Softball Back in Action at Middle Tennessee

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Marshall softball team finally gets to begin Conference USA action Friday through Sunday, April 9-11, on the road against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. Friday will be a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT. Saturday will feature a doubleheader with first pitch at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT. The fourth and final game of the series is Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT.

The Thundering Herd enters the series at 11-4 overall. The Blue Raiders come in at 15-16 overall and 1-3 in Conference USA play.

Series Details
Marshall Game Notes
Live Stream will be on CUSAtv (paid subscription)
Friday: Game One – LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Game Two – LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Saturday: LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Sunday: LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM
Marshall Radio: 88.1 WMUL-FM and online www.marshall.edu/wmul with Scott Hall
Series History: 19 all-time meetings, Marshall leads 18-1
Last Meeting: April 27-28, 2019 in Murfreesboro, Marshall swept the weekend 12-0, 8-2 and 5-0

Marshall was last on the field, March 27-28, at home in a three-game series against the Bellarmine Knights. The Herd took 2-of-3, closing out the series with a 10-0 win in five innings on Sunday. Marshall was scheduled to begin C-USA play at home against the WKU Hilltoppers, April 1-3, however the games had to be postponed as WKU had a positive COVID-19 case in their Tier 1 testing group and then subsequent contact tracing. A makeup date has yet to be determined.

The Herd has still been slugging the ball this season with 32 doubles and 25 home runs. Marshall leads the conference in doubles per game (2.13) which is also good for third in the NCAA. The Herd is averaging 1.67 homers per game, tops in the league, and ninth in the country. The team's slugging percentage of .597 also leads C-USA and is 10th in the NCAA.

There have been 12 different players to hit a double and 11 have hit a home run this season for Marshall. Senior Katie Adams and freshman Kat Sackett are tied for the team lead in doubles with six each. Graduate Sierra Huerta, senior Aly Harrell and freshman Paige Halliwill are all tops on the team with four home runs each. Huerta leads the team in slugging at .833 and Harrell is right behind at .824.

As a team, the Herd is batting .313 good for second in the league. Junior Grace Chelemen leads with a .422 average, 19 hits and is slugging .644. Harrell is also hitting over .400 (.412) and has a .524 on base percentage. Adams is batting .385 and slugging .615. Huerta sports a .361 batting average and leads the team with a .531 on base percentage. Freshman Kay Kay Kenney has an on base percentage of .833 and is slugging 2.000, however she has appeared in eight games with just two starts in the outfield and six as a pinch runner. She made her presence known in her first starts against Bellarmine, reaching base six times, highlighted by four walks and a home run for her first career hit.

Senior pitcher Laney Jones earned her second conference Pitcher of the Week honors on March 29 after a 0.00 ERA and two wins against Bellarmine. Jones leads the team in innings pitched (28.0), strikeouts (19), shutouts (three) and wins (four). Sophomore Ashley Blessin is second with 24.2 innings pitched and has a 3-1 record. Redshirt sophomore Cailey Joyce sports a 1.45 ERA, a 1-1 record and 18 strikeouts in 19.1 innings. Redshirt freshman Madi Garay has tossed 13.2 innings and has 13 strikeouts. Freshman Brianna McCown has one win and eight strikeouts in 7.1 innings. Senior Megan Stauffer has a 0.00 ERA with one win in five innings.

Third-year head coach Megan Smith Lyon is 71-33 (.683 winning percentage) in her time at Marshall. Smith Lyon and her staff have brought a power element to Huntington as the Herd has belted 152 home runs in 104 games in her tenure, an average of 1.46 per game.

The Opponent
The Blue Raiders are off to a 15-16 start this season and 1-3 in Conference USA play. Middle Tennessee opened C-USA action with a series at Charlotte with two of the four games going to the eighth inning. The 49ers took the first two games before MTSU won game three, 8-3 in eight innings. Middle fell in the final game, 6-4. The Blue Raiders are also coming off a 6-3 loss in 10 innings at Jacksonville State on Tuesday as the Gamecocks hit a walkoff 3-run homer to finally end the contest. MTSU has played into extra innings six times this year, three in the eighth and three more in the tenth inning, and have a 4-2 record in those contests.

Summer Burgess and Kelci Hill have been hitting one and two, respectively, in the lineup and both are batting over .300. Hill leads with a .351 average and has 34 hits, seven doubles and 10 RBI. Burgess is hitting .340 with 36 hits, 10 doubles, two triples, one home run and is 8-of-10 in stolen bases. Lexi Cushing leads the Blue Raiders with three home runs and 17 RBI. As a team, MTSU is batting .272 while opponents are hitting .271. The Blue Raiders have been aggressive on the base paths with 53 stolen bases in 62 attempts. Jaya Herring is 11-of-12 this year in thefts to lead the team. Savannah Freeman has 10 and Nahri Tath-Slezak has eight stolen bases.

