Ohio Softball Set for Weekend at the Chattanooga Challenge

2/13/2020 12:00:00 AM | Softball

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ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio softball team will continue their 47^thseason of Bobcat softball Feb. 14-16 when it travels to Chattanooga, Tenn. for the 2020 Chattanooga Challenge hosted by Chattanooga. While there, the Bobcats will take on Western Kentucky and Lipscomb on Friday, Indiana State and Marshall on Saturday and conclude the weekend with Lipscomb on Sunday morning.

SCOUTING WESTERN KENTUCKY
Western Kentucky is currently 3-2 after opening the 2020 season at the Trojan Classic. While there, the Hilltoppers defeated College of Charleston, Troy and North Florida, while falling to Lipscomb and North Flordia.

WKU's Taylor Davis led the Hilltoppers last weekend, hitting .500 with one double and three RBI, while Morgan McElroy hit .375 with three hits and two doubles.

The Hilltopper's finished the 2019 season 37-13, dropping Middle Tennessee despite bypassing the first round in the Conference USA Tournament due to being the No. 3 seed. After finishing conference play, WKU concluded with a 18-6 record in C-USA and posted the program's best-ever win percentage at .740 for their overall record.

Returning for the Hilltoppers is junior Maddie Bowlds. Bowlds finished with a .339 batting average, trailing slightly behind two 2019 seniors. In 46 games and 109 at-bats, she finished the season with 37 hits, 18 runs and 15 RBIs. Junior Kendall Smith follows with a .321 batting average, hitting 12 homeruns for the Hilltoppers.

Returning to the circle for WKU is senior Kelsey Aikey. In 2019, Aikey appeared in 36 games, pitched a total of 133.1 innings, struck out 184 batters, and recorded 14 wins.

SCOUTING LIPSCOMB
Lipscomb is currently 2-1 after opening the season with wins over Western Kentucky and College of Charlleston at the Trojan Classic last weekend.

Lipscomb's 2019 season came to an end in the NCAA Regional Round, when the Lady Bisons fell to Arizona State. Having entered tie 1-1 in the sixth inning, Lipscomb give up nine runs and the game was called due to the run rule. The loss concluded the Bisons season with a 42-15-1 record. Lipscomb claimed the ASUN Tournament title and ended with a conference record of 16-4-0.

Returning for the Lady Bisons is senior Hannah DeVault. In 2019, DeVault's .322 batting average led the ASUN in RBI (51), doubles (20), slugging percentage (.614), and extra base hits (27). Sophomore Amy Vetula follows closely behind with a .321 batting average.

Junior Megan Gray will be returning to pitch for Lipscomb. Last season, she made 19 appearances with 14 starts and 5 complete games, closing out the season with a 2.73 ERA.

SCOUTING INDIANA STATE
Indiana State will enter the matchup with Ohio with a record of 2-2, with wins over Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. The team leaders in hits include Sophomore TeAnn Bringle and Senior Leslie Sims who both have five hits a piece.

Last season, Indiana State finished the season with an overall 19 wins and 35 losses on the year. The team finished the season with 66 doubles, 20 homeruns, 109 RBIs and completed the season with a .375 slugging percentage.

Also returning for the Sycamores is Senior Pitcher Gabbi Schnaiter, who led the team in strikeouts, earning a total of 88 last season, and had an ERA of 3.87. In the first games of this season, Schnaiter has 10 strikeouts and a 3.39 ERA. Junior Amanda Guercio leads the team with 21 put outs and one assists on the season.

SCOUTING MARSHALL
The Thundering Herd started the 2020 season at the USC Upstate Spartan Classic in Spartanburg, South Carolina. They finished the weekend 2-1, beating Bucknell and USC Upstate. Sierra Huerta led the team with three homeruns and a .556 batting average.

Last season, Marshall finished 42-22 overall. The season ended in Lynchburg, Virginia at the National Invitational Softball Championship against Liberty. On the season, the team scored 339 times, hit 83 doubles, and 79 homeruns in 64 games.

Sophomore Mya Stevenson is also among the returners for Marshall. Stevenson finished the 2019 season with .765 slugging percentage, 20 homeruns and 58 RBIs. In the circle is Junior Laney Jones. She currently leads the team in strikeouts with 9 and has a 2.74 ERA.

SCOUTING OHIO
The Bobcats are 0-5 overall after the first weekend of action.

Offensively, the Bobcats are hitting .216 as a team, scoring a total of 11 runs with 25 hits, six doubles, and two homeruns. They've also registered 11 RBI and have a team slugging percentage of .319. The Bobcats also have a .276 on base percentage, while drawing 10 walks.

