Softball Welcomes Florida Atlantic for Senior Weekend

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Live Stream: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall softball team prepares for its final Conference USA regular season series of 2019 as the Florida Atlantic Owls come to Dot Hicks Field for Senior Weekend, May 4-5. The Saturday doubleheader begins at 1 p.m., and the series finale is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.

Fans who cannot attend can tune in through HerdVision on CUSAtv as well as on Facebook Live through the Marshall University Softball page. The games will also be broadcast on 88.1 WMUL-FM with audio streamed online at www.marshall.edu/wmul through one of the Listen Live links.

During the weekend series, Marshall will honor its seven seniors in Abigail Tolbert, Samantha Loose, Ali Burdette, Hannah Giammarino, Hayden Ellis, Abigail Estrada and Briana Daiss.

The Thundering Herd enter the weekend at 33-18 overall and 14-7 in conference. The Owls come in at 20-27 and 7-14 in conference play. Marshall has already stamped its ticket to the Conference USA Tournament, May 8-11, in Birmingham, Ala. Florida Atlantic is playing for one of the final spots.

Last Time Out: Marshall Sweeps MTSU & Morehead State, falls to Pitt
Marshall's offense exploded during five-straight wins with a series sweep over Middle Tennessee and a doubleheader at Morehead State, combining to outscore the opposition 47-6. The Herd struggled in the loss to Pitt at home, 7-3.

Marshall drilled nine home runs in the series at MTSU including eight in the Saturday doubleheader. Freshman Mya Stevenson hit two in the first game and added a third in the second contest. The Herd has now obliterated the team home run record, formerly 52 in 2008, with now 65 going into the final weekend of the regular season. Marshall had hit a home run in 10-straight games, from game three at FIU (April 14) through game two at Morehead State (April 30). The streak came to an end in the loss to Pitt.

Senior pitcher Abigail Tolbert picked up four more wins over the past week, earning all three at MTSU with 16 scoreless innings and one more at Morehead State. Tolbert now has a career-high 21 wins this season.

Stevenson was named Conference USA Player of the Week for a second time after smacking four home runs, driving in 10 runs, scoring five runs and slugging 1.500 during the four-game stretch of Louisville through the series at Middle Tennessee.

Burch Takes Third and MUSB History
Anyone who has watched junior Blakely Burch take off out of the batter's box knows that she is always looking for an extra base. And because of this hustle and style of play, Burch has etched her name into the Marshall record books. In the top of the fifth inning of an 11-3 win in game two at Morehead State, Burch sent a pitch to the top of the wall in left, and was looking for third base the whole way. The junior blazed around second base and slid into third to break the program single season record with her seventh triple, breaking the two-year old record held by Morgan Zerkle.

Tolbert and Williamson Double-digit Wins
Heading into the final three games of the 2019 regular season, senior Abigail Tolbert and junior Kailee Williamson have achieved something that has not happened that often at Marshall, both pitchers have earned 10 or more wins this year. Tolbert has 21 and Williamson earned her 10th of the year in game two at Morehead State. The last time two Herd pitchers both had 10 or more wins in a season was 2009 as Katie Murphree had 14 and Autumn Mitchell recorded 11. The last time Marshall had a 20+ game winner and a 10-game winner, 2005. Randi Nielson won 21 games and Abigail Harter earned 14 wins as Marshall finished as the top seed in the Mid-American Conference.

Herd 2019 Numbers Updates:
Season Home Runs Update: Team Total - 65 (18th in the nation at 1.27 HR/Game & 1st in C-USA)
Mya Stevenson - 14 (T1st in C-USA and hit the Herd's 53rd of the season to break the old team record)
Aly Harrell - 13 (4th in C-USA)
Hannah Giammarino - 7
Blakely Burch - 7
Briana Daiss - 6
Sierra Huerta - 6
Rachel Rousseau - 6 (all in last 10 games since returning to lineup)
Hayden Ellis - 6 (hit 3 during Friday DH vs. Louisiana Tech)

