March 9, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Gamecock softball will open Southeastern Conference play this weekend when they travel to Fayetteville, Ark. for a three-game series against the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks. South Carolina will take a 20-3 record into the contest, while Arkansas is 10-14. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. ET.

The Gamecocks are 7-3 in conference openers and three of those openers have been against the Lady `Backs. USC is 3-0 in its openers against Arkansas. South Carolina leads the series 18-9 and has won the last 12 meetings. In the first week of conference action, USC is second in the SEC East and Arkansas is fifth in the SEC West.

The Lady `Backs have a three-game win streak in tact and are led by Jessica Bachkora with a .387 batting average, 12 stolen bases and 16 runs scored. Dayna Huckabee is the team’s leader in RBI with 17. In the circle, Katy Henry is 7-5 with a 3.42 ERA. As a team, Arkansas is hitting .257 and has a 3.61 ERA.

For South Carolina, McKenna Hughes and Lindsay Walker are batting .329, while Melissa Hendon is on their heels with a .328 average. Hughes’ leads the team in runs scored (16), home runs (7) and RBI (19). Hendon is also strong in the circle for South Carolina. She has won her last five starts and has a 1.08 ERA with a 7-1 record. Hendon leads the team in strikeouts with 112 in 71.0 innings pitched. Kate Pouliot leads the team in victories with and 11-1 record and in ERA with 0.44. In 64.1 innings pitched, Pouliot has 79 strikeouts.

As a team, the Gamecocks are hitting .281 and have a 1.01 ERA. That currently ranks South Carolina seventh in the conference in hitting, and third in ERA. The Gamecocks are third in the conference in least runs allowed (30), behind Tennessee (8) and Alabama (16).

All games can be followed live via Internet audio broadcast and through Gametracker on uscsports.com.