EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Softball concludes its 2024 home schedule at USI Softball Field Saturday and Sunday when the Screaming Eagles host Tennessee State University.
The Screaming Eagles and Tigers open the series with Saturday doubleheader at 1 p.m. before Sunday’s series finale at Noon.
USI Softball will be celebrating its 2024 senior class this weekend, which includes catcher Sammie Kihega (Greenfield, Indiana), first baseman Lexi Fair (Greenwood, Indiana), and outfielder Mackenzie Bedrick (Brownsburg, Indiana). The three will be recognized with Senior Day ceremonies taking place following Sunday’s game.
At Saturday’s doubleheader, USI students and faculty can take a break before finals week with free admission. There will also be stress management resources, tips for finals, and a free gift at a table upon entry. Plus, three (3) $100 Amazon gift cards will be given away throughout the day to USI students who attend the doubleheader at USI Softball Field.
Entering the weekend, Southern Indiana (18-18, 12-9 OVC) sits in a tie for fourth place with Lindenwood University in the Ohio Valley Conference standings. Tennessee State (23-20, 14-7 OVC) comes in at third, sitting two games ahead of USI and only two games back of first-place Eastern Illinois University. The weekend is the penultimate series in conference play.
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The Screaming Eagles are coming off a series win last weekend at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, taking the last two games of the three-game set. USI suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 loss in the series opener that went 16 innings before capturing a 4-2 and 2-1 victory for the series win. By winning the road series, USI made its way back to .500 on the season and snapped a season-long four-game losing skid.
The 16-inning contest was three innings shy of the longest game in USI Softball history against Columbus State University in March 1999. The last time a USI Softball game went at least 15 innings was a 16-inning affair in April 2005 against the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Not only did the 16 innings mark the longest game for USI in its Division I era, but they were also the most innings played in a single game this season across the D-I ranks. The previous high was 14 innings in two separate competitions.
Heading into the series against Tennessee State, sophomore outfielder Caroline Stapleton (Shirley, Indiana) and Fair lead the team with a .314 batting average. Stapleton tops the squad with 18 runs scored and Fair paces the team with 20 RBIs. Kihega is first with three home runs and second with 19 runs driven in.
In recent games, freshman infielder Sydney Long (Haubstadt, Indiana) returned to the starting lineup and has been on a nice roll, hitting .353 with a pair of RBIs in the last week. Long has a hit in the last four games while reaching base in the last five. Junior infielder Hailey Gotshall (Lucerne, Indiana) is currently riding the best streaks on the team with a seven-game hitting streak and an eight-game on-base streak.
Junior pitcher Josie Newman leads the USI pitching staff with a 15-8 record and a 1.69 ERA. Newman’s 190 strikeouts and 169.2 innings pitched top the OVC and would rank top five in the nation, but USI does not qualify officially for NCAA stat rankings as a reclassifying program. The right-hander set a career high by pitching the entire 16-inning contest at SIUE last Saturday, officially registering 15.2 innings in the outing. Newman has already set new career marks this season in complete games (23) in addition to strikeouts and innings. The junior has won OVC Pitcher of the Week twice this season. Newman has also done well for herself at the plate this season, and in recent games, is batting .348.
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For Tennessee State, the Tigers suffered a 4-3 setback during the week in a non-conference game that went nine innings against the University of Chattanooga. In the last OVC series last weekend, Tennessee State swept Western Illinois University at home, outscoring the Leathernecks 13-4 in the series.
Tennessee State junior pitcher Reina Castillo tossed a 1-0 no-hitter in the series opener against Western Illinois on only 56 pitches. Castillo was rewarded for her no-hit bid with OVC Pitcher of the Week honors earlier this week. On the season, Castillo is 7-5 with a team-leading 3.20 ERA. Castillo has made 13 starts, striking out 42 batters in 96.1 innings of work. Junior pitcher Caitlyn Manus is second on the Tigers with a 3.93 ERA with a team-high 94 strikeouts. Manus is 10-10 in 17 starts and 117.2 innings pitched.
Offensively, graduate infielder Nahtali Simpson and sophomore Onnika Spencer top the squad with a .364 and .333 batting average, respectively. Spencer is just ahead of Simpson with six home runs and 28 RBIs. Simpson has five long balls and 25 runs brought in. As a team, Tennessee State is hitting .277 in 2024.
Southern Indiana and Tennessee State met for the first time last season down in Nashville, Tennessee. The Tigers took the series opener, 3-0, before USI won the last two games, 3-2 and 5-1. Fair went 4-9 with a double and an RBI in the series, and Newman went 1-1 in two complete-game starts.
The two teams also met in a second-round game at the 2023 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. USI captured its first-ever OVC Tournament win by a score of 9-1 in six innings. The game started on May 10 but had to finish on May 11 due to significant amounts of rain during the middle of the contest in Oxford, Alabama. Fair and Gotshall each had two hits while Kihega had a home run and two RBIs for USI. Newman hurled the first five innings before the rain suspension.
This weekend’s series can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+ and heard on The Spin 95.7 FM. Additional coverage links can be found on the USI Softball schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.