Week 5 notes
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University softball team opens Atlantic Sun Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Jacksonville. The series kicks off with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. The teams will wrap-up the series on Sunday with a first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
Live stats links are available at NKUNorse.com.
NKU saw an offensive outburst last weekend, but came up just short in dropping two games at the Evansville Invitational. The Norse lost in walk-off fashion to Northern Illinois, 4-3, and fell just short in an 8-7 loss to Evansville. The results leave the Norse with a 1-10 record on the season.
A WORD ABOUT JACKSONVILLE: The Dolphins opened A-Sun play last weekend, taking three losses against preseason league favorites South Carolina Upstate, and losses on Wednesday to Central Florida and Boston College leave JU with an 8-10 overall record and an 0-3 A-Sun mark. Pitcher and outfielder Victoria Brown leads the Dolphins offensively, batting .327 on the season with 10 RBIs and 10 runs scored. In the circle, Brown is 4-5 with a 3.70 ERA and has fanned 31 batters in 58.1 innings of work.
LAST TIME AGAINST THE DOLPHINS: NKU was swept in the first-ever meeting of the clubs on April 6-7 of last year. Jacksonville won a 4-2 decision in extra innings that featured
Dana Jarboe's first career home run, and JU completed the doubleheader sweep with a 6-4 win in Game 2 as
KC Straley and
Emily Schwaeble each posted three-hit games. In the series finale, Victoria Brown spun a three-hit shutout, 6-0, striking out seven batters in the game.
DAVIS STANDS OUT: Dee Dee Davis had a strong weekend in Evansville, going 4-for-7 with a double, a triple, two home runs, four RBI and three runs scored. The outburst of extra base hits has raised Davis' slugging percentage to .733, ranking sixth among all A-Sun hitters.
SLUGGING IT OUT: Katelyn Roy has also hit the ball hard this year, posting a .704 slugging percentage through 11 games to rank eighth in the conference in the category. Of her nine hits this season, Roy has a double and three home runs.
FIRST FOR KOHLMAN: Rachel Kohlman hit her first collegiate home run in a 4-3 loss to Northern Illinois. Her pinch-hit blast to lead off the top of the seventh inning tied the game at 3-3. The blast was NKU's first pinch-hit home run of the season, and just the team's second in its Division I history. Last year,
Kaylin Steinmetz hit a two-run home run to cap off an 8-5 win over East Tennessee State on April 13.
LEAD OFF ON BASE: KC Straley has extended her team-high on-base streak to nine games and has reached in 10 of NKU's 11 contests. Straley has drawn eight walks over the span and picked up hits in five of those games, posting a .467 on-base percentage when leading off an inning. The junior centerfielder has also stolen five bases and scored a team-high eight runs so far this year.
CONFERENCE OPENER: NKU will be looking to claim its first A-Sun opener victory in Saturday's doubleheader against Jacksonville. Last year, the Norse dropped a 3-1 decision to eventual A-Sun champion South Carolina Upstate, 3-1.
Kelley Benhase gave up three runs on six hits and struck out two, with all of the Spartans' damage coming in the fifth inning.
Dana Jarboe drove in NKU's only run in the contest. The last time NKU won a conference opener was in the 2011 season, when the Norse swept a doubleheader from Rockhurst (Mo.), 6-1 and 9-5.
