Softball Embarks on Spring Break Journey

Tuesday, March 19

Knoxville, Tenn.

5 p.m.

Murray State

Tennessee

Photo by: Murray State News

3/18/2013 3:56:00 PM | Softball

Game Notes

MSU 2013 Record: 7-12 (1-1 OVC)

This Week's Opponents:
#6 Tennessee: 23-6 (3-3 SEC) | Live Stats | Live Video
      All-Time vs. UT: 0-1
Chattanooga: 15-14 (1-2 SoCon) | Live Stats
      All-Time vs. UTC: 0-0
East Tennessee State: 7-15 (0-6 A-Sun) | Live Stats
      All-Time vs. ETSU: 0-0

On Tuesday, the Murray State softball team will open up a seven-game road trip that will span six days, three states and 1,386 miles. The Racers will open up the trip on Tuesday evening at sixth-ranked Tennessee, followed by Chattanooga on Wednesday and East Tennessee State on Thursday. The trip will wrap up later this week with a pair of OVC doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State, respectively.

On Saturday, the Racers opened their OVC campaign with a doubleheader split against Southeast Missouri. Sunday's series finale with the Redhawks was canceled due to rain.

In game one, Murray State jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, thanks in part to a home run from Ellyn Troup. However, the Redhawks rallied and scored nine straight runs to take the opening game of the series, 9-3. Southeast Missouri's Alexis Anderson went 4-for-4 in the game with two runs, three RBIs, a double and a home run.

In game two, it was all Racers. MSU scored two runs in the first, two in the second, one in the fifth and capped it off with a three-run sixth inning that featured back-to-back home runs from Alexa Becker and Casey Castile. Becker and Castile, along with Shelbey Miller, accounted for six of the Racers' 10 total hits in the contest.

Tuesday will be the second meeting with the Lady Vols and will also mark the second straight season that the two teams have met. Last year, Tennessee topped MSU, 8-0 in five innings as part of the Tennessee Classic in Knoxville.

The Lady Vols are currently 23-6 on the year and are 3-3 in the SEC. Tennessee is coming off of a 1-2 series loss to No. 3 Florida last weekend in which every game went eight innings. In the series finale, Lauren Gibson went yard for the Lady Vols, but Florida's Lauren Haeger came up with two home runs of her own and picked up the win in the circle.

Gibson currently leads UT with a .425 average, while Raven Chavanne follows closely behind at .402. The Renfroe sisters, Ivy and Ellen, currently lead the Lady Vol pitching staff at 9-3 and 8-1, respectively. Ellen currently has 94 strikeouts and a 1.32 ERA, while Ivy has fanned 69 batters and sports an ERA of 1.50.

Both Wednesday and Thursday's games will be firsts for Murray State, as it has never played either Chattanooga or East Tennessee. While they have not played this week's opponents, the Racers do have all-time winning records against both the Southern Conference and the Atlantic Sun at 3-2 and 5-3, respectively.

Chattanooga is currently 15-14 on the year and 1-2 in the Southern Conference. The Mocs lost thier SoCon opening series this past weekend at Furman, two games to one. The Paladins won games one and three of the series, 4-0 and 9-1 (5), while the Mocs took game two, 6-1.

Sara Poteat currently boasts a team-high .369 batting average for Chattanooga, while Kasey Tydingco, Sarah Beth Roberts and Alyssa Taylor lead the team with 15 RBIs each. In the circle, Rachel Albritton leads her team with a 2.38 ERA, while Taylor Deason has the most wins, at 10, and the most strikeouts, at 94.

East Tennessee is currently 7-15 on the season and 0-6 in the Atlantic Sun. The Bucs' losing streak moved to nine this past weekend after they were swept at home by A-Sun rival Jacksonville. The final game on Saturday and Sunday's game were especially heartbreaking as the Bucs lost each game by just one run.

Jackie Baird is the current batting average leader for ETSU at .385, while Casey Horner leads the team in RBIs with 18. Katie Wolff currently leads the Bucs' pitching staff with a 2.68 ERA, while Samantha Harrell leads in wins and strikeouts with four and 35, respectively.

Live Stats will be available for all three mid-week games and links can be found at the beginning of this article. Free video will also be available for Tuesday's game at Tennessee, with the link also available at the top of the page.