Upstate Faces Kennesaw State this Weekend in Final Home Games of Season
4/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate softball team closes out its home schedule this weekend as the Spartans welcome the Kennesaw State Owls to Cyrill Stadium for a three-game conference series.
The series opens Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. and wraps up Sunday with a 1 p.m. contest. Sunday is also Senior Day for the Spartans as they will honor Amy Szymanowski prior to the game.
Upstate (34-12, 6-5) concluded non-conference play Wednesday by sweeping a doubleheader over South Carolina State by scores of 14-0 in five innings and 10-0 in six innings to earn its 300th win in program history at Cyrill Stadium. Lexi Shubert and Holly McKinnon each picked up a win while the Spartans combined to hit three home runs as a team from Szymanowski, Brittany Case and Karla Beasley. Upstate stole a season-high nine bases in game two to complete the doubleheader sweep.
Kennesaw State (25-19, 6-6) is coming off a doubleheader sweep of Alabama State on Wednesday, but was swept in its previous conference series last weekend at Florida Gulf Coast. The Owls are under the direction of third-year head coach Tory Acheson. Kara Chambers leads the KSU offense with a .314 average, while Courtney Sutter has hit eight home runs and Megan Veringa has driven in 27 runs. On the mound, Logan Viers is 11-5 on the year with a 1.70 ERA.
The Owls own a 35-14 advantage all-time against the Spartans in a series that dates back to 1994 when both schools were members of NCAA Division II. Upstate, though, is 13-6 against KSU since moving to Division I in 2008, and have won the last seven meetings and 10 of the last 11. The Spartans swept Kennesaw State in a three-game series last season in Kennesaw.
Fans can follow the action on www.upstatespartans.com via live stats. All three games are being streamed on ESPN3. Updates will also be posted on the Upstate softball Twitter page (@UpstateSoftball).
The Spartans are off until May 7-8 when they conclude their regular season with a three-game conference series at North Florida.
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