March 30, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford softball team will kick off a seven-game road swing Thursday as it heads to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Belmont in a midweek doubleheader.
Samford (7-27) just closed out a 13-game homestand with a Tuesday evening doubleheader against Kennesaw State. The Bulldogs dropped both games, but entered the game on the heels of back-to-back conference series wins over Furman and Western Carolina.
Samford continues to be led at the plate by Robyn Harmon. Harmon holds a .351 batting average and leads the team in runs with 15 and hits with 26. She is also the team's best slugger, boasting a .581 slugging percentage, 11 RBI, four doubles, two triples and three home runs. Amanda Jordan follows with a .421 slugging percentage. She leads the team in RBI with 13 and home runs with six. Whitney Terry is also batting .333 and Lakan Smith follows with a.309 average, three doubles and a home run.
In the pitching circle, Kayla Burris (4-11) is the Bulldogs' strikeout leader with 56 in 94.1 innings of work. Emily Waters (0-2) holds a team-low 4.75 ERA while Nicole Bobrowski (2-5) boasts a 4.84 ERA and holds opponents to a team-low .299 batting average.
Belmont (7-22) comes into Thursday's contest having lost its last six games in a row. Most recently, the Bruins dropped two games Saturday at East Tennessee State.
Becca Gift currently leads Belmont, batting .264, followed by Ashley Byers who is batting .253 and leads the team with 19 hits, seven doubles, seven home runs and 19 RBI. Devon Schmidt (6-9) is the Bruins' leader in the circle, boasting a 2.79 ERA, seven complete games, one shutout and 85 strikeouts in 100.1 innings of play.
Samford and Belmont were scheduled to meet earlier in the season in the Tennessee Tech Combat Classic, but the tournament was washed out before the Bulldogs were able to play a game in it.
The Bulldogs hold an 8-3 series lead over Belmont, winning five of the last seven meetings. The last time the two teams met was in the fourth game of the 2008 season when Samford took a 5-2 win over the Bruins.
The first game of the doubleheader starts at 3:30 p.m. CT followed by the second approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first. A full recap and final statistics will be available on www.samfordsports.com after the second game is over.
