BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University softball team closes out its regular season home schedule with a doubleheader against Middle Tennessee State University on Thursday, April 23, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The Bulldogs (28-19) are coming off of a 2-0 victory in the series finale against Mercer this past weekend and look to build off of that success against the Blue Raiders (17-24). There is familiarity between the two programs as they met just last season in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for pair of games that ended in each team picking up a victory.

Samford holds the edge in the all-time series 9-6 over Middle Tennessee State.

Junior Megan Dowdy continues her push forward to becoming Samford's all-time hit leader. The Fairhope, Ala. native went 4-for-10 over the weekend to bring her season total to 74 hits and her career mark to 180, which is just 10 shy of the record set by Jessica Owens from 2006-2009.

Dowdy and the Bulldogs offense will need to find a way to produce runs more effectively on Thursday to some of the pressure off of the pitching staff. SU's offense has tallied 33 hits over the last six games but has managed to only plate six runs with a .214 team batting average, which is .100 lower than the team's season average of .314.

Mollie Hanson (16-9) has been exceptional from the circle over that six-game stretch with a 1.88 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 26.0 innings pitched but only managed to come away with a 1-3 record.

The Blue Raiders are coming off its' first Conference USA series victory of the season taking the rubber match 5-3 over Southern Miss. MTSU's potent offense is led by Cor'Nisha Birdsong and Samantha Nieves who both hold Top 20 rankings in NCAA statistical categories.

Birdsong ranks fourth in the country in stolen bases while Nieves ranks 17^th as one of the toughest people in the country to strikeout with only having four in 115 at-bats.

MTSU's pitching will be the wild card in the contests tomorrow as the Blue Raiders come in with a staff ERA of 4.94 and are led by Kelci Cheney who has the team lead with 10 wins in 30 appearances and 20 starts. Cheney currently sits with a 4.33 ERA and a 68/41 strikeout to walk ratio.

The $100 Moe's Southwest Grill Giveaway will take place tomorrow during the third inning of the first game of tomorrow's doubleheader. Fans will have the opportunity to sign up before the game up to the second inning at the marketing table next to the concessions stand.