Spartans Travel To Appalachian St. For Final Non-Conference Games Of '09
4/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 20, 2009
Notes | Video | Live Stats
Spartanburg, S.C. - USC Upstate returns to the diamond for a non-conference midweek doubleheader at Appalachian State, the final non-conference games of the year for the Spartans. Upstate is 17-6 against non-conference opponents this season and 5-0 against Southern Conference schools. The Spartans enter the 3:00 p.m. doubleheader with a 26-14 record, having swept A-Sun rival Jacksonville last Friday. Appalachian State enters the doubleheader with a five-game winning streak and a 22-23 record. Upstate and ASU have never played each other.
Fans not in attendance at the doubleheader can watch the action live on the internet via GoASU.TV and get live statistical updates throughout the game by accessing www.GoASU.com, the official Appalachian State Web site.
Looking Back At Jacksonville
For the second straight year, Upstate claimed a sweep of Jacksonville as Morgan Childers picked up a win and a save and Kim Brasil pounded out four hits, three RBIs and two runs to lead the Spartans on the day. Childers allowed one run in a complete game, 4-1, victory over Jacksonville in the first game. Brasil drove in a pair of runs with a double to highlight the game. In the second game, Upstate scored five runs over the first three innnings to take a 5-2 lead into the fifth. However, Jacksonville battled back with two runs to cut Upstate's lead to 5-4. Childers entered the game to record the final out and went on to close out the game with 2 1/3 perfect innings of relief to pick up her fourth save of the year. Brasil was again solid, finishing with two doubles and a triple to lead the Spartans at the plate. Senior Heidi Gibbs, honored along with fellow seniors Melissa Lockey and Amber Patterson in a pregame ceremony for Senior Day, slapped a double early in game two to move to the top alone on Upstate's all-time doubles list with 58.
About The Competition
Appalachian State enters Tuesday's doubleheader with Upstate on a hot streak, winning its last five games including a three-game sweep of Southern Conference rival Furman. The Mountaineers have played nine common opponents with the Spartans and are 11-8 against those schools. Upstate is 10-4 against the same schools.
Appalachian hits .248 as a team with Katie Boyd leading the way with a .372 batting average. A power hitter, she leads the Mountaineers with 13 home runs and 11 doubles while plating a team-high 38 RBIs and 35 runs. Despite hitting .206, Michelle Lighton has 27 RBIs on the year. Kayla Richardson, the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Month for March, leads ASU in the circle with a 2.43 ERA, 12 wins and 133 strikeouts. The Mountaineers own a 4.85 team ERA and a .951 fielding percentage.
Brasil Earns First A-Sun Weekly Honor
After collecting three doubles, a triple and a home run last week in leading the Spartans to a sweep of Jacksonville and at South Carolina, Upstate catcher Kim Brasil has been named the A-Sun Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Brasil, from Mississauga, Ontario, finished the week hitting .500 (6-for-12) with all but one of her hits coming as an extra-base hit. She had two hits at South Carolina, knocking a solo homer to tie the game at 1-1 in the third. South Carolina went on for a controversial 3-2 victory. Against Jacksonville, she drove in a pair of runs with a double in the first game to lead Upstate to the 4-1 win, and had two doubles and a triple in the nightcap to lead the Spartans to an 8-4 win and the sweep. She is the second Spartan to win A-Sun Player of the Week honors since Upstate moved to the A-Sun and Division I last year. Lauren Quevedo earned player of the week honors last year. Morgan Childers has three career A-Sun Pitcher of the Week honors.
Gibbs Queen of The Doubles
With a double in the first inning of game two of the doubleheader against Jacksonville Friday, Heidi Gibbs moved to the top of Upstate's all-time doubles list with 58 in her career. Prior to the double on Senior Day at Cyrill Stadium, Gibbs was tied atop the list with former Spartan great Krista Altom.
Upstate Closes Out Season On The Road
After honoring seniors Heidi Gibbs, Melissa Lockey and Amber Patterson last Friday on Senior Day at Cyrill Stadium, Upstate will close out the season with three doubleheaders on the road this week. Upstate opens the week traveling to Appalachian State Tuesday in a non-conference affair before traveling to Kennesaw State and Mercer for a pair of A-Sun doubleheaders to close out the season Friday and Saturday.
Spartans Set New Home Winning Record
After Upstate closed out its home season with a doubleheader sweep of Jacksonville last Friday, the Spartans finished the season with an 18-3 mark at Cyrill Stadium. The .857 winning percentage stands as the best home mark in the history of the program at Cyrill Stadium since it opened in 2002. Prior to this season, Upstate's best home record at Cyrill Stadium was 22-4 (.846) in 2006. Upstate is 130-38 all-time in eight seasons at the stadium, a .774 winning percentage at the facility.
Gibbs Moves Up All-Time Records List
Senior Heidi Gibbs' name appears 15 times on Upstate's career record list. She recently moved to the top of the all-time doubles list with 58 in her career. She ranks in the top-3 in an astounding eight categories and in the top-5 in amazing 12 categories. With two hits against Jacksonville, she moved into second place on Upstate's all-time hits list with 270 in her career. She trails the top spot by just 11 hits. However, the Spartans will play just six more games this season meaning the senior will have to average two hits a game to get the top spot currently held by Krista Altom with 281 hits.
Childers Reaches 500 Career Strikeouts
With 13 strikeouts in a win and a save against Jacksonville last Friday, Upstate ace Morgan Childers reached 500 career strikeouts. She became Upstate's career strikeouts leader earlier this season and owns all of the program's strikeout records - 500 in a career, 258 in a season and 18 in a game.
Spartans Score Consistently
Upstate has outscored its opponents 172-109 on the year and have done so by spreading out the damage throughout several innings. The Spartans have scored 20 or more runs in each of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings on the year. The fourth inning is the most productive inning with Upstate scoring 33 runs on the year and holding a plus-22 run differential in the frame.
Number Crunching
With two multi-hit games last week, Kim Brasil moved to the top of the list with 12 multi-hit games this season to lead Upstate. Crislyn Chewning, who tops the Spartans with seven multi-RBI games, is tied with Heidi Gibbs for second on the team 11 multi-hit outings. Gibbs and Keri Sarratt owns the team's best hitting streak this season with both players hitting safely in seven straight games earlier this year.
Upstate 81st In NCAA RPI
In the latest RPI ranking released by the NCAA, Upstate is ranked 81st out of 284 Division I schools. The Spartans are the fifth-highest ranked A-Sun team in the ranking. Florida Gulf Coast is the highest ranked conference team at No. 24 and is followed by Lipscomb (51), Mercer (58), Campbell (73) and Upstate in the top-5. Jacksonville, Upstate's opponent Friday, is ranked 135th. The Spartans finished last year ranked 76th and the sixth-highest team in the A-Sun. However, Upstate was the third-highest ranked conference team at the completion of regular season play and slipped three positions following the A-Sun and NCAA tournaments.
Night Time Is The Right Time
Upstate is a strong 6-2 in games that start after 5:00 p.m. this season. The Spartans had won five straight night games with wins against Furman and Campbell at home and at Charlotte, Stetson and Western Carolina prior to last Wednesday's 3-2 loss at South Carolina.
