Softball heads west for Husky Classic

By Jordan Rinard, Senior Staff Writer

After knocking off Indiana University Sunday, Miami University softball is looking to follow it up with more wins this weekend in the Husky Classic in Seattle. The RedHawks face Ohio State University, the University of Seattle and the University of Washington. The RedHawks (7-4) had a four-game winning streak snapped last Friday in an 8-4 loss to Towson University.

"For this weekend, we need to put all aspects of the game together," assistant coach Brittany Lastrapes said. "We've had games where we hit well and not pitched well, and other games where we couldn't hit, but pitched pretty good. [Working on these things] is why where have the preseason."

The batters for Miami have been putting on the hits in the early part of the season. Three players have hit .375 or higher; senior outfielder Tiyona Marshall, junior outfielder Taylor Shuey, and junior outfielder Tanya Busby. All three have an on-base percentage exceeding .400 and Shuey has a .611 slugging percentage.

The 'Hawks have had strong showings on the mound as well. Junior pitcher Amber Logemann (5-2) has a 2.27 ERA with 44 strikeouts. Senior pitcher Remy Edwards (2-2) has recorded a 3.23 ERA, 25 strikeouts and a save so far this season. Senior pitcher Megan Mattera has been great in relief, allowing four earned runs in 12 innings of work.

"This week we've really been working on our fundamentals, keeping things simple for us, and just playing our game and not worrying about anybody else," Logemann said. "We're expecting some big things out of this weekend. If we play like we're capable of, we can easily pick up multiple wins. We need to come out hard against Washington and Ohio State. We're going to keep on working hard and we've got the talent to do it."

Defensively, the Red and White have been sound as it has only committed 15 fielding errors this season and stranded 85 runners.

Ohio State (11-5) has been struggling as of late, losing four of its last six games after starting the season 9-1. Seattle (6-13), however, has not been able to show any consistency. It has not won consecutive games since Feb. 7. Washington (17-4) has scored six or more runs in 17 games.

"This weekend will be different for us," Lastrapes said. "We'll be facing tougher competition and we'll have to adjust to the time change out west. We'd like to be more consistent with our hitting this weekend; sometimes we put up 10 runs and sometimes we put up no runs. Our defense and our pitching has been pretty reliable so far."

The RedHawks begin play in the Classic Friday when they face Ohio State at 3:30 p.m. and Seattle at 5:45 p.m. They again face Seattle at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, before taking on Washington at 8 p.m. Play concludes Sunday with games against Seattle starting at noon.