May 4, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University softball team will conclude its regular-season schedule this weekend on the road against the first-place Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. The teams will begin the three-game Ohio Valley Conference series Saturday at 1 p.m.

Live stats will be available for all three games at www.SamfordSports.com.

Samford (29-20, 14-10 OVC) heads into the weekend as the third-place team in the conference standings. The Bulldogs trail Jacksonville State by a single game for the second position and both teams have three OVC contests remaining in the regular season.

Jacksonville State plays at eighth-place Eastern Illinois this weekend.

In the midst of its fifth-consecutive 20-win campaign, Samford recently set the school's all-time record in single-season victories with 29. The Bulldogs swept a doubleheader against Morehead State last week to surpass Samford's previous record of 28 wins set in 2004.

Head coach Beanie Ketcham is the winningest softball coach in school history and has accumulated 131 victories in five seasons. In 21 years of Samford softball, there has been a total of three winning seasons and all of them occurred under Ketcham's tutelage.

Tennessee Tech (43-15, 19-4 OVC) is the first-place team in the conference standings and has already clinched the 2007 regular-season title.

The Golden Eagles are the defending OVC champions and will host the conference tournament beginning Thursday. The top-two seeds in the six-team event will receive first-round byes in the double-elimination competition.

Tennessee Tech has been victorious in 12 of its previous 14 games and has not lost an OVC series this season.

Last week, the Golden Eagles took two out of three games at Southeast Missouri. Tennessee Tech won the opener 7-0, but then dropped the second matchup 9-5. In the rubber game of the series, the Golden Eagles rallied for an 8-3 victory in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Tennessee Tech enters this weekend's series as the top power hitting team in the conference.

The Golden Eagles have already tallied 69 home runs this season and have scored an OVC-high 298 runs. Junior Beth Boden leads the conference with 23 home runs and is tied for the league lead with 50 RBIs. Senior Bonnie Bynum is Tennessee Tech's top pitcher with a 28-8 record.

Samford also won two out of its three games last week. The Bulldogs played at Morehead State and swept the series-opening doubleheader 5-0 and 4-0, before dropping the finale 4-2.

Since the beginning of April, Samford has rattled off an 11-6 record and a 9-5 mark against conference opponents. During that stretch, the Bulldogs have tallied four shutout victories including a 3-0 win against Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs trail 9-17 in their all-time series against Tennessee Tech, but have been victorious in the previous three games played in Cookeville, Tenn.

In 2005, Samford reeled off three-consecutive, one-run victories against the Golden Eagles and swept the three-game series held at the Tech Softball Field. Last year, Tennessee Tech won all three games in the annual meeting.

Sophomore Stephanie Royall didn't allow an earned run last week and extended her streak to 31-straight innings without an earned run.

She has only allowed one earned run in her previous eight appearances and owns a miniscule 0.17 ERA since April 11. Royall hurled a three-hit shutout against Morehead State in her only start of last week and tallied a game-high eight strikeouts in the 5-0 win.

Royall came on in relief Sunday and pitched three innings of one-hit softball. She recently moved into a two-way tie for second place on Samford's single-season wins list (17) and became the fifth-place player on the school's all-time strikeout list (315).

The Bulldogs have hit 28 home runs this season and are being led by the school's all-time home run leader, Shelley Stanley.

Samford's senior rightfielder has powered seven of the Bulldogs' 28 deep flies this season and has increased her career record to 32. Stanley has already surpassed the previous school record of 21 home runs and set the single-season mark last year with 10. Samford's team record for home runs in a season is 29 and was set during the 2003 campaign.

Following Saturday's doubleheader, the teams will close out the three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.