Softball Opens C-USA Championship Thursday
5/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 6, 2009
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• C-USA Championship Central
EL PASO, Texas - The C-USA regular season champion University of Tulsa softball team opens the 2009 Conference USA Championship presented by Helen of Troy Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. CDT at Helen of Troy Field.
The Golden Hurricane is the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Championship and will play the winner of No. 8-seed UAB and No. 9-seed Memphis Thursday at 3:30 p.m. CDT. UAB and Memphis play at 10 a.m. CDT Thursday.
Live video and live stats of all Tulsa's games in the championship can be found at www.TulsaHurricane.com. News, results, stats, video and all championship information can be found at www.ConferenceUSA.com.
Tulsa is currently 35-15 overall and 16-4 in C-USA play, and won the C-USA regular season title last weekend after sweeping Southern Miss, 9-3, 7-1 and 2-0.
The Hurricane enters the tournament with a team .293 batting average, with 235 runs scored, 394 hits, 215 RBI and 36 home runs. The team also carries a .368 on-base percentage and a .434 slugging percentage. The pitching staff has put together a 2.48 ERA with 12 shutouts and has given up 265 hits, 138 runs - 117 earned - 127 walks and 329 strikeouts in 330.1 innings.
UAB (20-33, 8-16 C-USA) is hitting .261 as a team, with 210 runs scored, 353 hits, 190 RBI and 37 home runs. The Blazers carry a .336 team OBP and a .395 team slugging percentage. The pitching staff has a 4.10 ERA with six shutouts and has allowed 401 hits, 277 runs - 202 earned - 199 walks and 206 strikeouts in 344.2 innings.
Memphis (22-29, 7-17 C-USA) is hitting .261 as a team, with 206 runs scored, 337 hits, 174 RBI and 25 home runs. The Tigers carry a .340 team OBP and a .381 team slugging percentage. The pitching staff has a 3.59 ERA and has allowed 344 hits, 228 runs - 167 earned - 151 walks and 184 strikeouts in 326.0 innings.
Individually, Tulsa is led by junior right fielder Lauren Lindsay with a .389 batting average (63-for-162) with 34 RBI, 38 runs scored, eight home runs, 14 doubles, a .623 slugging percentage and a .473 on-base percentage. Senior left fielder Brooke Smart hits .365 (50-for-137) with 33 RBI, 30 runs scored, eight doubles and seven homers. Senior shortstop Kailey Yarmer has a .309 batting average (51-for-165) with 25 RBI, 31 runs scored, 11 doubles and seven homers. Junior first baseman Vanessa Vice has a .329 average (51-for-155) with 22 RBI, 17 runs scored, eight doubles and one triple.
In the circle, Junior Jackie Lawrence is 17-4 with a 1.37 ERA and seven shutouts, allowing 97 hits and 42 runs - 29 earned - with 56 walks and 153 strikeouts in 148.0 innings with a .182 opponent batting avg. Sophomore Jordan Kinard is 12-6 with a 3.12 ERA with two shutouts, and has allowed 88 hits, 54 runs - 51 earned - walked 54 and struck out 129 in 114.1 innings. Senior Katie Lee is 6-5 with a 3.81 ERA in 14 appearances with 12 starts. She has allowed 80 hits, 42 runs - 37 earned - with 17 walks and 47 strikeouts in 68.0 innings.
Tulsa and UAB have played 15 times; Tulsa leads, 9-6. Tulsa and Memphis have met 13 times, and Tulsa leads that series, 12-1. The Golden Hurricane swept UAB earlier this season, 4-2, 3-2 and 13-5 (6 inn.). In previous seasons, UAB took two of three in 2006 and 2008, while the Hurricane won the two games in the regular season series plus an early-season tournament game in 2007. Tulsa swept the series at Memphis this season, 9-1 (6 inn.), 10-0 (5 inn.) and 11-2 (5 inn.). TU also swept the season series in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Hurricane's only loss to the Tigers came in the 2007 C-USA Championship, 2-1, also the teams' only meeting in the league postseason tournament.
Follow the TU softball team through the C-USA Championship with results, stats and news at www.TulsaHurricane.com.
