Softball Eagles Visit No. 3 Georgia
4/19/2011 10:02:00 PM | Softball
STATESBORO, Ga. - Georgia Southern Softball travels to No. 3 Georgia for its final midweek non-conference game of the 2011 season on Wednesday (April 20th) night in Athens, Ga. The Eagles will look for their fourth-straight victory starting at 6:30 p.m. at UGA's Jack Turner Stadium.
Georgia Southern (25-23, 13-5 SoCon) returns to the diamond after a three-game sweep over Furman last weekend. The Eagles also swept the Southern Conference weekly awards. Mackenzie Williams (Baxley, Ga.) was named SoCon Player of the Week, and Allie Miles was picked as SoCon Pitcher of the Week.
Williams hit .600 in the series against Furman and helped slug the Eagles to a 9-1 win in game one of the series with her eighth home run of the season. Miles has not allowed an earned run in her last 15.0 innings of work and leads the SoCon with 130 strikeouts. Over the last 10 games, opposing batters are hitting just .176 against Miles.
The Eagles scored a pair of game-winning singles in the eighth inning of games two and three against Furman. Kelly Burnett (Boynton Beach, Fla.) drove in Jorie Walker (Dublin, Ga.) for the winning score in Saturday's second game. On Sunday, Hanna Ennis (Snellville, Ga.) plated Walker for the winning run in Sunday's series finale.
Throwing a 1.05 team ERA, the Eagle pitching staff has been lights-out in the month of April. They struck out 68 batters in 11 games while allowing 12 earned runs in 79.2 innings. Miles has a 0.87 ERA while Megen Smith (Springfield, Ga.) has a 0.72 ERA. Two-time defending SoCon Pitcher of the Year Brianna Streetmon has a 1.49 ERA and three wins this month to reach the 10-win plateau for 2011.
Marie Fogle (Rincon, Ga.) leads the Eagle offense with a .357 average and 13 home runs. Georgia Southern's leadoff batter is hitting .413 in the first inning. The Eagles have scored 32 first-inning runs and are 12-5 when scoring in the opening frame.
In 2009, Head Coach Maggie Johnson's first season, Georgia Southern took the No. 8 ranked Bulldogs to extra innings before falling 3-2. Williams hit a leadoff home run in the fifth-inning to force extra-innings as part of a 2-for-3 day at the plate.
UGA is 39-6 this season and 29-2 at home. The Bulldogs have won seven-straight games including three over common opponent Kentucky and one over Georgia Tech. Ashley Pauly is hitting .393 to lead Georgia and is one of eight UGA starters batting over .290 for the season.
Fans may follow all the action of the 2011 Georgia Southern Softball season by visiting GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/softball or check in for scores at twitter.com/GSScores or facebook.com/GSAthletics for updates.
