LOS ANGELES, Calif.— The Highlanders' historic and record-breaking season continues this week as the the UC Riverside Softball Team (36-22) will head to Los Angeles Wednesday to begin the NISC Championships. UCR's first matchup will be at 1:30 PM vs. Eastern Kentucky (44-19) at Smith Field on the campus of Loyola Marymount.

CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET

NISC CHAMPIONSHIP
The NISC postseason tournament began with 17 teams and is now down to the final four regional champs: UCR (36-22), Eastern Kentucky (44-19), UT Arlington (30-26), and host LMU (31-24-1). The Championship begins this Wednesday, and like the regionals, it is double-elimination and the winner will be crowned Friday evening.

SCOUTING THE COLONELS
Eastern Kentucky is coming a 4-1 performance in its NISC Regional defeating both Toledo and Towson twice. Offensively the Colonels are lead by senior outfielder Paige Murphy who tops the team in avg. (.452), runs (67), hits (80), home runs (22), and RBI (60). Mollie Paulick will be a likely starter as she boasts a team-best 22-7 record and 2.15 ERA.

NISC REGIONAL CHAMPS
The Highlanders became NISC Regional Champs last week after sweeping away the competition. UCR only allowed one run in its 3-0 performance run-ruling Nevada 10-0 and shutting out host UNLV 2-0 the first two days, and defeating the Rebels a 2nd time 7-1 in the championship.

Along with the Regional Championship trophy, the Highlanders brought back some extra hardware:

Pitcher Tayler Misfeldt — All-Tournament Team and MVP
Catcher Jenae Lockwood — All-Tournament Team
Second Baseman Brittney Garcia — All-Tournament Team
Third Baseman Emma Ramelot — All-Tournament Team

#1 IS THE ONE
Following UC Riverside's dominant series win over UC Santa Barbara – the Highlanders' first Big West sweep of the season – junior Hannah Rodriguez was named the Big West Softball Field Player of the Week. The UCR shortstop went 7-for-10 in the series with UCSB, recording at least one run, two hits and an RBI in all three games. She had her biggest outing of the weekend in Saturday's 9-3 victory, when she posted a 3-of-4 mark at the plate to go along with three RBI and one stolen base. She capped off her weekend with a 2-of-3 line in Sunday's 14-0 win, adding another three RBI.

Rodriguez became the fourth different Highlander to receive Big West Player of the Week honors this season, marking the fifth conference accolade for the team thus far.

PUTTING THE "C" IN COACH
Head Coach Nikki Palmer earned her 100th career win on April 21st, 2018 in UCR's 3-2 win over UC Davis. She is currently at 108 and has collected 69 wins as a Highlander.

RECORD BREAKERS
So far this year the Highlanders have broke several UCR records:

Pitcher Tayler Misfeldt — All-Time Wins Leader - 56 (previous: 40)
Pitcher Tayler Misfeldt — All-Time Strikeouts Leader - 398 (previous: 312)
Outfielder Jenna Curtan — All-Time Hits Leader - 235 (previous: 199)
Outfielder Jenna Curtan — All-Time Runs Leader - 149 (previous: 114)
Outfielder Jenna Curtan — All-Time Doubles Leader - 39 (previous: 36)
Outfielder Seanna Garewal — Tied for DI Single Season Triples Leader - 5 
Outfielder Seanna Garewal — Single Season HBP Leader - 24 (previous: 15)
Team Record — DI Single Season Runs - 256 (previous: 247)
Team Record — DI Single Season Triples - 17 (previous: 12)
Team Record — DI Single Season RBI - 232 (previous: 215)

NO-NO
On Saturday April 14th, pitcher Hailey Dolcini notched her first career no-hitter against CSUN in a game where the score was tied until the bottom of the 6th inning. The freshman struck out two batters and only put four runners aboard on balls in her 11th win. After walking the lead off batter in the 4th inning, Dolcini retired the final 12 batters to close out the game. This was the first no-hitter of the season for the Highlanders and their 12th shutout.

BIG WEST ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Earlier this season, the Highlanders had the Big West Athlete of the Week Honors locked down winning the award four consecutive weeks and have now added one more after an impressive weekend from Hannah Rodriguez.

