave Shoji (38 seasons) and sailing coach Andy Johnson (23nd year). He came to the islands in 1990 as an assistant coach to Rayla Allison, who headed the Rainbow Wahine program for two seasons in 1990 and '91.
The 'Roos will head west on I-10 for its WAC opener at Grand Canyon on Friday and Saturday.
