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GREENSBORO, N.C. – As the calendar flips to April, the UNC Greensboro (UNCG) softball team will begin a nice routine of playing a mid-week game on Wednesday and a weekend series.
The Spartans begin the first of four Wednesday mid-week contests against in-state competition when they visit Appalachian State at 5 p.m.
These teams met on the opening weekend of the season in Greensboro with the Mountaineers winning two of three contests. Of course, UNCG won the last matchup, 9-5. It was the start of a season best eight-game winning streak for the Spartans, who enter this matchup with 17 wins in 27 outings.
UNCG salvaged a game this past weekend from Furman, winning 4-0 behind the dominant pitching of
Morgan Scott, who struck out 26 batters in two starts this weekend. She had 14 strikeouts against Furman, the second time this season she has struck out that many in a game. It tied a career-high for Scott and was the third most strikeouts in a single game.
Meanwhile,
Maycin Brown leads the Spartan offense with a .411 batting average. She was named SoCon Player of the Month after a sterling March in which she reached base in every game and had at least one hit in 10 of the 12 games she competed in. Brown brings a six-game hitting streak to town.
UNCG has supplied plenty of power this season as it has hit 50 homers led by
Jordan Gontram's eight. She has 33 for her career, which is sixth all-time in program history.
Makenna Matthijs and
Jasmine Palmer have hit seven homers each for UNCG.
Meanwhile, App State took two from Radford on Saturday afternoon, winning the first game 5-2 and coming from behind to take the second game 3-1. With the wins, the Mountaineers moved to 16-10 on the season. UNCG and Radford split a doubleheader on March 24.
Sidney Russell was a big part of App State's two-win weekend, posting a .500 average at the plate with two hits and three RBIs, as well as a .667 on base percentage and a 1.250 slugging percentage. The fifth-year senior was clutch in the second game against Radford, hitting the go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth en route to the 3-1 victory. Russell was also a key member of the Mountaineer defense at second base that turned four double plays on the weekend.
Since this is UNCG's bye weekend from conference play, it will host Longwood in a weekend series starting on Friday, April 9 with a 6 p.m. single game and concluding with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 10. That contest will be the Spartans cancer/leukemia awareness game.
