MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State softball team hopes its recent string of successes is more in line with its abilities than its record away from home, as the Eagles travel to Tennessee Tech for the final three games of the regular season. MSU needs to sweep the Golden Eagles and then likely still needs help if it is to make the eight-team Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.
The Blue and Gold will take its first step towards that goal on Saturday, when it tangles with TTU at 7 p.m. ET at the Tech Softball Field in Cookeville, Tenn. The two teams will meet again on Sunday for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. ET, with the second game expected to begin around 3:30 p.m. ET.
Like all but two conference series this year, the schedule was readjusted (twice) to accommodate potential weather concerns. It is the eighth time this spring its schedule was altered due to a forecast.
Morehead State (8-38/6-17) has won four of its last six outings, but remains in a must-win situation. The Eagles are a half-game behind Western Illinois for ninth place in the league standings, one and a half games behind Tennessee Tech for eighth and two games behind UT Martin for seventh. All four spots are in play this weekend. At this point, MSU only owns the tiebreaker with Western Illinois, which it swept this past weekend in Morehead.
The Eagles claimed victories of 10-6, 16-6 (five innings) and 6-5 against WIU. Prior to that, it toppled Lindenwood at home 15-4 (five innings) and dropped 8-4 and 12-7 decisions with the Lions.
"This is an important weekend for us. We're looking to build off of the momentum from last weekend and carry it over," said MSU head coach
Megan Griffith. "We'll need to play aggressive defense on the turf and continue to be run producers at the plate."
Morehead State is 7-8 at home, but just 1-18 in true road games and 0-12 in neutral-site contests.
Against Western Illinois, MSU collected its first series sweep since taking all three from Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tenn., on Mar. 18-19, 2023. In that series, seven Eagles batted better than .300, five above .400, with one over.500 and another over .600. As a team, it finished the weekend hitting .397. With the victories, MSU's home record ties its most wins at the University Field since 2018 and the Blue and Gold has its best winning percentage there since 2017.
Freshman catcher/infielder
Nyla Doiron had a record-setting week en route to earning OVC co-Player of the Week honors. In addition to hitting .429, with three doubles, two runs and eight RBI, she recorded the second-most single-game RBI in school history with seven in game two's win and tied a school record with two sacrifice flies in the same outing. She was the Eagles' first OVC weekly honoree this season.
MSU finished two of the three contests with double-digit hits, marking the 11th and 12th times this year the team has surpassed that mark, one fewer than in 2016 (the last time it had more than 10). It has at least seven hits in 26 games (including the last six and nine of the last 10), five or more hits nine additional times and fewer than three only four times.
The Eagles' team batting average has risen to .281, the best mark since 2013, when the squad hit .311.
In game two against WIU, the club did not have a strikeout, just the second time this year it accomplished that feat. In game one, the Eagles made a team season-high five errors, the most since April 28, 2019, when it also committed five.
Sophomore shortstop
Sela Pickford and sophomore outfielder
Maddy Christopher are both riding 14-game hitting streaks, the longest on record at MSU. Senior outfielder
Darlene Montoya's hit streak was stopped at 11 games in game one against the Leathernecks, but she rebounded to collect hits in the next two games. In addition, despite being a fielder, Pickford has pitched in three straight games in relief without allowing an earned run, a total of 3.1 innings.
Morehead State is in the middle of an historic season offensively, it has more triples than in any year since 2017; more runs, hits, walks and fewer strikeouts than any year since 2016; more RBI than any year since 2013 and more doubles than any year since 2009.
As a team, the Eagles are hitting .281, averaging 4.37 runs per game, with 17 home runs, 24 stolen bases, a 7.95 ERA and a .938 fielding percentage. Their opponents own a .363 average, with 8.26 rpg, with 46 home runs, 102 stolen bases, a 3.71 ERA and a .938 fielding percentage.
Behind their offensive prowess, several Eagles are closing in on top-10 single-season marks in the MSU record books.
Christopher continues to lead the team in batting average at .388. She also adds 27 runs, 11 RBI, a .408 slugging percentage, a .412 on-base percentage and seven stolen bases. Sophomore infielder
Kendra Lewis adds a .352 batting average, with 35 runs, 10 doubles, two triples, eight homers, 29 RBI, a .648 slugging percentage, 26 walks, a .459 on-base percentage and six stolen bases. Pickford follows with a .345 batting average, 24 runs, 12 doubles, three triples, four homers, 28 RBI, a .547 slugging percentage, 11 walks and a .395 on-base percentage. Montoya adds a .293 batting average, 21 runs, six doubles, three homers, 28 RBI, a .414 slugging percentage and a .338 on-base percentage.
