BOONE, N.C. – After a 23-game road stretch to start the season, Appalachian State University softball will host the UNCG Spartans at the Sywassink/Lloyd Family Softball Stadium in Boone for a midweek doubleheader on Wednesday, March 22. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and the midweek home opener will serve as Bingo Night.
Appalachian State (11-12, 0-3 Sun Belt) dropped three games to Texas State last weekend in their conference series opener in San Marcos, Texas. The Bobcats overwhelmed the Mountaineers 11-0 in five innings and 9-1 in six innings on Saturday and snatched the sweep in a 4-1 extra-inning heartbreaker. Cara Parker crashed out her fifth home run of the season, the 35th of her career, and Kenzie Longanecker pitched her second complete game striking out her 71st batter of her freshman campaign.
As a whole, the Mountaineers sport a .259 batting average and a 2.73 ERA. Ally Walters leads the batting bunch with a .343 average, and Vanessa Ciocatto and Longanecker own the lowest ERA at 1.62 (30.1 IP) and 1.76 (67.2 IP) respectively.
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
• The Mountaineers and the Spartans are certainly no strangers having met on the field 43 times in the 17-year history of softball in Boone, and the Apps hold the one-game all-time series advantage at 22-21. The last time the two North Carolina teams met on March 9, 2016, the Spartans took two away from App State in a midweek doubleheader downing Appalachian 9-0 in five innings and 2-1 in game two.
• UNCG owns a 16-11 record, bats .241 and is responsible for a 4.51 ERA. On March 21, the Spartans will take on Marshall University before they travel up the Mountain to face App State.
• The last time the Spartans were on the diamond, they battled Elon in a trio of ballgames and dropped the series, 2-1. On Saturday, March 18, Elon snatched game one in five innings (11-1), but UNCG bounced back and won game two edging Elon, 4-3. On Sunday, Elon came out on top defeating the Spartans 8-2 to earn the series win.
• UNCG's offense is led by Emily Acquaviva who averages .301 at the plate with 22 hits, 15 runs, five doubles, two home runs and ten RBI. Also, two Spartans have knocked in 19 RBI, and Jordan Gontram tops the home run leader board with seven jacks.
• Last week, Acquaviva garnered SoCon Player of the Week honors after a .438 performance at the plate which included six RBI and four runs scored to steer the Spartans to a 3-2 weekend record and help the Spartans thump UNC for the first time in program history since 2011.
• In the circle, Preseason SoCon Pitcher of the Year Alicia Bazonski (11-6) has been UNCG's most successful pitcher owning a 3.73 ERA in 105.0 innings pitched. In 22 appearances, she has pitched eight complete games and has thrown out 64 strikeouts.
• UNCG returns four starters and three pitchers from the 2016 squad that went 33-26 and 9-9 in the conference and registered the most wins in program history since 2002.
• The Spartans are coached by four-year head coach Janelle Breneman and her assistants Tracey Lynch, Bethaney Wells and Macy Jones. Under Breneman's instruction, UNCG has posted four winning seasons, the longest stretch of consecutive seasons above .500 since 1992-1995. Also in 2016, her squad rocketed out 61 home runs, the most of any UNCG team in school history.