Leading the way is junior Katie Yun (North Canton, Ohio) who is hitting .467 with seven hits, two doubles, one homerun, two runs scored and three RBI. She also has an .800 slugging percentage. Junior Allie Englant (Long Beach, Calif.) is hitting .417 with five hits, one double, three runs scored and two RBI, while freshman Sophia Bernard (Canton, Ohio) had four hits in her debut weekend, including one homerun and three RBI.

2019 BOBCAT REWIND
Ohio finished the 2019 season 34-21, 12-8 in-conference, just shy of winning back-to-back Mid-American Conference titles after falling to Toledo (29-26) in the final round. Thanks to a grand slam in the seventh inning that increased the lead to 7-2, Ohio was able to defeat the top-seeded Miami (35-14), giving the Bobcats another shot at claiming the regular season crown. Despite a 5-0 lead in the first game against Toledo, Ohio was unable to recover from three errors late in the first game and five errors in game two.

Overall, the team finished with a collective on-base percentage of .365, a .462 slugging percentage and a .295 batting average. The Bobcats scored 299 runs, had 269 RBIs, hit 64 doubles and 68 homeruns, stole 52 bases and had 4 shutouts.

RETURNERS
This season, the returners for Ohio consist of five sophomores, five juniors, and one senior. Last season, senior outfielder Alexa Holland (Rochester, Ind.) had a fielding percentage of .958, with 37 outputs and nine assists. Holland finished the 2019 season with the highest batting average of her career, .266. With 29 hits in 109 at bats, she scored 18 runs, hit one triple and registered six RBI. Last Season, Holland was named to the Academic All-MAC team for the second time.

Junior Katie Yun (North Canton, Ohio) also returns for the Bobcats. Last season, Yun was batting a team high of .394 with a .711 slugging percentage, 14 homeruns and 18 doubles. Registering 78 hits, Yun set the single season hits record. Yun earned First Team All-MAC, 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-District Team, and All-Mideast Region First Team.

In the circle, junior Madi McCrady (Brimfield, Ohio) is back in the Green and White after posting a 23-13 record and a 3.20 ERA in 229.1 innings pitched, while striking out 207. McCrady also earned a spot on the Academic All-MAC squad.

Other returners include sophomores Caroline Spacek, Justice Ruggles and Mackensie Kohl as well as juniors Allie Englant and Brooke Rice.

NEW TO THE SQUAD
Ohio is welcoming 10 newcomers to the team, seven freshmen and three transfers.

Incoming freshmen for this season include, Alexis Dawe, Kaci Branch, Sydney Larson, Molly Troutman, Ryan Shaughnessy, Sophia Bernard and Holly Brehm.

The Bobcats also added three transfers to the roster for the 2020 season, including junior Ava Heidorn (Marysville, Ohio) who comes to Ohio after spending two seasons at UL-Monroe. Ohio also sees redshirt sophomore pitcher Baylie Thornhill (Baton Rouge, La.) come to Ohio from LSU, and sophomore infielder Caitlin Fogue (Columbia, Mo.) puts on the Green and White after one season at Missouri.

PRESEASON POLL
Ohio softball team has been selected fourth in the 2020 MAC Softball Preseason Poll, the league announced today (Feb. 5). The poll was voted on by the head coaches of the 11 MAC institutions.

The Bobcats earned 86 votes, but did not receive a first-place vote. Finishing ahead of Ohio is Miami who was selected as this year's favorite with 113 votes and four first place votes, followed by Kent State with 112 votes and four first place votes. Ball State finished with 90 votes and two first place votes.

Selected behind Ohio is Toledo (68) with one first place vote, Central Michigan (66), Northern Illinois (65), Western Michigan (48), Bowling Green (32), Akron (25) and Buffalo (21).

Miami and Kent State both were selected to take home the 2020 MAC Tournament crown, earning five votes each. Ball State also received one vote to win the tournament.

COMING UP
Up next, the Bobcats head to Charleston, SC. to take on Army West Point, N.C. Central, Dartmouth, Charleston Southern, and Appalachian State. On Friday, February 21, Ohio takes on Army at 1:30 p.m. and N.C. Central at 8:15 p.m. Play continues on Saturday where the Bobcats are set to play Dartmouth at 2:30 p.m. and Charleston So. at 7 p.m. On Sunday, the Bobcats conclude by facing Appalachian State one last time at 10:15 a.m.

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