April 16, 2010

Game Notes

MEMPHIS - The University of Memphis softball team will close out a seven-game home stand with a three-game conference series against Southern Miss on Saturday and Sunday. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m. and close with a 1 p.m. contest at the Tiger Softball Complex on Sunday.

The Tigers (22-17, 6-8 C-USA) enter the series after having won three of its four midweek games against Alabama State and Middle Tennessee. All three wins were by shutout. Memphis pitchers Lauren Carley and Carly Hummel both had no-hitters broken up in the seventh inning in shutout victories against Alabama State.

After having seen an increasing work load, junior Lauren Carley leads the team in ERA with a 1.05 mark. She is 2-2 with 40 strikeouts and a .152 opponent batting average in 40 innings of work. Senior RHP Vanessa Walle (7-8) is second on the team with a 1.48 ERA, while freshman Carly Hummel (13-7) leads the team in strikeouts with 170 in 126 innings pitched and a conference low .141 opponent batting average.

As a team, the Tigers lead the conference with a 1.62 ERA and have K'd 267 batters in 263.1 innings. Opponents are hitting .181 off of Memphis pitching this season.

After two-straight two hit games against Middle Tennessee, sophomore outfielder Lelani Bernardino leads the team in hitting with a .304 average. She also has 18 runs scored, 12 RBI and seven doubles. Junior third baseman Maddie McKinley leads the team in RBI with 20 and runs scored with 22 and is hitting .300. Senior Leigh Rowan leads the team in home runs with five.

Memphis is batting .222 as a team and has scored 129 runs in 39 games with 20 home runs and 36 doubles. The Tigers have a .315 on base percentage and have stolen 49 of 58 steal attempts, and had a record tying seven stolen bases against Middle Tennessee.

History: Memphis vs. Southern Miss
Southern Miss leads the all-time series between the two schools with a 6-5 record against Memphis. The two teams have split the six games played in Memphis, with Southern Miss winning two of three in its last trip to the U of M in 2008. Last year, the Golden Eagles won two of three games in Hattiesburg, Miss., with two of the games decided by a run. The largest winning streak in the series is two games by both teams.

Live Coverage
All three games in the series against Southern Miss can be followed live with live stats provided by GameTracker. A live chat will also be available. Streaming video with audio is also available to Memphis All-Access subscribers. Links to the live broadcasts can be found on the softball schedule page at GoTigersGo.com.

Last Time vs. Southern Miss
Last year, Southern Miss won two out of three games in Hattiesburg, Miss., with two of the games decided by a run. Junior LHP Janelle Valle earned the Tigers' lone victory in the circle in game two, allowing one run on seven hits in a 2-1 victory. The Golden Eagles won game one 9-3 and game three, 3-2.

Next Up
Memphis has just one game scheduled next week, a midweek neutral contest against Arkansas in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday, April 21. The two teams will play a single game at 6:30 p.m.

Scouting Southern Miss
• Southern Miss is ninth in the conference with a 1-11 league record and are 16-20 overall. The Golden Hurricane one their first conference game last week in the final game of a three-game series at home against Tulsa to snap an 11 game C-USA losing streak.
• Senior outfielder Megan Hill leads the team with a .341 batting average, 27 RBI and eight home runs. She is second on the team in runs scored with 24. Hill has been walked 36 times and has a .535 on base percentage.
• The Golden Eagles are batting .256 on the season with 155 runs scored in 36 games. The team has 22 home runs, a .386 slugging percentage and a .336 on base percentage. Southern Miss has stolen 38 of its 44 attempts.
• Freshman RHP Gabby Luciani leads the team in the circle with a 7-7 record and a 2.45 ERA. She has struck out 125 batters in 120 innings. Sophomore RHP Courtney Ramos is 6-9 with a 4.15 ERA.
• Southern Miss has a team ERA of 3.24 and has thrown three shutouts in 2010. The Golden Eagles are allowing opponents to hit .260 and have given up 18 home runs.