March 6, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford softball team begins Southern Conference play on Saturday on the road at Appalachian State. The Bulldogs and Mountaineers will meet in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. CT and will close out the weekend with an 11 a.m. game on Sunday.
Samford (5-8, 0-0 SoCon) and Appalachian State (4-8, 0-0 SoCon) have never met on the field before so the Bulldogs are looking for win, not only to snap the four-game losing streak it is on, but to start conference play out on a positive note.
The Bulldogs come out of the Ohio Valley Conference fresh off two of the best seasons they have had in the conference. In the 2006-07 season, Samford finished third in the conference and notched a school record 31 wins. Although the 2007-08 season brought the Bulldogs some challenges, they overcame them late in the season and made their way into the conference tournament semifinals for the first time.
Samford hopes to take that momentum into the Southern Conference season where it is welcomed with open arms but sure to face eight other teams who are after the same goal - a conference championship.
"We are excited about our first conference series, new cities and new teams to play," Samford head coach Beanie Ketcham said. "We know that it will be an uphill battle this season because no one wants the new kid to win. But we are ready to fight and compete and take on whatever challenges come our way. I know that Appalachian State will be well prepared and they will be highly motivated being the first team to play us and this being the first conference series. We are going to have to bring our "A" game."
The Bulldogs come off a weekend in which they were scheduled to play four games in the Magic City Classic but only played two. Because of continuous thunderstorms on Friday, all games that were slated for the first day of the three-day tournament were cancelled and coaches worked to rearrange the schedule to fit games into the last two days.
On Saturday, after the tournament had been moved from Spain Park High School to Shea Softball Complex that housed artificial turf fields, teams began play bright and early. Samford played its first game at 10 a.m. against Pittsburgh and lost 7-1.
While the temperatures steadily dropped and whirling mist was in the air, Samford began its second game of the day around 3:30 p.m. against Michigan State. The bats were hot but the Spartans' were hotter, and Michigan State won the game 13-6.
Samford in Northern Illinois then began play in the final game of the day but the officials soon called it off due to the weather conditions.
"Having a shortened weekend certainly was not ideal, but nothing this season has been normal so we are rolling with whatever comes our way and trying to make the best of it," Ketcham said. "We are doing a lot of live hitting this week to compensate for the lack of games and are focused on trying to regain our confidence and get back in a groove. We have had some good practices this week and I think we will be well prepared going into this weekend."
While Samford was picked to finish sixth in the SoCon Preseason Polls, Appalachian State was picked to finish eighth. The Mountaineers closed out last season in seventh place, but are currently on a three-game win streak and have won four of their last eight contests.
A couple of Appalachian State players have kept the Mountaineers from being counted out early in the season. Sophomore Katie Boyd, a SoCon preseason pick, has been named Player of the Week for the past two weeks while freshman pitcher Ashley Stubbs was named Pitcher of the Week this week after throwing the conference's first no-hitter of the season Sunday in a 10-0 win over Western Carolina. Boyd leads in batting average (.571) and slugging percentage (1.476) with five homeruns on the year so far.
Saturday's doubleheader between the two teams is set to begin at 3 p.m. CT., while the third game of the series is set for 11 a.m. on Sunday. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of games each day.
