Softball Heads to Middle Tennessee for Conference USA Series

Game Notes
Live Stream: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Marshall Radio Online Stream
Live Stats

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Marshall softball team is back on the road for another Conference USA series against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, April 27-28. The three-game series begins with a Saturday doubleheader at 3 p.m. eastern. The series finale is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. eastern.

The Thundering Herd come in at 28-17 overall and 11-7 in conference play. The Blue Raiders enter at 25-21 and 9-8 in conference action. Marshall (second) is just ahead of Middle Tennessee (third) by one-and-a-half games in the east division. The top three teams from each division and the next best two teams advance to the Conference USA Tournament, May 8-11, in Birmingham, Ala.

Fans who cannot attend can tune in for the live video stream on CUSAtv by clicking on one of the links above. The games will also be broadcast on 88.1 WMUL-FM with the audio streamed online at www.marshall.edu/wmul through one of the Listen Live links as Scott Hall will have the call.

Last Time Out: Marshall Wins Series over LA Tech, 2-1, and falls to Louisville
Marshall came out strong in a much needed series win over Louisiana Tech. The Lady Techsters entered the weekend with a 13-2 conference record and were sitting in first place overall. The Herd dropped the first game, 10-8, returned strong in the second to win 10-2 in five innings, and then fought for the walk-off win in the series finale.

Senior Hayden Ellis smacked two home runs in the game one loss including a three-run shot in the bottom of the seventh to give the Herd a chance. Marshall was trailing 10-5 after allowing seven runs in the top of the frame.

The Herd kept the hot bats going in the second game as Ellis hit a two-run homer, her third of the day in the third inning, and then three batters later sophomore Rachel Rousseau drilled her fourth homer of the season for another two-run shot. Marshall ended the game in the fifth after a double by junior Sierra Huerta, a walk to Ellis and then a walk to pinch-hitter Katie Adams loaded the bases for senior Hannah Giammarino. The Herd's centerfielder punched one out to center to end the game with a grand slam, her fifth homer of the year.

The series finale was a back-and-forth battle as the Herd first took the lead in the fourth, 4-0. Louisiana Tech immediately responded with four runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game. The Lady Techsters added one more in the sixth and another in the seventh and led 6-4. Giammarino led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo homer to make it a one-run ball game. Rousseau then hit a double and took third on a ground out from sophomore Armani Brown. Sophomore Aly Harrell was intentionally walked that put runners in the corners. Freshman Mya Stevenson was walked next on five pitches that loaded the bases. Senior Samantha Loose was then sent out to run for Harrell at second as she represented the game winning run. With just five minutes left until the pre-determined drop-dead time, junior Blakely Burch sent a shot to the fence in right that brought home Rousseau and Loose for the walk-off winner.

Marshall put up a strong outing against the Louisville Cardinals in a mid-week non-conference matchup, falling 5-4. Harrell and Stevenson both hit home runs in the contest.

Hayden Ellis: 2019 Warrior Award and Conference USA Player of the Week
Senior catcher Hayden Ellis had a career weekend in the series win over Louisiana Tech that culminated in being selected Conference USA Player of the Week for the first time in her career. During the Friday doubleheader, the Herd came out for pregame warmups wearing different colored shirts to represent different types of cancer and the names on the back of the shirts of the people that the players were playing for during Marshall's Cancer Awareness Day. Ellis had her father's name on the back as he just had his battle against cancer. The senior catcher came through in a big way as she hit two home runs in the first game. The first homer put Marshall on the board and cut the LA Tech lead to two, 3-1. Her second was a three run shot in the bottom of the seventh that gave the Herd a chance as Marshall went into the inning trailing by five.

Despite the game one loss, Ellis kept her hot bat going with her third home run of the day for a two-run blast in the third inning that gave Marshall a 3-0 lead. She later drove in another run on a ground out and was walked in the fifth prior to Hannah Giammarino's game-ending grand slam. Ellis ended the day with three hits, all home runs and drove in seven. She had only hit just two home runs in her career before that day.

Prior to game three, Ellis was named the Warrior Award winner for all of her battles on and off the field to stay with and fight for the Herd. During the series finale win, Ellis threw out one potential base-stealer and drew a bases loaded walk for her eighth RBI of the series.

Marshall Season Numbers Update:
Season Home Runs Update: Team Total - 51 (33rd in the nation at 1.13 HR/Game & 1st in C-USA)
Aly Harrell - 12 (T3rd in C-USA)
Mya Stevenson - 10 (T6th in C-USA)
Briana Daiss - 6
Sierra Huerta - 5
Hannah Giammarino - 6
Blakely Burch - 4
Rachel Rousseau - 4 (all in last 10 games since returning to lineup)
Hayden Ellis - 4 (hit 3 during Friday DH vs. Louisiana Tech)

Blakely Burch Triple Watch Update:
6 - 10th in the nation 3Bs/game, T7th in total & 1st in C-USA

Season Bean Ball Update: Team total - 58 (leads C-USA and a new program record)
Huerta, Harrell and Burch are 1-2-3 in Conference USA in HBPs
Huerta - 4th (nation) 0.42 HBPs/Game
Burch - 11th (nation) 0.37 HBPs/Game
Harrell - 13th (nation) 0.36 HBPs/Game
51 of the Herd's 58 HBPs come from Huerta, Burch and Harrell (87.9 %)
As a team Marshall has had a player reach on a HBP in 16 of last 18 games & 34-of-45 games overall

