The San Diego State softball team will host the 1998 Campbell/Cartier Classic beginning tomorrow and running through Sunday at the Poway Sportsplex.
The tournament is named in remembrance of Suzanne Campbell and Karin Cartier. Both are former SDSU softball players who were killed in a single-car accident in Rosarito, Mexico, in 1991.
The tournament will feature some of the top programs in the country, including three teams ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Preseason Coaches Top 25 poll ? No. 4 Michigan, No. 14 Long Beach State and No. 17 UCLA.
Eastern Michigan, Louisiana State, Santa Clara, Stanford and SDSU round out the field.
The tournament will be round-robin style, and the team with the best record at the end of it will be crowned champion.
The tournament starts with two games at 9:30 a.m. The Aztecs begin play at 11:30 a.m. against Santa Clara.
SDSU enters the tournament sporting a 1-1 record in 1998. The Aztecs beat Loyola Marymount 7-1 on Saturday but fell to Northwestern 4-3 on Sunday.
SDSU returns seven starters from a 1997 team whose 30-30 record was the school’s best since it went 37-34 in 1985. The 1997 Aztecs were also the first to break into the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Top 25 poll.
This year’s Aztecs are led by junior first baseman Erryn Gutjahr and sophomore third baseman Jackie Eigner.
Gutjahr led last year’s team with 33 RBIs, 10 doubles, 70 total bases, a .419 slugging percentage and five home runs.
Eigner led the Aztecs with 52 hits and was in the top three in stolen bases, runs, walks and RBIs.
This will also be the first season that Kathy Van Wyk, SDSU’s co-head coach for the past three seasons, will be the Aztecs head coach. Under Van Wyk, SDSU has gotten better each season, going from 21 wins in 1995 to 27 in 1996 and then last year’s 30.
Ticket prices are $6 for adults, $4 for children 6-12 and free to children 5 and under.
Tournament passes will be available tomorrow only, and are $20 for adults and $12 for children 12 and under.
If the schedule changes due to rain, call 594-5548 for updated information.
? Staff report