Season Bean Ball Update: Team total - 66 (leads C-USA and a new program record)
Huerta, Harrell and Burch are 1-2-3 in Conference USA in HBPs
Huerta - 1st (nation) 0.49 HBPs/Game - 25 total - 1st all-time in program history
Harrell - 16th (nation) 0.33 HBPs/Game - 17 total - 2nd all-time in program history
Burch - 18th (nation) 0.33 HBPs/Game - 16 total - T3rd all-time in program history
58 of the Herd's 66 HBPs come from Huerta, Burch and Harrell (87.9 %)
As a team Marshall has had a player reach on a HBP in 38-of-51 games overall

Aly Harrell Season Free Pass Update: (NCAA rankings from April 23rd)
Through 51 games
- 57 walks (2nd in the country BBs/Game 1.12) & 17 HBPs (16th in the country HBP/Game 0.33)
- Nation's leader in combined free passes - 74 (57 BBs and 17 HBPs)
- Leads Conference USA On base (.596)
- Marshall record six games with 3 or more BBs
- Drawn a free pass (BB or HBP) in 39 of 51 games
- 25 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 46-of-51 games
-- Did not reach at Coastal Carolina (2/15) vs. UTSA games 1 & 2 (3/23), at Southern Miss game 3 (3/31) & at MTSU game 2 (4/27)
- 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 on April 23)

Blakely Burch Triple Watch Update: 7 - 6th in the nation 3Bs/game (.14), T4th in total & 1st in C-USA

Series History vs. Florida Atlantic: 16 meetings, series tied at 8-8
The series between Marshall and Florida Atlantic started on Feb. 9-10, 2013 at the USF-DeMarini Tournament in Tampa, Fla. The teams were not yet Conference USA opponents and Marshall narrowly won the first two meetings 3-1 and 2-1. In 2014, FAU joined C-USA and the teams met for a series in Boca Raton, March 5-6. The Herd took the first game 8-5 but then fell in the next two. In 2015, the squads lost out on a game in Huntington due to weather and split a doubleheader on April 18, with the Owls taking the first game and Marshall bouncing back in the second. The Herd traveled back down to Boca in 2016 to take on a ranked FAU squad. The 24th ranked Owls swept Marshall as the Herd struggled and managed to score just one run during the series. In 2017, it was Marshall's turn to make it into the top 25 and were looking to get on another role. The Herd swept the series holding a very good Owls offense to just five total runs in the three contests. In 2018, the series returned to Boca and the Owls won the series. Marshall took the first game 4-0 but FAU responded to win the second game 10-3. The series finale was a battle that went into the ninth inning before the Owls finally got the walk-off win. Overall, Marshall and Florida Atlantic have met 16 times since 2013 and the series is tied at 8-8.

Scouting FAU
The Owls come in to the final weekend of the regular season with a trip to the Conference USA Tournament on the line. FAU is 20-27 overall and 7-14 in conference play, currently fourth in the east division. The top three teams from each division advance and then the next best two records will be the final spots as only eight teams will be playing in Birmingham. FAU is two wins behind Middle Tennessee for the third spot in the east and one win behind UTSA and UTEP for one of the last two positions. As a team, Florida Atlantic is hitting .262 with Fayth Davis leading the way with a .390 average. Mia Olson leads the team in hits with 48 and home runs with 11 out of the team's 14. Senior Madisyn Palmer is hitting .294 this year, but remains a terror on the base-paths with 45 stolen bases. Palmer has 161 steals in her career (third all-time, one behind Morgan Zerkle) and is just six away from setting the C-USA career record, currently held by Marshall alum Elicia D'Orazio at 166. Olson, a threat at the plate and in the circle, leads the Owls in innings pitched with 101.1, a 3.38 ERA and a 5-13 record. Skylar Whitty leads with eight wins, an ERA of 2.69 and has the second most innings with 96.1. Kelsey Morrison is third in innings pitched with 72.1 and has a 7-7 record with a 3.68 ERA. The Owls have struggled defensively with 80 errors and a .945 team fielding percentage.

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 Welcomes Florida Atlantic for Senior Weekend

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Players Mentioned

Blakely Burch

Ali Burdette

Elicia D'Orazio

Briana Daiss

Hayden Ellis

Abigail Estrada

Hannah Giammarino

Aly Harrell

Sierra Huerta

Samantha Loose

Rachel Rousseau

Mya Stevenson

Abigail Tolbert

Kailee Williamson

Morgan Zerkle

Marshall University Athletics