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Riley White throws a pitch at ULM
Dezmond Jackson

Softball

Softball set for weekend in Starkville

Dartmouth College
Murray State 200x200
Mississippi State University

ABILENE - Abilene Christian softball is in for another tough test this weekend as they head to Mississippi State for the Snowman Tournament. The Bulldogs host the tournament in honor of their former player Alex Wilcox who lost her battle with ovarian cancer in 2018. The Wildcats will face Mississippi State, Murray State and Dartmouth on the weekend. This will be a first time meeting between programs for the Wildcats against both the hosts and Dartmouth, the team face Murray State for the first time on opening weekend in the Wildcat Invitational. 

ALL ABOUT THE 'CATS

  • The Wildcats are coming off a loss at ULM on Wednesday night 5-4. The Wildcats held an early 3-0 lead but the Warhawks came back to tie the game and scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth. 
  • Mercedes Eichelberger leads the team with 18 hits and a .340 batting average on the year. She has three extra-base hits and has a .419 on-base percentage.
  • Sydney Kaiser is coming off a solid game at ULM where she went 2-3 at the plate with a homerun and two RBI. The junior is hitting .294 on the year with 10 hits. 
  • Talia Nielsen leads ACU with a 4.70 ERA and has pitched a team-leading 41.2 innings. She has 22 strikeouts and has issued 11 walks on the season. 

SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN

  • Dartmouth opened their season last weekend in Madeira Beach, Fla. going 3-2 for the weekend. The team earned wins over FIU, UT Martin and Valparaiso to open the season 3-0 before dropping their final two contests. 
  • Maddie Katona leads the Big Green with a .455 batting average after a 5-11 opening weekend. Mary Beth Cahalan leads the team with a 1.136 OPS after notching a double, a homerun and drawing five walks on the weekend. 
  • Stella Bale and Rachel McCarroll handled all the pitching duties in the team's first weekend and the staff came away with a 2.40 ERA through five games. Bale holds a 2.14 ERA with 16 strikeouts while McCarroll has a 2.62 ERA with 10 strikeouts.

SCOUTING THE RACERS

  • After opening the season with a 2-3 mark at the Wildcat Invitational the Racers have gone 6-3 in their last two weekends of action. Last weekend, MSU went 4-1 in a home tournament with wins over Ball State, Loyola Chicago and Bellarmine.
  • Gracie Osbron is leading Murray State in batting average (.442), hits (19), and RBI (15). She has six extra base hits on the year and is sporting a 1.231 OPS. 
  • As a staff, the Racers have a 3.59 ERA on the season with Hannah James leading the way with a 2.73 ERA. James also leads the team with 48 strikeouts in 33.1 innings pitched. 

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

  • After opening the season with back-to-back 3-2 weekends, the Bulldogs went 5-0 at the South Alabama Invitational and won a midweek over Mississippi Valley State to push their record to 12-4. 
  • The Bulldogs are hitting .319 as a team and are led by Paige Cook who is hitting .400 with 14 hits and 12 RBI. Aquana Brownlee leads the team with 19 RBI and Chloe Malau'ulu leads the way with 19 hits on the season. 
  • The pitching staff holds a 1.99 ERA with seven different players seeing time in the circle. Matalasi Faaptio holds an 0.68 ERA in 10.1 innings of work to lead the team. MSU has three pitchers with 23 or more innings of work with Josey Marron holding the best ERA at 1.30. 

ABOUT THE SNOWMAN TOURNAMENT (from MSU Athletics)

  • Honoring the legendary spirit of the late Alex Wilcox, Mississippi State will continue its “No One Fights Alone” campaign throughout the 2023 softball season.
  • Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015, Wilcox defied the odds and continued to play softball throughout her treatments and helped lead Brantley (Ala.) High School to a pair of state championships. Wilcox, a Top 50 recruit in the class of 2017, committed to the Bulldogs during her junior season in high school.
  • Over her freshman campaign, Wilcox continued to battle cancer while continuing to pursue her dreams of playing collegiate softball. She sparkled during the fall, displaying her ability at the plate with home run power.
  • Despite being in the midst of chemotherapy treatments, Wilcox appeared in eight contests with three starts over her freshman season. 
  • The Bulldogs will continue to wear teal uniforms throughout the season to raise awareness for ovarian cancer in honor of the former softball student-athlete who passed away in 2018 at the age of 18 after a courageous fight with the disease.
  • MSU immortalized Wilcox last fall by retiring her No. 8 jersey on Sept. 15, 2018, making Wilcox the first female student-athlete in Mississippi State history to have her jersey retired.
  • A permanent graphical fixture on the right field wall at Nusz Park was installed to commemorate Wilcox. The Bulldogs also re-branded the annual February Freezer tournament and now host the The Snowman: Alex Wilcox Memorial tournament in February.

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