GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG softball team (26-15, 3-3 SoCon) is coming off a 2-1 weekend in which the Spartans had back-to-back walk-off wins over Mercer en route to winning their first Southern Conference series of the season. UNCG will take a break from league action Wednesday with a mid-week game against former conference foe Elon (21-17) before returning home to face Furman this weekend. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. at the Hunt Softball Park on the campus of Elon. Fans can follow the action via live stats at UNCGSpartans.com.
UNCG's 5-4 walk-off win over Mercer last Sunday afternoon marked the 26th win of the season for the Spartans, already surpassing the wins total from a season ago. The team is batting .310 overall and is holding opponents to just .252. Lindsay Thomas (Irvine, Calif./Northwood) became the program's all-time leader in career hits this weekend with 231 while her sister produced the game-winning grand slam in the same game.
Alicia Bazonski (Sheffield, Mass./Mount Everett) and Stephanie Bryden (Orlando, Fla./East River) are a threat in the circle for the Spartans. Bazonski is 14-4 overall in 27 appearances with a 2.55 ERA while Bryden is 10-8 with 99 strikeouts as a freshman.
As a team, the Spartans are averaging 1.12 home runs per game and have homered in 12-consecutive games. During that stretch Kendall McKinney (Suwanee, Ga./North Gwinnett) has hit a home run in five of UNCG's last eight games.
UNCG is averaging 5.61 runs per game which ranks 57th in the nation. Lindsay Thomas' .421 batting average ranks 63th overall in the country and is atop the SoCon. Her sister Nicole Thomas (Irvine, Calif./Northwood) returned to the lineup this past weekend after over a month on the disabled list. She was named SoCon Player of the week after going 5-for-7 in three games with six RBI including the game-winning grand slam and game tying hit a game later.
The Spartans lead the all-time series 38-33-1 and are 8-2 since head coach Janelle Breneman took over the program in 2013. Last time the two teams met, UNCG defeated the Phoenix 3-1 at the UNCG Softball Stadium March 23, 2015.
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