KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan softball team heads down to Gainesville, Fla., and the University of Florida for the T-Mobile Florida Invitational beginning on Friday.
The Broncos (5-8) are scheduled to open the tournament against Troy on Friday at 10 a.m. and then take on Florida A&M later at 12:30 p.m. On Saturday, WMU opens against the host and third-ranked Gators at 2 p.m. and then takes on Samford at 4:30 p.m. Western Michigan wraps up the weekend with a 9 a.m. game against the Trojans on Sunday.
There is no live stream for the tournament, but live scoring for all games is available at www.wmustats.com.
SCOUTING THE FIELD
Troy enters the weekend with a 9-6 record, but have only played four games away from home so far this season. The Trojan's top pitcher is Alyssa Faircloth, who has a team-high nine appearances with six starts, a 4-1 record and a 3.26 ERA with 41 strikeouts. Senior infielder Cassidy Boltz has started all 15 games and has a .512 batting average. She leads the team in hits with 22, RBIs with 14, slugging percentage at .814 and OPS at 1.367. Boltz is tied for the team lead in home runs with three and second on the team in runs scored with 10.
Florida A&M is on a five-game losing streak after dropping all its games at the JoAnne Graf Classic at Florida State last weekend. Sophomore Zoryana Hughes has seen the most action on the mound this season, making five starts in seven appearances and pitching 34 innings. She has a 2-4 record with three complete games, 13 strikeouts and a 3.50 ERA. Junior Amari Brown leads the team with a .391 batting average, has nine hits, four RBIs and five runs scored. Freshman outfielder Jamison Townsend leads the team with two home runs and six RBIs.
Florida is 19-1 on the season, with the team's lone loss coming against No. 14 Duke back on Feb. 16. Sophomore Keagan Rockroth as made a team-high nine starts on the season and is 8-1 with five complete games, four individual shutouts and one combined shutout. Rockroth, a NFCA Third Team All-American last season, has 39 strikeouts and has allowed just eight earned runs with an ERA of 1.17.
Samford is 9-5 on the season and will play Troy and Florida on Friday before playing the Broncos on Saturday. Jordyn Partain leads the team in appearances on the mound with eight and five starts. She has a 4-3 record, two complete games, one shutout and 22 strike outs in 34.0 innings pitched. Sophomore infielder/catcher Katie Campbell leads the team in nearly every hitting category. She has a .413 batting average, 19 hits, six doubles, four home runs and 16 RBIs. Her slugging percentage is nearly .300 higher than the next player on the team, at .804. Senior catcher Logan Champion is tied with Campbell for the team lead in home runs, with four.
10/13
WMU's
Riley Dittmar had recorded a hit in 10 of the 13 games this season. The only games Dittmar failed to get a hit were Feb. 7 vs. Arizona, Feb. 13 vs. UT-Martin and Feb. 24 against the Skyhawks. She leads the team with 14 hits and four of the 14 have gone for extra bases.
PUTTING IN THE WORK
Western Michigan graduate student pitcher
Jensen Gremillion heads into the weekend's tournament ranking at the top of the mac in games started, with seven. She has made seven starts in seven appearances and leads WMU in innings pitched with 24.1 Her seven starts also ranks her 26th in the nation.
ON THE HORIZON
Western Michigan briefly stays in Florida next week to take on North Florida on Tuesday at 1 p.m. The Broncos are then on to Indiana University for the Hoosier Classic, March 8-9.