The team's pitching has seen a sudden surge. Junior
Rylie Burney has won her last two outings and currently sits with a 5-19 record, a 6.44 ERA, 46 strikeouts and 75 walks in 144.2 innings. Junior
Emma Solis is 3-14, with an 8.85 ERA, 48 strikeouts and 51 walks in 84.2 innings.
In the circle juniors
Rylie Burney and
Emma Solis lead the way. Burney is 3-19, with a 6.80 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 72 walks in 130.2 innings. Solis is 2-14, with an 8.76 ERA, 45 strikeouts and 47 walks in 84.2 innings. Four other Eagles have seen time in the circle, but none have more than 19.1 innings.
Tennessee Tech (16-33/8-16) has lost five straight and is 6-11 at home. It fell 2-0 at Chattanooga on Wednesday and dropped all three contests at Lindenwood last weekend (4-3, 7-3 and 2-1). Prior to that it went down 7-6 to Austin Peay in eight innings at home. In addition to that game, it beat Southeast Missouri 6-5 and fell to the Redhawks 3-2 and 6-3 in its other recent home contests.
The two teams have 11 common opponents. TTU is 10-17 in those games, while MSU is 7-22. Besides the entire OVC slate, they have both faced George Washington, Austin Peay and Bellarmine.
As a team, Tech is batting .263, averaging 3.86 rpg, with nine home runs, 70 stolen bases, a 3.74 ERA and a .958 fielding percentage. Its opponents have a .294 batting average, with 4.69 rpg, 19 homers, 55 stolen bases, a 2.99 ERA and a .960 fielding percentage.
Senior utility player Abby Shoulders leads the team with a .333 batting average, 31 runs, five doubles, 27 stolen bases and a .417 on-base percentage. Redshirt sophomore outfielder Olivia Evans adds a .310 batting average, 23 runs, 10 stolen bases and a .355 on-base percentage. Senior infielder Sydney Kirby is hitting .307, with 16 doubles, two home runs, 28 RBI, 24 walks, a .464 slugging percentage and a .405 on-base percentage. Sophomore utility Abbee Klinefelter follows with a .304 batting average, 11 doubles, two triples, two homers, 26 RBI, a .459 slugging percentage and a .347 on-base percentage.
In the circle, senior Payton Wagner is 2-10, with a 2.78 ERA, 23 strikeouts and 36 walks in 68 innings. Sophomore Emily York is 8-9, with a 3.26 ERA, 72 strikeouts and 34 walks in 116 innings. Freshman Lainey Fitzgerald is 4-10, with a 4.20 ERA, 69 strikeouts and 49 walks in 75 innings.
Danielle Penner is in her third season at the helm with a 45-101 record.
Morehead State has played Tennessee Tech more than any other opponent. The two teams first met in 1989 and have played every year except 2020. Tech owns a 78-33 overall advantage and a 36-16 edge in games at its place, but the Eagles enter with a five-game win streak in Cookeville after sweeping the Golden Eagles 7-3, 8-1 and 9-7 in the 2023 series, the last time the two faced off at the Tech Softball Field, as well as 2-1 and 7-3 back in 2018. In between, the two squads had three consecutive series in Morehead, with the Golden Eagles owning an 8-1 edge. The last TTU home win came nearly nine years ago to the day, when it came out on top 5-1. Earlier in that series, Tech won 4-3 and 6-3. However, the Blue and Gold claimed a 2-1 neutral-site win at the end of the 2016 campaign. MSU has only won the season series four times since 1993.
All three games will be available on ESPN+. Game one's link is:
https://shorturl.at/f0BTb. Game two's link is:
https://shorturl.at/GITS3. Game three's link is:
https://shorturl.at/Ebvyz.
Live stats can also be found at the following links:
https://shorturl.at/5ZRDl (game one),
https://shorturl.at/GaPAZ (game two) and
https://shorturl.at/fPt9I (game three).
The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament begins on May 7 and runs through May 10 in Peoria, Ill. The league's top eight teams will qualify for the event.
