Softball Back Home to Host Florida Atlantic

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall softball team is back at Dot Hicks Field for a four-game series with the Florida Atlantic Owls Friday-Sunday, April 16-18. The Herd will honor 2021 seniors Blakely Burch, Sierra Huerta, Laney Jones and Megan Stauffer in a pregame ceremony before the Saturday doubleheader.

The Thundering Herd enters the series at 12-7 overall and 1-3 in Conference USA play. The Owls come in at 8-23 overall and 3-5 in conference action.

Series Details
Marshall Game Notes
All games will be streamed, paid subscription through CUSAtv
Friday single game at 1 p.m.: LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Saturday DH starts at 1 p.m.: LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Sunday single game at 12 p.m.: LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Marshall Radio: 88.1 WMUL-FM and online www.marshall.edu/wmul
Series History: 19 all-time meetings, Marshall leads 11-8
Last Meeting: May 4-5, 2019 in Huntington, Marshall swept the series 4-3, 10-0 and 8-0

Last Time Out: Herd Drops Three-of-Four at Middle Tennessee
Marshall struggled to find its rhythm throughout its first Conference USA series of the season at Middle Tennessee. The Herd won game one, 10-4, mainly off the bat of Kat Sackett who hit two, three-run home runs. Sackett crushed one in the first inning and then another in the seventh. Pitcher Megan Stauffer also had a great outing in relief throwing a season-high 5.1 innings and three strikeouts, while allowing just four hits and one run. Marshall then got off to a fast start in game two with six runs in the top of the first. However, the Blue Raiders bounced back with six runs in the bottom of the second. After each squad had an inning defensively they would like to forget, the teams battled through a tightly contested game that featured many great defensive plays. Marshall trailed, 7-6, before scoring two runs in the sixth to take the lead. MTSU responded and tied the game in the bottom of the frame. In the bottom of the seventh, with bases loaded and two outs, Grace Chelemen made a diving catch on a quickly sinking fly ball in left-center that sent the game to extra innings. The Blue Raiders finally got the win in the 10th inning, 9-8.

The Herd struggled again in game three as MTSU jumped out to an 8-0 lead after two innings. Marshall managed to put up five runs, including two in the seventh while trying to fight back, before falling 9-5. Aly Harrell and Mya Stevenson both hit their 36th career home runs in the loss. Marshall could not get going offensively in game four, dropping the finale 6-2. Harrell and Armani Brown combined for five of the Herd's seven hits.

Madison Whitaker Ties Team Assists Record
Senior Madison Whitaker recorded eight assists in Marshall's game two loss at Middle Tennessee, tying the program record (going back to 2000) for most in a single game. Whitaker began the game listed as the starter at second. She moved to shortstop for the beginning of the bottom of the first after starter Sierra Huerta went out with a leg injury in the top of the inning. The senior transfer from Wright State then had a busy day as she also tallied six putouts. In all, Whitaker was responsible for 14 outs and had no errors.
Games with eight assists (single game records from 1994-99 incomplete)
Leigh Wintter vs. Houston April 14, 2006
Marcena Bertoldo at Morehead State April 15, 2008
Amanda Lara vs. Georgia Southern Feb. 11, 2012
Madison Whitaker at MTSU April 9, 2021

Double It Up
Since 2019, Marshall has been known for hitting the home run (see the next Herd Note). However, the Herd has also been racking up doubles as well. In 2021, Marshall leads Conference USA and is seventh in the country in doubles per game with 1.89. Since head coach Megan Smith Lyon took over, the Herd set a team record for doubles in 2019 with 83 (1.30 per game), was on pace to break that mark in 2020 with 41 in 25 games (1.64 per game) before the remainder of the year was canceled, and is now in the top 10 in the country. Katie Adams has been a doubles machine, leading the team with eight and she is tied for fifth in the NCAA in doubles per game (.47). Kat Sackett began her career with four doubles and has six. Twelve different players have hit a double in 2021 with eight of them hitting two or more. With the doubles and the homers, Marshall leads C-USA and is 18th in the country in slugging percentage (.552).

The Opponent
The Florida Atlantic Owls are 8-23 this season and have started 3-5 in Conference USA play. The Owls opened C-USA action splitting with FIU. Both teams grabbed an 8-0 victory from the first two games. FAU then won 7-3 before falling 7-4 in game four. The Owls then dropped three-of-four to Charlotte at home, getting outscored 19-10. FAU won game three 5-4 with a walkoff, after the contest was suspended in the bottom of the sixth due to bad weather Saturday night. The teams resumed the game Sunday morning and Florida Atlantic started the bottom of the seventh with a double from Fayth Davis. Gretchen Ebert then reached first on a throwing error from third that allowed Davis to score for the walkoff victory.

