By: by Scott Lipsky
Live Stats:
Central Arkansas, Saturday 1 p.m.
Southern Miss, Saturday 6 p.m.
Central Arkansas, Sunday Noon
Southern Miss, Sunday 2:30 p.m.
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The 2011 Kennesaw State Owls softball season begins Saturday, with the Black and Gold beginning their campaign at the Southern Miss Mizuno Classic, hosted by Southern Mississippi this weekend. The Owls will play two games each against Southern Miss and Central Arkansas.
The Owls, who finished 27-26 last season and went 11-9 in the Atlantic Sun Conference on their way to their first-ever appearance in the A-Sun Tournament in their first season of eligibility, return 11 letter winners this season and were picked to finish third in the A-Sun by the coaches in the preseason.
With the A-Sun Preseason Player of the Year in junior pitcher and designated player Jessica Cross and All A-Sun Preseason selection Ashlee Burkett, a sophomore first baseman, among the returnees for the Owls, many have high expectations for head coach Scott Whitlock’s squad. The head man, however, who enters his 25th season at the helm of the Owls on Saturday, is still learning about the 2011 edition of his squad.
“Our plan is to try and win all four games this weekend, we want to do that and play well and not make many mistakes, but fact is we lost 12 days to weather during our preparation,” Whitlock said. “While we were able to get in some good time hitting, pitching and throwing in our indoor facility, there’s no substitute for getting out there on dirt. We need to be patient with our team and use these early season games to improve and see what we need to do to get better.”
The Owls will take the field for the first time in 2011 at 1 p.m. EST on Saturday, when they face the Central Arkansas Bears. They also face them on Sunday at Noon, marking the first two times the programs have faced one another at the NCAA Division I level. Ironically, it will be just second time the two programs have squared off, the other one coming in 1998, also in the Owls season opener, when the two programs competed in Division II, the Black and Gold coming away with a, 7-0, victory.
The Bears are coming off a 25-31 season that saw them go 13-16 in the Southland Conference on the way to an eighth place finish in their league. They were picked to finish seventh by the coaches this season. They feature four players were selected as either first or second team Preseason All-Conference selections, including sophomore outfielder Candice Gauntt (first team), senior designated player Shay Ristau (first team), junior first baseman Kasey Britt (second team) and sophomore catcher Melanie Bryant (second team). Gauntt, Britt and Ristau placed first, second and third in batting average, respectively on the Bears last season at .324, .321 and .314. Ristau and Bryant were the power bats on the squad, each hitting a team-leading 10 home runs.
The Owls are more familiar with the hosts, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, who they play on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST and Sunday 2:30 p.m. EST. Having last squared off in 2008, when they split a pair of games in the K-Club Classic, hosted by Kennesaw State.
The Golden Eagles return 13 players from a 2010 squad that went 25-28 last season and finished eighth in Conference USA, and were picked to finish sixth this season. Their top returnees include senior Jill Mathis, who led the team offensively in 2010 with a .317 batting average to go along with seven home runs, as well as junior outfielder Leslie LeJune, who started all 53 games for Southern Miss last season, batting .288 with four home runs and 19 RBIs, being named to the Preseason All-Conference USA Team. Their leading returnee in the pitcher’s circle is sophomore Gabby Luciani, who went 10-11 with a 2.24 earned run average in 2010.
Fans can follow the action all weekend long with live stats.