February 27th — Sarah Parten - Field Player of the Week
March 6th — Jenna Curtan - Field Player of the Week
March 13th — Hailey Dolcini - Pitcher of the Week
March 20th —  Hailey Dolcini - Pitcher of the Week
May 7th — Hannah Rodriguez - Field Player of the Week

DON'T STOP BELIEVING
UCR has performed exceptionally well even when trailing as the team has registered 10 wins in games where its opponent got on the scoreboard first. This includes four wins when the Highlanders trailed after the 5th inning and three wins despite trailing after the 6th.

CURTAN'S UP
Senior Jenna Curtan has been a strong offensive leader so far in her final season for the Highlanders. Over the team's 58 games this year she ranks 1st on the team in batting average (.374), slugging (.508), OPB (.486), hits (67), doubles (16), runs (51), and total bases (91). Curtan has also displayed some heroics, gathering late inning hits and runs in the wins over George Washington and St. John's.

Curtan was awarded Big West Field Player of the Week on March 5th after an outstanding Highlander Classic. Over the 4-game weekend, Curtan truly stood out as she led the team in batting average (.889), slugging (1.222), OBP (.929), runs scored (7), hits (8), total bases (11), and doubles (3). The Highlander's center fielder went 8-for-9 in the tournament and only recorded one out in her 14 plate appearances. Her last hit of the weekend, an RBI single up the middle to add to UCR's dominant 11-0 win over Saint Mary's, was the senior's 200th career hit, which broke the all-time UCR record. Curtan is also the all-time leader in runs with 133, is tied for the all time doubles record with 36, and is tied for 2nd in triples with nine.

FRESHMEN ON FIRE
Freshman Seanna Garewal and Hailey Dolcini have made a huge impact on the team in their first year of play.

Left fielder Garewal ranks 4th on the team in batting average (.294), 3rd in OBP(.427) and slugging (.449), and 2nd in runs scored (27) (minimum 50 AB). The Highlander left fielder also lead the Big West Conference in HBP (24) and triples (5).

Pitcher Hailey Dolcini (15-9) leads the team with a 1.80 ERA. Opponents have struggled against the freshman batting only .195 and striking out 117 times in her 34 appearances. 

SHUTOUT CITY
16 of the team's wins this season have come by way of shutout. In those 16 games, the Highlanders have won three 10-0 games, an 11-0 game, and have scored a combined 89 runs.

HOT STARTS
The Highlanders have faired well when they get on the score board early as they are 26-4 when scoring first and are 15-3 when the team scores in the 1st inning. This success has been in part because of UCR's ability to get lead-off batters aboard 46.1% of the time.

FRESHMAN PHENOM
Freshman pitcher Hailey Dolcini repeated as Big West Pitcher of the Week on March 19th after a dominant performance in the Highlander Invitational. This was the fourth straight week that a Highlander has received a conference honor.

During the tournament the freshman made four appearances, two of which were starts, and scattered eight hits while walking just three and striking out 11. She threw a complete game four-hit shutout against Harvard to start the UCR Tournament walking just one batter and striking out four.

The rookie pitcher had a 46 inning scoreless streak, which is the longest streak on the team this season.

TAYLER ON TOP
Senior Pitcher Tayler Misfeldt (19-11) broke the all-time UCR record for wins on February 18th, 2018 as she picked up her 41st W in a shutout vs. Stanford and since then has extended that record to 56. So far this season she has shutout five teams and struck-out 156 batters to earn a 2.46 ERA.

In the Highlander's 2nd game against Colgate, Misfeldt stepped to the plate for the first time in her career and went 2-for-3 with a triple and 2 RBIs.

RAMELOT'S HOT
Two of UCR's wins have come by way of walk-off from sophomore Emma Ramelot. The shortstop was truly clutch against George Washington hitting a solo homerun to tie the game and then a walk-off double an inning later to cap off a huge comeback and win the game 9-8. Just three days later, Ramelot would step to the plate against St. John's and win the game with an infield single after her team trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the 7th.

PARTEN THE INTERRUPTION
Sophomore first baseman Sarah Parten took home the Big West Field Player of the Week honors on February 26th after a very impressive weekend at the Amy S. Harrison Classic, where she had a team best .615 batting average, .677 OBP, and an outstanding slugging percentage of .846. She registered two hits in all four games and was a key part of UCR's comeback win over George Washington, where the team trailed 6-0 in the 3rd inning. The sophomore also smacked a 3-run HR against No. 23 Cal.