Eagle Softball Visits Georgia State
2/15/2011 8:53:00 PM | Softball
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Softball Team takes to the road to open a string of 16-straight road games on Wednesday (Feb. 16th) against Georgia State in Atlanta, Ga. The Eagles are coming off a strong opening weekend of play that saw two wins over Mercer and two losses to Radford in the SpringHill Suites Eagle Classic.
Georgia Southern (2-2) was paced last weekend by Mackenzie Williams (Baxley, Ga.) who was 4-for-9 on the weekend with two home runs and a double. Williams posted a 1.222 slugging percentage and drew three walks in her final three plate appearances of the weekend.
Preseason SoCon Player of the Year Megen Smith (Springfield, Ga.) opened the season in style with a home run in her first at bat of the season. She added another later in the game against Mercer. She also made two appearances inside the pitching circle allowing just four runs in 6.1 innings.
Senior Brianna Streetmon (Winder, Ga.), Preseason SoCon Pitcher of the Year, posted a 1-1 record from the rubber, appearing in all four games and allowed just five hits in 8.1 innings. Freshman hurler Sarah Purvis (Warner Robins, Ga.) posted a team-best 3.00 ERA as she fanned 12 batters in 9.1 innings of work in two games. Fellow Freshman Allie Miles (Dacula, Ga.) picked up her first career win against the Bears in the weekend finale.
The Eagles will look to deny Georgia State (3-1) head coach Bob Heck his 700th career victory. In his 24th year, Heck is 698-580-2 all-time. At the First Pitch Classic last weekend, the Panthers topped Tennessee Tech, 3-2, and Morehead State, 10-7 and 5-0, while falling to 2010 Big East Champion Syracuse, 13-1.
Audrey Mason leads the Panther batters with a .385 mark. Lauren Jones is hitting .333 with a pair of long-balls. Pitcher Kaitlyn Medlam is 2-0 with a perfect .000 ERA allowing five hits and no runs in 8.2 innings of work.
The Eagles will play next in the Garnet and Gold Tournament at JoAnne Graf Field on the campus of Florida State University. Georgia Southern will face FSU, Middle Tennessee State and Kentucky in pool play before playing two more bracket games. The tournament starts for GSU on Friday, Feb. 18th at 10 a.m. against Kentucky. Live stats will be available at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com on the schedule section at the bottom of the homepage.
In addition to 20 home games at Eagle Field this season, Georgia Southern will play host the 2011 Southern Conference Softball Championship Tournament May 11th-14th.
Fans can follow Eagle Softball on GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/softball for game previews and recaps or catch short updates on twitter.com/GSAthletics or facebook.com/GSAthletics. Score updates will be provided every half inning at twitter.com/GSScores.
