MVSU Travels To Jackson For Capital City Invitational
JACKSON, Miss. – The Mississippi Valley State University softball program is set for three more tournament games this weekend, matching up with Tennessee-Martin once and a pair of non-conference tilts against Southern in the Capital City Invitational.
What You Need to Know
Time and Date (Tennessee-Martin): Friday, February 25 (1:15 p.m.)
Time and Dates (Southern): Friday, February 25 (3 p.m.) & Saturday, February 26 (3:30 p.m.)
Records: Mississippi Valley State (0-9, 0-0 SWAC) | Tennessee-Martin (5-3, 0-0 OVC) | Southern (1-8, 0-0 SWAC)
Location: Jackson, Mississippi – JSU Softball Field
Series History: N/A
Last Meeting: N/A
Winning Streak: N/A
Mississippi Valley State Overview
Coach Buckner’s ladies have flashed the leather this season, ranking third in the SWAC with a .950 fielding percentage as Brianna Alston leads the way with zero errors in 35 chances.
While Daisy Page has been the ace of the staff since day one, A’tajua Wren is coming off the best performance, tossing a complete game, two-run effort versus Houston Baptist to earn SWAC Pitcher of the Week honors.
Naomi Drake upped her batting average 135 percentage points from .143 to a tied for team-best .278 last weekend, going 4-for-11 to help Wren sweep the SWAC weekly awards for the Green and White.
Sydney Wesley shares the batting title with Drake through nine contests, while topping the Devilettes in total bases (9), RBIs (3) and walks (3) plus the team’s lone homer.
Alston has the most hits (7) and at-bats (26) for MVSU, hitting .269 with a pair of steals while both Keisha White and Jaylon Davis co-exist on top of the steals leaderboard with three each.
Scouting The Opponent: Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks
The Skyhawks are 5-3 while owning victories over Georgia Southern (twice), Maine, Chattanooga and UAPB while taking the Big 12’s Baylor to the wire in an 8-6 defeat.
The Blue and Orange have been an offensive juggernaut so far, slotting in the NCAA’s top-30 for batting average (.335), homers per game (1.25) and slugging percentage (.537) to go along with top-50 marks in on-base percentage (.396) and scoring (6.12).
On the pitching end, UTM has two spectacular options in Erin Gallagher and Seeley Layne as the former is 20th in the nation for hits allowed per seven innings (3.00) while the latter is top-50 for both strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.00) plus walks allowed per seven innings (0.55).
Kaci Fuller is billed as the top hitter for Tennessee-Martin, coming in ranked among the OVC’s top-five regarding batting average (.458), runs per game (1.00), slugging percentage (.750), and triples a contest (0.12).
Scouting The Opponent: Southern Lady Jaguars
SUBR competed in the same tournament as the Devilettes to begin the year at ULM and lost a doubleheader versus Southern Miss while splitting a doubleheader against Louisiana Christian.
The pitching has been able to avoid the bean ball better than most, being one of just 24 squads to hit just one batter while hitting home runs at the fourth-highest clip in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (0.22).
Cameron Andrews is one of just five players in the conference and 71 across the United States that has yet to strike out while meeting the minimum qualifications, having 26 plate appearances without being whiffed.
Southern currently has three ladies with a batting average above .300 heading into the weekend as Christy Kelly (.333), Roxsanna Segura (.308) and Destiny Hernandez (.304) have combined to produce 19 hits, nine RBIs, seven runs scored, four walks and a stolen base for the Lady Jags.
Your financial support, whether it be through purchasing season tickets, making an annual donation or committing to a major gift, directly benefits Valley’s student-athletes in the classroom and in sports.
