April 19, 2005

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Samford University softball team will continue play in its eight-game road trip on Wednesday as the Bulldogs face off against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m., at Blue Raider Field.

"This is going to be a good opportunity for us to sharpen some of the things that we've been working on as a pitching staff and also on the offensive end," said Samford head coach Beanie Ketcham. "I think that we need to regain some of our consistency as a pitching staff and we would definitely try to use this as an opportunity to build some confidence."

Samford (21-19) began its eight-game road swing last weekend versus Southeast Missouri and finished the three-game Ohio Valley Conference series with a 1-2 record against the resurgent Redhawks. After dropping the first two contests, 7-0 and 2-1, the Bulldogs bounced back to take a thrilling 4-3 victory in the series finale on Sunday.

Following Samford's two-game non-conference matchup against Middle Tennessee (7-28), the Bulldogs will conclude their harrowing road trip with a three-game set at Morehead State this weekend. Samford is currently the second-place team in the conference with a 13-5 OVC record, while Morehead State sits in ninth place at 3-12.

"After struggling a bit over the weekend, this would be a great chance for us to build some momentum heading into the Morehead State series," Ketcham said. "We're not going to take either one of these teams lightly and I know that we're going to need to fight, scratch and claw our way to some wins."

Middle Tennessee heads into Wednesday's matchup with a bit of momentum after the Blue Raiders picked up a key 1-0 victory over North Texas on Sunday.

With the win, MTSU snapped its 12-game losing streak and proved to be victorious for the first time since March 23. Since its 8-3 victory over Birmingham-Southern, Middle Tennessee has been outscored by its opponents, 70-19, in 13 games. The Blue Raiders own a 4.69 team earned run average and have allowed 28 home runs this season.

Samford's Erin Hall, a junior from Dothan, Ala., enters Wednesday's doubleheader as one of the team's hottest hitters after finishing last week with a stellar .455 batting average, three doubles and three runs batted in.

In five games, Hall went 5-for-11 at the plate, led Samford with a .500 on-base percentage and turned in a .727 slugging percentage. Against Southeast Missouri on Sunday, she finished with a 3-for-4 offensive performance and drove in the game-winning run in the top of the seventh inning.

The all-time series rivalry between Samford and Middle Tennessee is deadlocked at 5-5. The teams first played during the 1998 season when the Bulldogs earned a doubleheader split by salvaging a 4-3 win after dropping the first-ever matchup between the regional rivals, 3-0.

Samford has won four of the previous five games in the series and the teams split a doubleheader last season in Birmingham, Ala. The Blue Raiders won the first contest, 8-4, before the Bulldogs rallied for a 3-1 victory in the nightcap.

The Samford University softball team will attempt to improve upon its current 10-1 record against teams located in Tennessee this season as the Bulldogs travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for a non-conference doubleheader against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders beginning at 3 p.m.