10 Things to look for this weekend in College Softball
Cats and Dogs
This weekend’s marquee SEC matchup has to be between Kentucky and Georgia. The No. 17 Wildcats are riding a program-best 13-game win streak into Athens. During the streak, the UK pitching staff has an ERA of 0.72 with five shutouts. They have struck out 100 batters and held opponents to a .118 batting average. The No. 18 Bulldogs haven’t lost the Wildcats at home since 2007. Syndi and Cortni Emanuel will look to get the Bulldog offense going and are always a threat to take extra bases. Cortni has 30 stolen bases so far this season. The first game of the series is set for Saturday, March 18 at Noon ET followed by Sunday at 7 p.m. ET and Monday at 7 p.m. ET.
OVC Standouts
The Ohio Valley Conference is up for grabs this season. The defending conference champ Jacksonville State is 15-7 but the battery of Whitney Gillespie and Taylor West both have ERAs under 1.30. SIUE is receiving votes in national polls. Belmont is one win away from tying a program record. Tennessee-Martin is tenth nationally in team batting average, .348. Eastern Kentucky put up a good fight with Ole Miss last weekend, led by Hannah Clark’s weekend batting average (.444), slugging (1.167), four home runs, 13 RBI and six runs scored.
Undefeated Ducks
The No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks are the only undefeated team left in Division I softball and look to extend their winning streak against the Cal Bears this weekend in Pac-12 play. Alexis Mack’s .500 average, Nikki Udria’s six home runs and 29 RBI and Danica Mercado’s 30 runs scored and 37 hits lead the Ducks. Megan Kleist, Maggie Balint and Miranda Elish make up the pitching staff with a 1.12 ERA and 24-0 record.
Rock Chalk
Harli Ridling was named the Big 12 Player of the Week after hitting .714 in three games with team-high two home runs and nine runs batted in. The two home runs were two of her five hits. She also registered a 1.714 slugging percentage and a .625 on-base percentage. Ridling and the Jayhawks host the Rock Chalk Challenge this weekend in Lawrence. They play host to Missouri-Kansas City, LSU, Tulsa, Southeast Missouri and Nebraska-Omaha.
Chelsea Gonzales
Arizona State senior shortstop Chelsea Gonzales earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career. She was 7-for-11 at the plate and continues to lead the Sun Devil offense with a .636 batting average. She hit two home runs, three doubles and one triple to accumulate a slugging percentage of 1.636. Oh, she also had 12 RBI and five runs scored. She is currently eighth in career home runs and tenth in RBI. The Sun Devils travel to Washington for their first weekend of conference play.
Haley Fagan
Auburn’s Haley Fagan is coming off a big weekend against LSU and is taking her 23-game on-base streak with her to Florida for the USF Tournament. She will try to continue her streak against North Dakota State, USF, Illinois, Ohio State and LIU Brooklyn.
Alexis Osorio
Alabama’s ace Alexis Osorio currently has a career-best 35 scoreless innings steak. She leads the NCAA in strikeouts per seven innings (14.4). Her season-high for strikeouts in a game is 19 and in 16 games she has hit double-digits eight times. Alabama travels to Mississippi State this weekend.
Saint Francis
Some of you may have just paused and asked, “Who is Saint Francis?” The answer is, Saint Francis is in Pennsylvania and is currently 21-8 with one of the nation’s top run producers in junior Jordan Seneca. She set the program home run record via a grand slam against Liberty. She is tied with Nicole Schroeder (Arkansas) for the DI lead and ranks fourth in RBI (35) and tied for sixth in total bases (66).
Cal Poly vs. Oklahoma
Cal Poly senior Sierray Hyland set the new program record for wins (67), strikeouts (806) and already held the record for appearances (133), starts (100) and innings pitched (770.2). She needs just 41 more strikeouts to become the all-time Big West Conference leader. This weekend she will face the defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners at least once. The teams play twice at the Loyola Marymount Tournament in Los Angeles. The Sooners are coming off a loss to Arizona and a win against Long Beach State Tuesday.
Southern University
The Jaguars currently lead Division I in team batting average (.399) and slugging (.635), are second in doubles-per-game (1.92) and scoring (8.31 runs per game) and are 8-5 on the year. Cayln Scott leads the team with a .667 batting average and Kiara Suttles has seven home runs. Suttles also leads in runs scored (16) and RBI (18).
