Mercer Readies for Trip to Madeira Beach

Friday, February 14

Madeira Beach, Fla.

4 PM

Mercer University

Monmouth

2/13/2020 4:27:00 PM | Softball

This is the first of three regular season tournaments the Bears will travel to

By: Kraig Doremus

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer Bears softball team will hit the road this weekend as they head to Madeira Beach, Fla., to participate in the 14th annual Spring Games.

The Spring Games began in 2007 and is now a seven-week event featuring over 2,000 games from the junior college ranks to NCAA Division I teams.

While in Madeira Beach, the Bears are set play five different opponents over three days. Mercer will take the field on Friday vs. Monmouth (4:00 p.m.) and Akron (6:30 p.m.). The Bears will play just once on Saturday when they battle the Presbyterian College Blue Hose at 4:00 p.m. Mercer is scheduled to play Middle Tennessee State (9:00 a.m.) and Nicholls State (11:30 a.m.) on Sunday.

TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK
Date: Friday, Feb. 14 – Sunday, Feb. 16
Location: Madeira Beach, Fla. | Madeira Beach R.O.C. Complex
Teams: Mercer (1-5), Akron (1-4), Middle Tennessee State (3-3), Monmouth (0-0), Nicholls State (1-5) and Presbyterian (3-1)
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5
Video: FloSoftball ($)
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
To view a complete tournament schedule, please click here

MERCER QUICK HITS

The Bears enter the weekend with a 1-5 record after dropping a heartbreaker at Georgia Southern, 5-3, on Wednesday.
Against the Eagles, Danielle Castleberry recorded the team's lone RBI on double up the middle in the first inning.
Micayla Rood leads Mercer with 10 hits through six games. She's batting an impressive .526 (10-for-19) and ranks 18th in the country in hits.
Castleberry leads the team with four extra base hits – three doubles and one home run.
Mercer boasts a winning record against three of the teams it will face this weekend. The Bears are 3-2 against Akron and Presbyterian and 5-1 against Middle Tennessee State. Mercer is looking for its second win over Nicholls State and will play Monmouth for the first time in program history.
This is the first of three tournament's that the Bears will travel to during the regular season. Mercer will also make trips to Montgomery, Ala., for the Alabama State Tournament (Feb. 28-Mar.1), and Norman, Okla., and Stillwater, Okla., for the Mizuno Classic (Mar. 6-8).

SCOUTING AKRON
Akron enters play at Madeira Beach with a 1-4 record. The Zips competed at the Samford Bulldogs' tournament last weekend and picked up their lone win on Saturday, with an 11-3 triumph over the Winthrop Eagles. Akron is led by Kayla Wulf who is hitting .588 (10-for-17) with five RBI. Sydney Jascoe has a team-best eight runs batted in and is hitting .412 (7-for-17) to date. In the circle, Adrian Smith was credited with the Zips' lone win of 2020. She has made four appearances and owns a 4.63 ERA with 29 strikeouts. Akron was picked to finish 10th in the Mid-American softball standings and is led by first-year head coach Meegan Pettipiece.

SCOUTING MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE
Middle Tennessee State went 3-3 at the Cal State Fullerton tournament during the opening weekend of the 2020 season. Lexi Cushing is the only Blue Raider batting above .333, eclipsing that mark by a wide margin as she is batting .556 (10-for-18) with three home runs and four RBI. Claire Smith and Marinakis lead MTSU with five RBI each. Marinakis has also made four appearances in the circle. She boasts a 1-1 record with a 2.84 ERA and a team-best eight strikeouts. Head coach Jeff Breeden is in his eighth season in charge of the program. He picked up his 150th career win last weekend and is 152-237 overall at MTSU. The Blue Raiders were selected sixth in the C-USA preseason poll.

SCOUTING MONMOUTH
Monmouth was idle during the first weekend of softball and is coming off a 36-18 mark in 2019 in which it went an impressive 16-4 in conference play. The Hawks have won back-to-back Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference titles and were voted first again in the 2020 preseason poll. First baseman Kayla Rosado led Monmouth at the plate last season with a .383 (62-for-162) batting average. The Oradell, N.J., native was second on the squad with 32 RBI. Sophomore Lindsey Baron hit .339 (58-for-171) with 12 home runs and 28 RBI. She earned MAAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year Honors. In the circle, the Hawks' Alyssa Irons racked up 30 wins during her sophomore campaign compared to only 12 defeats. She was sixth in the country in victories, as well as shutouts with six. Monmouth traveled to LSU for the NCAA regionals last season and lost contests to the 10th-ranked Tigers and Louisiana Tech, respectively. Coach Shannon Salsburg is entering her fifth season with the Hawks and has a record of 121-87 overall at the school.

SCOUTING NICHOLLS STATE
Nicholls State dropped all five of its games at the at the River City Leadoff Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., last weekend, but comes in with one win to its credit having defeated Alcorn State, 9-1, in its home opener on Tuesday. The Colonels have recorded a winning season every year since 2015 and were picked fourth in the Southland Conference's preseason poll. Corynn Major leads the Colonels with a .400 (8-for-20) batting average. Emily Danehower tossed five innings of three-hit softball in NSU's win over Alcorn State. She allowed just one earned run and fanned seven. Head coach Angel Santiago is in his ninth season with the Colonels. The two-time Southland Conference Coach of the Year is 232-192 overall.

SCOUTING PRESBYTERIAN
The Presbyterian College Blue Hose are off to a 3-1 start thus far with wins over Robert Morris, Norfolk State and South Carolina State last weekend. In six at-bats, Kiley Cross has recorded four hits for a .667 average, while teammate Courtney White is hitting .500 (4-for-8) through four games. Freshman pitcher Jenna Greene was named the Big South Conference's Freshman of the Week on Monday afternoon. In her first weekend of college softball, she made two starts and went the distance in both contests en route to two wins. She has struck out 20 batters and has an impressive 0.54 ERA. Haley Haselden was also credited with a win for the Blue Hose. Head coach David Williams is in his second season at the helm. He took over a Presbyterian squad that won just four games in 2018 and guided it to an 11-40-2 record last season.

Follow the Bears
For complete coverage of Mercer Softball please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerUSoftball (Twitter), /MUSoftball (Facebook) and @MercerUSoftball (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.