UE welcomes Drake to Cooper Stadium
Tournament play is complete and the league slate is here with the University of Evansville softball team set to open up Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend against one of the top squads in the league – Drake.
Evansville finished up its non-conference tournament schedule with a record of 7-15 after picking up a win at the Racer Classic. Pacing the Purple Aces were a pair of freshmen – Lindsay Renneisen and Eryn Gould who hit .455 and .400, respectively. Morgan Florey hit .357 in the tournament with a home run and a team-best four runs batted in. The pitching continued to excel, finishing with a 2.85 ERA in four contests.
The torrid strikeout pace continued for Morgan Florey as she improved her season tally to 128, which is 4th in the nation. Florey’s 11.7 strikeouts per seven innings is second in the NCAA. She earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors on March 5 as she tossed 21 1/3 innings with an ERA of 0.98 at the Hilltopper Spring Fling. That weekend included a career-high of 18 strikeouts, which is the 4th-best single game total in the country in 2018.
In four games at the Racer Classic freshman Lindsay Renneisen batted a team-best .455 while recording a hit in all four games. She started the week with a 1-3 effort with a double and a walk against UIC before posting a 1-2 game against Oakland with another walk. On Saturday, Renneisen started the day with a 1-3 game with her third walk of the weekend versus Kent State before notching two hits in three plate appearances versus Oakland with an RBI and run scored.
Ashleigh Downing has quietly lowered her ERA to 4.38 on the season while winning two games. She did extremely well at the Hilltopper Spring Fling, throwing 3 2/3 scoreless innings while striking out three batters; in her last 8 2/3 innings, Downing has given up just one earned run.
Drake starts the weekend tied for the conference lead with 15 victories. They are led by pitcher Nicole Newman, who paces the MVC with an ERA of 1.04. She has given up just seven earned runs in 47 innings of work. Macy Johnson leads the Bulldogs with a .386 batting average, the 4th-highest in the Valley.
