Marshall University Athletics
Marshall to host Softball Tournament This Weekend
3/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 5, 2009
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall University softball team will kick off a 13-game home stand by hosting its own tournament this weekend at Dot Hicks Field. This is the first time Marshall has hosted a tournament since 2004.
The Thundering Herd (7-6) was rained out last weekend in Knoxville giving them time to prepare for this weekend's game. Because of lost games, Marshall will play five games over the next three days. Other teams competing in Huntington include former MAC opponent Buffalo, Canisius and Delaware.
Marshall leads the former MAC rival 11-5 in the all-time series. The Bulls defeated the Herd last season 11-6 at the Frost Classic in Chattanooga.
This weekend's match-up will be the first time that these two teams have met. Sunday's contest will mark the fourth time Delaware and Marshall have met. They last tangled in 2005 with Marshall walking away with a 3-0 victory.
Two weeks ago, Marshall competed in the Georgia Softball Classic. The Herd started the weekend 3-0 with victories over UNC-Greensboro, IUPUI and Ball State. The weekend ended with back-to-back losses to host No. 16/17 Georgia and an eighth-inning loss to Tennessee State 9-8.
Junior Katie Murphree (Tallahassee, Fla.) started out the weekend strong with a 10-strikeout performance against UNC-Greensboro. She would go the distance striking out 10 and only walking three en route to a complete game victory.
Not to be outdone, senior Autumn Mitchell (Shady Spring, W.Va.) placed her name next to Murphree's with a 10-strikeout performance against Tennessee State. Mitchell went five innings and allowed only one walk.
After missing the South Florida tournament due to injury, sophomore Melanie Stoehr (Tacoma, Wash.) jumped back into the line-up as she went 7-for-15 over the weekend with a home run. Stoehr is now batting .481 and tied with junior Caitlyn Jackson (Ontario, Calif.) for the team lead in RBIs with nine.
For this weekend's tournament, there will be live gametracker for all of the game along with radio broadcast from WMUL 88.1 FM. Their broadcast can also be heard online at http://www.marshall.edu/wmul.
All of the Herd's contests will be available via video streaming for members of Herd All-Access. Along with the live video there will be audio from WMUL's broadcast. For more information please visit our tournament page, http://herdzone.cstv.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/softball-tournament-09.html.
