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Softball To Face Gators, Badgers, and Black Bears
March 21, 2002
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
The Samford Bulldogs have had 13 days off since the Magic City Classic and are looking forward to playing softball again this weekend at the Lady Gator Classic hosted by the University of Florida. Samford, 12-11 on the season, has only played four games since March 1, but will begin a stretch where it will play seven games in five days. The Bulldogs will begin the tournament against the University of Wisconsin at 1:30 p.m. CT on Friday. The Badgers enter this weekend's tournament with a 14-7 overall record and ranked 25th in the nation. Wisconsin is coming off a weekend in Sacramento where it went 5-2 by defeating St. Mary's, Long Island, Utah State, San Jose State, and Syracuse. The Badgers lost to #4 Nebraska and #8 California. The Badgers are hitting .226 as a team and are led by Meghann Reiss who is batting .339 with six doubles and nine RBI. She is the only Badgers hitting over .300. Pitching is Wisconsin's strength Andrea Kirchberg is 8-6 with 1.29 ERA in the circle, she has 112 strikeouts in 87 innings. Katie Layne is 6-1 with a 1.62 ERA. Badger opponents are hitting just .201 and the staff ERA is a tournament low 1.41 The Bulldogs 4:30 p.m. CT game on Friday will be against the University of Florida. The Gators are 14-21 after dropping a three-game series at #17 Alabama. Florida has lost 17 of their last 21 after winning 10 of its first 14 games to start the season. The Gators have faced a tough schedule which has included 14 games against teams ranked in the top 25. Florida is 9-4 at home this season. Mandy Schuerman leads the team in batting with a .354 average, in doubles with 10, home runs with four and RBI with 16. Jackie Marchetta is hitting .310 and Mylin Prieto is batting .299 with six doubles and 13 RBI. In the circle, Amanda Knowles is 5-6 with a 3.67 ERA she has 54 strikeouts in 55 innings. Amanda Moore is 6-8 with a 2.92 ERA. Opponents are batting .277 against Gator pitching this season. Samford will face the University of Maine at 11:00 a.m. CT on Saturday. The Black Bears have spent the past two weeks in Florida. Maine is 11-10 after dropping two games at Florida State on Wednesday. Leigh Ann Hlywak leads the team with a .431 average, eight home runs and 23 RBI. She leads Maine in eight offensive categories. Maine has the highest team batting average in the tournament with a .273 mark. The Black Bears have five players batting over .300. Erica Sobel is batting .321 with five doubles, a home run, and 11 RBI. Maine's pitching has been inconsistent, Jenna Merchant is 6-4 with a 2.61 ERA in the circle for the Black Bears. Candace Jaegge is 5-3 with a 2.74 ERA in 49 innings of work.
Saturday afternoon the four teams will be seeded and play off to see who will play in the championship and consolations games on Sunday. After the Lady Gator Classic, Samford will travel to DeLand, Fla. to open its Atlantic Sun Conference schedule with a double header against Stetson on Tuesday at 5 p.m. CT. You can follow every game on the Florida trip by using the live stats link at Samfordsports.com.
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