The Hokie softball team travels back to the Sunshine state this weekend to compete in the Jacksonville University/North Florida Spring Break Challenge. The Hokies will have two games against Purdue, one each against the host schools, and a final game against Stony Brook.

The Hokies’ schedule of games are as follows:

Friday, February 28 (at North Florida)
2:30pm versus Purdue
5:00pm versus North Florida

Saturday, February 29 (at Jacksonville University)
1:00pm versus Purdue
3:30pm versus Jacksonville

Sunday, March 1 (at Jacksonville University)
10:00am Stony Brook

Both Jacksonville and North Florida play in the ASUN Conference, which is the conference home as Kennesaw State, Coach D’Amour’s previous coaching gig, so that is probably the connection that got the Hokies the invite. By the way, the forecast for Jacksonville is sunny with the high in the 60s. Yes, I can live with that.

PURDUE (12-3)

Swept the opening season tournament (5-0) at Florida Atlantic before losing three games the following weekend to Nicholls State (4-2), Monmouth (7-5), and Connecticut (3-1 in 8 innings). This past weekend, the Boilermakers put together a 4 game winning streak with wins over UNC (1-0), UNCG (8-4), and two over Fairfield (9-5 and 9-1).

I would expect Redshirt Junior Sydney Bates (7-1, 1.46 ERA) to get the start for Purdue as she has pitched over half of the innings that Purdue has played. Bates shut out UNC and has had 3 other outings this year in which she has pitched at least 6 innings and not given up a earned run. Bates pitched against the Hokies in 2018, striking out a career high 10 batters in a 2-0 loss. Olivia Lattin hit a solo home run against her.

Purdue leads the Big 10 in team batting average at .289 but are tied for fourth in ERA at 2.31. Senior outfielder Madison Douglass is third in the conference in batting, hitting at a .472 clip, but the Boilermakers only have one other hitter batting over .300 (Junior Skye Webb, .319).

NORTH FLORIDA (7-6)

North Florida was picked sixth in the ASUN after losing their top 3 hitters from last year. However Sophomore Rebecca Koskey transferred from Florida Atlantic and is currently hitting .500 for the Ospreys, who do not have a dominant pitcher (team ERA of 4.28).
North Florida’s best win has been over a 11-4 Western Kentucky squad. They lost their only against against a ranked opponent when they got run-ruled by #8 Florida 10-2.

JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY (11-5)

Jacksonville is looking to improve on last season's 15-35 record and are off to a pretty good start. The Dolphins have swept Nicholls State (9-3, 2-1), East Tennessee State (6-2, 7-1), and Memphis (1-0, 8-2) and split with Villanova (2-10, 5-1), Stephen F. Austin (3-2, 0-4), and Ball State (2-1, 1-10). They also have wins over Alabama A&M (11-3) and East Tennessee State (6-2), and losses to San Diego State (2-5) and Florida (0-8).

STONY BROOK

Stoney Brook opened their season last weekend with a perfect 5-0 mark, capped off by perfect game by Junior Dawn Bodrug in a 7-0 win over Cornell. That is the Seawolves’ best start in 28 years.

Their other wins this weekend were over Colgate (6-5), Columbia (9-5), Providence (9-2), and Georgetown (2-10). Last season, Stoney Brook was 32-19 and finished third in the American East. This year, they were picked to win the Conference.

At the plate, the Seawolves are led by two-time America East Player of the Year Melissa Rahrich, who batted .471 the first weekend. She was helped out Senior Jourdin Hering, who hit .550.

Below is the Tale of the Tape for this weekend’s games.

Let’s Go Hokies