Aly Harrell Season Free Pass Update: (NCAA rankings from April 23rd)
Through 45 games
- 48 walks (3rd in the country BBs/Game 1.07) & 16 HBPs (13th in the country HBP/Game 0.36)
- Nation's leader in combined free passes - 64 (48 BBs and 16 HBPs)
- Leads Conference USA On base (.591)
- Marshall record six games with 3 or more BBs
- Drawn a free pass (BB or HBP) in 34 of 45 games
- 20 games with at least 2 free passes
- Tied Herd single game record with 3 HBPs at No. 20 James Madison (3/27)
- Tied Herd single game record with 4 BBs vs. WKU (4/7)
- Has reached base safely (hit, BB, HBP, reach on error or FC) in 41-of-45 games
-- Did not reach at Coastal Carolina (2/15) vs. UTSA games 1 & 2 (3/23) & at Southern Miss game 3 (3/31)
- Reached base in 9-straight plate appearances by free pass (8 BBs & 1 HBP)
-- 4 game three vs. WKU (4/7), 3 game one at FIU (4/13), and then first 2 game two at FIU (4/13)
- 9th in the nation in Quality at-bat percentage .617 (according to 6-4-3 Charts)

Series versus Middle Tennessee: 16 meetings, Marshall leads 15-1
The series between Marshall and Middle Tennessee dates back to March 1, 1997 in Knoxville, Tenn. The Herd took the first meeting in a slugfest, 8-7. Fourteen years went by before the teams met again on Feb. 25, 2011 in Auburn. The Blue Raiders won the contest 3-2. Middle Tennessee joined Conference USA in 2014 and the Herd has swept the Blue Raiders in each season. Marshall traveled to Murfreesboro for the first two series matchups in 2014 & 2015. In the 2014 series, Kristina and Shaelynn Braxton both homered in the game two victory becoming the first and so far only siblings in program history to hit a home run in the same game. 2016 marked the first trip to Huntington for MTSU and Marshall swept the series again. In 2017, a return journey to Murfreesboro, then junior Taylor McCord had a big outing in game one going 3-for-3 with a walk, double, home run and scored four times. Then Shaelynn Braxton went 3-for-3 at the plate in game two with a double and two homers. In the series finale, Morgan Zerkle hit her sixth home run of the season. The series returned to Huntington in 2018, and due to inclement weather, one game was dropped and the teams played a doubleheader on Sunday May 6. Marshall came away with close wins in both games, 8-6 in the first and a 3-2 walk-off winner in the second on senior day. Then freshman Rachel Rousseau provided her first career walk-off in the bottom of the seventh with a 2-run double that scored Abigail Estrada and Wylie Glover.

Scouting the Blue Raiders
The reigning Conference USA Tournament champions come in with a record of 25-21 overall and 9-8 in conference action. Middle Tennessee was swept by WKU in its last series that was played on Monday and Tuesday, due to bad weather during the weekend. The Blue Raiders fought hard in the series finale before ultimately falling 6-4 in 11 innings to the visiting Lady Toppers. MTSU is just a game-and-a-half behind Marshall in the east division. The Blue Raiders finish the 2019 regular season at North Texas. On the offensive side, as a team MTSU is hitting .281 this season and have been outscored by seven runs overall (197-190). Summer Burgess leads the team with a .350 average, 57 hits and 25 runs scored. Lexi Cushing has provided a lot of power this year with 10 doubles and 13 home runs. She is slugging .654 and has been walked 24 times. JUCO transfer Sydney Heath has been trying to pick up where departed senior great Precious Birdsong left off with speed on the bases as Heath leads the squad with 17 steals. This year, MTSU has used six different players in the circle. Corrina Dodd leads with 115 innings pitched, a 3.17 ERA and an 11-7 record. Kailey Ahlstrom is next with 96 innings, a 3.14 ERA and an 8-7 record. Amber Baldwin has tossed 60.2 innings with a 2.77 ERA and is 5-1. Sarah Pinkston (27.1 IP), Riley Fleming (14 IP) and Gretchen Mead (4.2 IP) have all seen time on the field as well.

Up Next
After the series in Murfreesboro, Marshall has one final week of the 2019 regular season. The Herd takes on Morehead State in a doubleheader at Morehead on Tuesday April 30 and then caps off non-conference action with a single game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Wednesday, May 1, at Dot Hicks Field. The regular season wraps up on Senior Weekend as the Florida Atlantic Owls come to Huntington, May 4-5.

For all of the latest information on the Marshall Softball team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdSB, Facebook at Marshall University Softball and on www.herdzone.com.

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Softball Heads to Middle Tennessee for Conference USA Series

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Players Mentioned

Katie Adams

Shaelynn Braxton

Armani Brown

Blakely Burch

Briana Daiss

Hayden Ellis

Abigail Estrada

Hannah Giammarino

Wylie Glover

Aly Harrell

Sierra Huerta

Samantha Loose

Taylor McCord

Rachel Rousseau

Mya Stevenson

Morgan Zerkle

Marshall University Athletics