Aces to play in Red & Black Showcase
Another trip south will see the University of Evansville softball team head to Athens, Georgia this weekend for the Red & Black Showcase, which is being hosted by the University of Georgia.
Evansville will take on Winthrop to open play on Friday at 11:30 a.m. CT before facing the Bulldogs and Eagles on Saturday. Sunday will feature the Aces playing Samford in the morning before wrapping the tournament up with an ESPN3 contest against Georgia.
Freshman Eryn Gould batted .600 in her first week of play and earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors for her efforts. Gould slugged 1.300 at the Mardi Gras Classic and had six hits in 10 plate appearances while hitting two doubles, a triple and a home run. She had three RBIs and four runs scored while getting on base 63.6% of the time; her top game of the weekend came against Samford where she went 3-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Three freshmen (Eryn Gould, Lindsay Renneisen, Allison Daggett) started all three games in the opening weekend of action in Louisiana while Elyse Hickey made two starts. The four combined to hit three of the Aces seven homers of the weekend while accounting for 11 of the teams 25 RBI. Gould was named the league Newcomer of the Week on Monday. Renneisen hit a pair of home runs over the weekend including a long ball in the first at-bat of her college career. Daggett batted a solid .250 while drawing three walks while Hickey hit a 3-RBI double in her first game against Samford.
Brittany Hay shifted from shortstop to the outfield and made the adjustment look easy in the first week of action, notching four putouts while hitting .375 at the plate. She recorded her first home run of the season in Friday’s opener against Samford while notching two hits, three runs and three RBI.
Morgan Florey has been Evansville’s top pitcher over the last two seasons and appears to be in midseason form already. She made the start in the win over Eastern Illinois and pitched all five innings allowing just two hits while striking out 11 batters.
UE’s opening opponent – Winthrop – starts their season Friday and did not play last weekend. Georgia is currently ranked 17th in the nation and has gotten off to a 4-1 start in last week’s Kajikawa Classic in Arizona. The Bulldogs picked up top 25 wins over 15th-ranked Utah and #19 BYU. Their only defeat came to Oregon, who was ranked third. Samford stands at 0-5 and fell to the Purple Aces last Friday, 14-6.
