Softball to Host Thundering Herd Round Robin for 2022 Home-Opener

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall softball team will open its 2022 home schedule hosting the Thundering Herd Round Robin, March 3-6, at Dot Hicks Field. The Herd welcomes the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons, Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks, and the Winthrop Eagles.

The tournament was originally scheduled to begin on Friday, March 4. However, due to rain in the forecast on Sunday, the schedule was changed, and it now begins on Thursday and will have just one remaining game on Sunday. Marshall will play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Herd's games will all have a live video stream. Marshall's game on Thursday versus Purdue Fort Wayne will be on Facebook Live. The Herd's Friday games and the first contest on Saturday will be on ESPN+ with Jake Griffith. Marshall's final game on Saturday against Maryland Eastern Shore will be on Facebook Live. Links are below.

Tournament Details
Marshall Game Notes (PDF)
(Home team listed first)
Thursday: 3 p.m. - Marshall vs. Purdue Fort Wayne VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
Friday: 9 a.m. – Winthrop vs. Maryland Eastern Shore LIVE STATS
             11 a.m. – Marshall vs. Purdue Fort Wayne VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
             1 p.m. – Marshall vs. Maryland Eastern Shore VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
             3 p.m. – Winthrop vs. Purdue Fort Wayne LIVE STATS
Saturday: 9 a.m. – Purdue Fort Wayne vs. Winthrop LIVE STATS
                  11 a.m. – Marshall vs. Winthrop VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
                  1 p.m. – Marshall vs. Maryland Eastern Shore VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
                  3 p.m. – Purdue Fort Wayne vs. Maryland Eastern Shore LIVE STATS
Sunday: 10 a.m. – Maryland Eastern Shore vs. Winthrop LIVE STATS
Series History: vs. Purdue Fort Wayne – 2nd meeting, Marshall leads 1-0
                           vs. Maryland Eastern Shore – 4th meeting, Marshall leads 3-0
                           vs. Winthrop – 11th meeting, Marshall leads 6-4

The Thundering Herd comes into its first home games of the season with an 8-5 record. Marshall went 3-1 at the Camel Stampede, Feb. 25-26. The Herd lost its first game to Kent State, 1-0, and then defeated Howard twice, 15-2 and 9-2, before taking down the host Campbell Camels 6-3. The final day was canceled due to rain.

Nester Dominates Camel Stampede, Named C-USA Pitcher of the Week Second Time
Sydney Nester has been on a tear to begin her career at Marshall. At the Camel Stampede Nester tossed 29 more strikeouts in 16 innings through three appearances. She started against Kent State on Friday and finished with 12 strikeouts, allowed two hits, one run and took the loss as the Herd fell 1-0. Nester came in against Howard on Saturday in the sixth inning, got Marshall out of a jam and finished with four more strikeouts in two innings, out of six batters faced. In the final game of the weekend against the home team, Campbell, Nester blew down the Camels with 13 strikeouts tying her season-high. The win was her fifth of the year and her fifth game with 10 or more strikeouts. Nester had four games of 10+ Ks in three years at NC State.

Nester has 81 strikeouts through her first 10 appearances. The Herd record for the quickest to get to 100 strikeouts to begin a season belongs to Jordan Dixon. In 2015, Dixon reached the century mark on Feb. 21 against Auburn. Number 100 came on the very first batter in the first inning of her 12th outing. She reached it in 63 innings.

Marshall Offense Explodes Versus Howard
In the Herd's first game against Howard at the Camel Stampede, Marshall rebounded from a 1-0 loss to Kent State by scoring 15 runs off 14 hits in a 15-2 win over the Bison. The 15 runs tied for the fourth-most in a game in team history. Of the 14 hits, none left the park and there were just three doubles.

The Herd scored 10 runs in the first inning off eight hits with 14 batters coming to the plate. It was the third time since 2000 that Marshall scored double-digit runs in an inning and the first since putting up 11 in the first inning on March 6, 2010, versus Delaware at Dot Hicks Field. Marshall's eight hits are tied for the second-most in an inning since 2000, and the most since tallying eight in the fifth inning on May 2, 2018, at Louisville.

Pye Goes Deep Twice on Saturday at Camel Stampede
Fifth-year senior Saige Pye helped the Herd slug its way to two more wins on the final day of the Camel Stampede. Pye belted a towering shot in the top of the seventh against Howard that felt as if it was in the air for an eternity, before finally falling beyond the wall in left. The three-run shot gave the Herd a 7-2 lead on the way to a 9-2 victory.

Against Campbell, Pye launched another homer that cleared the wall a lot faster for a two-run bomb in the fifth. Marshall was leading the home team 3-2 before the blast and went on to win 6-3. Pye has now hit 19 home runs in her collegiate career with 18 coming in a Marshall uniform. Her first collegiate homer came in 2018 against Pitt as a freshman at Georgia Tech.

