Tournament is final of non-conference season
 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – On the heels of a championship at the Hilltopper Spring Fling, the University of Evansville softball team looks to keep the momentum rolling this weekend at the Racer Classic. Evansville will be pitted against UIC, Kent State, Murray State and two meetings against Oakland.
Pitching and defense were the name of the game as the Purple Aces went 4-1 last weekend at the Hilltopper Spring Fling. UE’s pitching staff tossed a total of 34.0 innings, finishing with an impressive 0.62 ERA while giving up just six total runs, three of which were earned. The defense fielded .970 to assist in that effort.
Offensively, McKenzie Johnson batted .429 at the tournament with two solo home runs. Eryn Gould finished the event at .357 with five hits while Allison Daggett and Morgan Florey also registered five hits apiece. Florey hit a 3-run home run on Sunday to help UE clinch the championship.
Florey, this week’s MVC Pitcher of the Week, made four pitching appearances last weekend, tossing 21 1/3 innings and finishing with an ERA of 0.98. Even more impressive were her strikeout numbers as she racked up 45 K’s – over two per inning. Florey’s 18 K’s were the second-most in an NCAA game this season while her total of 103 strikeouts ranks fifth in the country. Even more impressive – Florey begins this week with 40 more strikeouts than any other pitcher in the Valley.
Jaime Nurrenbern had the best weekend of her college career, making two starts while not giving up a single run at the Hilltopper Spring Fling. She started Friday’s game against Dayton, tossing four innings of 1-hit ball. She struck out two and walked one. Nurrenbern took the ball on Saturday versus the Flyers once again and went five frames of scoreless work while allowing four hits on the way to her first victory at UE. Her ERA for the weekend was a perfect 0.00.
Freshman Eryn Gould continues to lead the team with a .373 batting average and checked in with a solid .357 at Western Kentucky. On February 12, Gould was named the MVC Newcomer of the Week after batting .600 at the Mardi Gras Classic. Gould has recorded a hit in 12 out of her first 18 college games thus far. Her stats stack up well in the MVC as her 34 total bases ranks fourth in the league while her .373 average is ninth. The freshman leads the team in at-bats, hits, doubles, triples, total bases, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
Three freshmen have started all 18 games for the Aces as Gould, Allison Daggett and Lindsay Renneisen have accomplished the feat; fellow frosh Elyse Hickey has started 14 games while seeing action in 16. The four have scored 25 of the teams 62 runs and have notched 10 out of 16 doubles on the year.
Friday’s opener pits the Aces against UIC. The Flames are 5-4 on the season. The squads were set to meet in the season-opening Mardi Gras Classic, but weather cancelled the contest. Friday evening will see UE take on Oakland, who starts play 3-9. On Saturday, UE opens up versus Kent State, who has the best record of the five teams in the event at 9-6. Evansville wraps up the day with a game against Oakland before facing host Murray State, who is 6-12, on Sunday morning.
