Feb. 17, 2005

Tallahassee, Fla. – South Carolina softball (6-3) returns to the road this weekend as they head to the Sunshine Tournament held at Florida State University. USC will open against Southeastern Louisiana (3-2) at 11 a.m. Friday before also facing No. 18 Florida State (4-4) and Syracuse (1-0).

The Gamecocks are looking to bounce back from a doubleheader loss to Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Southeastern Louisiana is coming off of back-to-back losses to Louisiana Tech and Troy State while FSU last split with Georgia Southern. Syracuse was at the Kajikawa Tournament in Tempe, Ariz. last weekend and pulled off an upset and defeated No. 3 UCLA.

Freshman Jessica Josker is leading the Gamecocks with a .455 batting average followed by senior Meghan Cornett who has a .429 average. Josker had a seven-game hitting streak snapped in game two against Virginia Tech. USC enters the weekend with a .306 batting average and a 1.26 ERA.

Rebecca de la Garza is the leader for SELU with seven hits in five games and a .438 average. Summer Delaneuville is SELU’s leading pitcher with a 3-1 record and and ERA of 1.69. Delaneuville has posted wins over Jackson State, Samford and Alcorn State.

For the Seminoles, Natasha Jacob is hitting .417 with 10 hits including a double and two triples. Pitcher Tiffany McDonald is 3-0 with a 0.81 ERA in 26 innings pitched while Casey Hunet is 1-3 in 25.2 innings pitched and has and ERA of 0.82. As a team, FSU has a 1.89 ERA.

After one game, Cassie Morales went 2-for-3 while Courtney Mosch hit the two-run homer to lift the Orange over UCLA. Mosch also earned the victory and is 1-0 with 4.0 innings pitched.

Fans can follow the Gamecocks live via audio on the Internet on uscsports.com.