Wednesday
NSU at George Mason (DH), 4 p.m., George Mason Softball Complex
Live Stats | Live Audio
NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team will play its last non-conference games of the year on Wednesday as the Spartans head to George Mason to compete in a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.
The games at the George Mason Softball Complex will be the only contests of the week for the Spartans, who do not play next weekend because of the odd number of teams in the MEAC Northern Division. Following the twinbill against the Patriots, NSU will have one last regular season series left, May 4-5 at Hampton.
Live stats and a live audio feed will be available for the games against George Mason.
NSU enters the contest riding an eight-game win streak after sweeping Delaware State at home last weekend. That moved the team's overall record to 23-18 and 14-1 in the MEAC. The Patriots took one of three from Hofstra last weekend at home and enter the contests against NSU with a 15-32 overall record this year.
George Mason
The Patriots played both UMES and Hampton earlier this season. UMES lost a pair of 2-1 games to George Mason last week, while Hampton fell by scores of 3-1, 10-2 in an early April doubleheader. The Spartans took two out of three against UMES and play Hampton in a week and a half.
The only other common opponents between NSU and GMU are Monmouth and Longwood. The Patriots and Spartans both dropped a pair of games to Monmouth and Longwood this season.
The Patriots have pitched well this year but have struggled at the plate, hitting a collective .218 as a team. Only one regular player is batting above .250 for George Mason, Brooke Blankenship at .303. She has totaled 13 doubles, one triple, five home runs and 33 RBI. The only other player with double-digit RBI is Megan Blank with 19. Blankenship has five of the team's six home runs on the year.
The team boasts a 3.49 ERA, led by Anna Blessing's 2.12 ERA in 79.1 innings. Blessing owns a 1-8 record, while Casey Herring (3-6, 3.29 ERA, 72.1 innings) and Christina Gabriele (5-8, 3.69 ERA, 74.0 innings) both have sub-4.00 ERAs this year.
Up Next
NSU will attempt to wrap up the conference's Northern Division title May 4-5 at Hampton. The first game of the three-game series will be shown live on ESPNU on Saturday at 2 p.m.
