April 20, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Gamecock softball team returns to SEC action this weekend when they host Eastern Division foe, the Kentucky Wildcats. South Carolina try to maintain its third-place standing in the division and hopefully improve on its seventh-place seed overall in the league. Saturday’s doubleheader is set for 1 p.m. and Sunday’s single game is slated for the same time. Saturday is Family Fun Day and children under 18 get free admission with a paid adult. Some Family Fun Day activities include a bounce house, games with Cocky and face painting with the Gamecock cheerleaders.
South Carolina enters the weekend 29-16 and 7-10 in the SEC. The Gamecocks are hoping to regroup after suffering a loss to No. 22 North Carolina earlier in the week, and capitalize on their three-game sweep over Georgia last weekend. Kentucky is 19-21 and 4-15 in the SEC and has a four-game losing streak. The Wildcats have lost their last eight conference match-ups to No. 1 Tennessee, No. 5 LSU and Arkansas.
The Gamecocks lead the overall series against the Wildcats 26-9 and Kentucky took the series 2-1 last year in Columbia.
The Gamecocks will have SEC Pitcher of the Week Melissa Hendon in the circle and the solid bat of McKenna Hughes to lead the way. Hughes hit .727 last weekend against Georgia as she went 8-for-11 and had eight RBI, including a career best, five, in game three.
Brooke Marnitz leads the way for the Wildcats with a .413 batting average, the only player on the team hitting over .400. Marnitz ahs 50 hits, 52 RBI and 38 runs. She leads the country in home runs per game with 0.48, 19 total, and ranks fourth in the country in RBI per game with 1.3. Jennifer Young has a 3.78 ERA with a 6-7 record, while Megan Jolly is 7-7 with 5.02 ERA and Amber Matousek is 6-6 with a 4.42 ERA.
The Gamecocks are hitting .247 as a team while Kentucky is hitting .298. South Carolina’s team ERA is 1.43 and the Wildcats’ is 4.69.
All three games can be followed live via audio broadcast or Gametracker online at www.uscsports.com.