MTSU has used six different pitchers this season who collectively have a 3.11 ERA. Corrina Dodd leads with a 2.37 ERA, 5-2 record and 38 strikeouts in 68 innings. Amber Baldwin has pitched 63.2 innings, has a 5-6 record and a 3.41 ERA. Kailey Ahlstrom has thrown 37.1 innings and has a 2.81 ERA with a 3-1 record. Gretchen Mead has tossed 25.2 innings with a 2.45 ERA, Danielle Tait has pitched 13 innings and Mia Marinakis has 8.2 innings.

The Series
Marshall has dominated the series with the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. The Herd leads 18-1, and is undefeated against MTSU since the Blue Raiders moved into Conference USA before the 2014 season.

The first meeting came all the way back on March 1, 1997 in Knoxville, Tenn. Marshall squeaked out the one-run victory, 8-7. It took almost 14 years for the teams to meet again on Feb. 25, 2011. This time the game was in Athens, Ga., at the Georgia Softball Classic. MTSU came away with the one-run win, 3-2, scoring all three runs in the second inning taking advantage of three-straight errors from the Herd defense. Marshall scored one in the first and one in the third before pitcher Jordyn Fisherback settled in and finished with nine strikeouts. The teams combined for 18 strikeouts as on the other side, Andi Williamson had eight and Natalee Pulver recorded one.

Marshall and Middle Tennessee met for the first time as C-USA opponents, April 5-6, 2014 in Murfreesboro. In game one, the Herd trailed 7-4 before scoring four in the fifth and then one more in the sixth for the 9-8 win. Marshall pulled ahead late in game two for a 10-6 win, after trailing 6-3 after the fourth. The Braxton sisters, Kristina and Shaelynn, both hit home runs in the victory. Following the series, senior Savanah Webster was named C-USA Player of the Week after going 8-of-12 at the plate with two doubles and two home runs. In 2015, the Herd dominated game one with a 9-0 win, recording 12 hits and scoring five runs in the third inning. Game two turned into a slugfest with 26 combined hits and four total home runs as Marshall won 14-7. Shaelynn Braxton and Emileigh Cooper hit homers for the Herd who also set a team record (since broken) with 11 stolen bases. Morgan Zerkle and Elicia D'Orazio had three thefts each. Marshall finished the sweep with a 6-1 win on Sunday and totaled 22 stolen bases over the series.

In 2016, Middle Tennessee's first trip to Huntington, Marshall shut out the Blue Raiders twice and outscored MTSU 23-2 over the three wins. Jordan Dixon was named C-USA Pitcher of the Week after tossing every inning allowing two runs, just nine hits and striking out 30 batters in 19 innings.

In 2017, Marshall returned to Murfreesboro for the Herd's final regular season road trip of the year. In game one, Marshall had a 4-0 lead before scoring four in the top of the seventh for the 8-0 win. Taylor McCord tied a team record with four runs scored while going 3-for-3 with a walk, one double and one homer. The next two games were close contests as the Herd held on for a 3-1 win in game two, highlighted by two solo home runs from S. Braxton. Marshall then took game three 2-0 that included a solo home run from Zerkle. In 2018 in Huntington, the series was reduced to a Sunday doubleheader due to pouring rain and lightning on Saturday. It was the Herd's senior day and Marshall came out victorious with an 8-6 win in game one, and then a 3-2 walkoff in game two. Freshman Rachel Rousseau came in to pinch hit in the seventh with one out, runners at second and third and the Herd trailing 2-1. Rousseau doubled to left-center scoring both runners.

The last meeting in 2019, late April in Murfreesboro, the Herd's bats came out swinging. Marshall smashed eight home runs in the Saturday doubleheader, outscoring the Blue Raiders 20-2. During the Saturday games, Marshall broke its team record for home runs in a season beginning with three in the first inning of game one. The Herd shut out MTSU in game three as well and Mya Stevenson was named C-USA Player of the Week after hitting .500, slugging 1.500, with four home runs and 10 RBI.

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

Ashley Blessin

Grace Chelemen

Madi Garay

Paige Halliwill

Aly Harrell

Sierra Huerta

Laney Jones

Cailey Joyce

Kay Kay Kenney

Brianna McCown

Rachel Rousseau

Kat Sackett

Megan Stauffer

Mya Stevenson

Marshall University Athletics