FAU's offense is batting .242 and has been outscored 156-91. The team leads the conference in triples with 10, 27th in the NCAA in triples per game (.32), and freshman Kaitlyn Cunningham is tied for the second-most triples in the country with five. Cunningham is also the only batter hitting over .300 (.301) this season, and has 28 hits with 12 runs scored. Sara Bertiaume is second in batting average (.284), triples (3) and runs scored (10). Fifth-year senior Kaitlyn Burke leads the Owls with three home runs and 12 RBI and is second with 24 hits.

FAU has used four pitchers in 2021 that have a combined ERA of 4.63 with opponents batting .290 against them. Lynn Gardner has been the main arm with 100.2 innings pitched, a 3.96 ERA, 5-10 record and 58 strikeouts. Donnie Gobourne has tossed 49.2 innings, has a 4.65 ERA, a 2-8 record and 33 strikeouts. Abigail Morgan has 37.1 innings and a 7.13 ERA. Kara Lokeinsky has thrown 19.1 innings with a 3.26 ERA.

The Series
Marshall and Florida Atlantic is a still fairly young series going back to two meetings at USF in 2013. The Herd won both of those contests including a 2-1 win with a walkoff sacrifice fly in the eighth inning from Alyssa Woodrum, scoring Jazmine Valle. Once FAU joined Conference USA before the 2014 season, the series has been dominated by whoever is the home team. Down in Boca Raton, Marshall is just 2-7. However at Dot Hicks Field, the Herd is 7-1.

The first conference series took place in Boca Raton in 2014. Marshall won the first meeting and then fell in the next two. In 2015, the three-game series was cut down to just two games with the Sunday meeting being cancelled due to weather. The teams split the Saturday doubleheader. The Owls took the pitcher's duel in game one between Kylee Hanson for FAU and Jordan Dixon for Marshall, 3-0. Game two featured another walkoff for the Herd. The Owls tied the game at 5-5 with three runs in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Morgan Zerkle led off with an infield single and then moved to second on a sac bunt from Kaelynn Greene. Elicia D'Orazio then pushed one into left field that sent the speedy Zerkle home for the winner.

In 2016, the series returned to Boca Raton, the Owls were ranked No. 24, and swept a struggling Marshall squad. The Herd managed to score just one run during the weekend off a solo home run by Raquel Escareno in the second inning of game one. The series returned to Huntington in 2017 as Marshall was receiving votes in the top 25 and swept the Owls. In game one, Taylor "The Sniper" McCord threw out back-to-back runners in the fifth inning attempting to steal second. Dixon earned the first two wins and then Ali Burdette grabbed the win in game three. Dixon was named C-USA Pitcher of the Week that Monday.

Marshall went down back down to Boca Raton in 2018 and won the first game before dropping the next two. In the win, McCord was at it again as she tied a team record with three runners caught stealing. Game two was a close contest until the Owls went off for six runs in the bottom of the sixth for the 10-3 win. The Herd trailed 2-0 in game three before tying things up with two runs in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the seventh, Kailee Williamson picked up a big strikeout on Emily Lochten to send the game to extra innings. Marshall scored one in the top of the eighth, however, FAU scored one in the bottom of the inning as well. The Owls finally ended the series finale in the bottom of the ninth with a walkoff double from Samantha Lageyre.

Florida Atlantic returned to Huntington in 2019 needing wins to qualify for the C-USA Tournament. Marshall rained on those plans with another sweep to end the regular season, and the Owls year. Game one was tied at 3-3 in the sixth before Sierra Huerta smacked a solo home run to give the Herd the lead. Pitcher Abigail Tolbert finished off the Owls with two strikeouts and then a fly out for the 4-3 win. Marshall dominated game two with a 10-0 win in six innings. Mya Stevenson and Hannah Giammarino both went deep. Williamson turned in a great performance in the circle allowing just five hits in six innings for the shutout.

The Herd again took command in the final game on senior day, 8-0, in five innings. FAU senior Madisyn Palmer entered the weekend needing six stolen bases to pass Marshall's Elicia D'Orazio to be the all-time leader in C-USA. After nabbing three thefts in the Saturday doubleheader, Tolbert struck Palmer out three times to completely keep her off the bases, including for the final out of the game. D'Orazio kept the top spot with 166, and Palmer is second with 164. Rachel Rousseau had a triple and a home run, driving in five to help lead the way for the win.

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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Players Mentioned

Katie Adams

Armani Brown

Blakely Burch

Ali Burdette

Grace Chelemen

Hannah Giammarino

Aly Harrell

Sierra Huerta

Laney Jones

Rachel Rousseau

Kat Sackett

Megan Stauffer

Mya Stevenson

Abigail Tolbert

Madison Whitaker

Kailee Williamson

Marshall University Athletics