Love Has a Day at the Plate
On Friday against Howard at the Camel Stampede, freshman Lauren Love finished the day 4-for-4 at the plate with three runs and three RBI. In the 10-run first inning, Love had two hits and scored twice as well. She was one of three players to reach base twice in the inning with Mya Stevenson and Katie Adams the others. Love continued in the third inning with a leadoff single to center and then scored on a double from Stevenson. Love's final at bat came in the fourth and this time she ripped a double to right-center that scored Alex Coleman for the Herd's 15th run of the game.

Lauren Love is the first Marshall freshman to have four hits in a game since Mya Stevenson hit for the cycle at Charlotte on March 16, 2019, and the ninth to achieve the mark since 2000.

Freshmen with 4 Hits in a Game Since 2000
Dana Black vs. Liberty, Feb. 24, 2001
Sierra Davenport at Toledo, April 7, 2001
Amanda Williams vs. Winthrop, March 16, 2003
Deanna Tourville vs. Ohio, April 16, 2005
Rachel Folden at Ball State, April 25, 2005
Joscelyn Bitner at Memphis, April 29, 2006
Elicia D'Orazio at Charlotte, March 22, 2015
Mya Stevenson at Charlotte, March 16, 2019
Lauren Love vs. Howard, Feb. 25, 2022

Following the Thundering Herd Round Robin, Marshall stays home for another tournament hosting the Thundering Herd March Madness as Norfolk State, Fairfield and Western Carolina come to Dot Hicks Field on March 11-13.

The Opponent
Purdue Fort Wayne
The Mastodons are off to a rough start in 2022 with a 1-9 record. Purdue Fort Wayne dropped its first eight games before defeating Radford 4-2 on Feb. 19. The Mastodons did not play this past weekend.

The offense has been sluggish out of the gate with a team batting average of .188 and scoring just 16 runs off 39 hits. Taryn Jenkins leads the way with a .417 average. She has missed two games, however she had two hits in the win over Radford. Emma McMillan leads the team in hits with seven and has a .259 average. Hannah Richendollar has the lone home run coming against Tennessee Tech on Feb. 18.

Five pitchers have tossed at least 5 innings with a staff ERA of 9.69. Gracie Brinkerhoff leads in innings with 22. She has an 8.59 ERA, 1-3 record and 10 strikeouts.

Head coach Amber Bowman is in her first season at the helm with the Mastodons. She has had past success as a head coach at Davenport (Division II) and one season at Rio Grande (NAIA) where she won 32 games in 2015.

Maryland Eastern Shore
The Hawks also come to town with a 1-9 record. Maryland Eastern Shore lost its first five games before defeating Saint Peter's 8-3, then lost its last four.

Offensively, the Hawks are hitting .281 as a group with five batters hitting over .300. Tatum Kresley leads the way at .385 with 15 hits, two triples and is 5-for-5 in stolen bases. Ah-Nayia Oglesby has the lone home run this season coming against Furman on Feb. 11. However, Maryland Eastern Shore has only allowed one homer this year.

The pitching staff sports a 4.87 ERA with five pitchers throwing at least five innings. Four have tossed at least 10 innings. Nasya Goodman leads with a 2.21 ERA, 1-2 record, 19 innings and 12 strikeouts in nine appearances.

Head coach Karla Powell is in her third season leading the Hawks. Maryland Eastern Shore opted not to play the 2021 season.

Wintrop
The Eagles come in with a 2-13 record. Winthrop lost its first five games before a 10-1 win over Youngstown State on Feb. 18. The next win was a 9-1 victory over Utah Valley on Feb. 26. The Eagles have lost its last three games.

At the plate, Winthrop is batting .206 as a team with 43 runs scored. Paige Rivas, a transfer with her twin sister Peyton from Coastal Carolina, leads the team with a .324 average and 12 hits. Macy McCall and Bailey Warren lead with two home runs each. McCall also has four doubles and is slugging .512. The Eagles love to run when they are on base with 28 stolen bases in 34 attempts.

In the circle, Winthrop has a staff ERA of 4.23. Four pitchers have thrown at least four innings with three all over 22 innings. Sydney Boulware has thrown the most with 35 innings, has a 4.60 ERA, 1-4 record and 47 strikeouts. Reese Basinger has a 3.34 ERA in 29.1 innings with an 0-4 record.

Head coach Windy Thees is in her fourth season leading the way at Winthrop. Thees has 70 wins in her time with the Eagles and 474 overall wins. Coach Thees has been to Huntington before when she was the head coach of the Memphis Tigers, starting the program back in 2005. She helped take the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in 2011.

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.

---HerdZone.com---

Softball to Host Thundering Herd Round Robin for 2022 Home-Opener

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Players Mentioned

Katie Adams

Alex Coleman

Lauren Love

Sydney Nester

Saige Pye

Mya Stevenson

Marshall University Athletics