Tournament Central
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The LIU Brooklyn softball team (3-2) will travel to Florida for the second straight weekend to compete in the FGCU/Four Points Softball Invitational on Feb. 19-21. The Blackbirds will tangle with Southern Illinois, Marshall, Saint Louis and the host Eagles while looking to build upon their promising opening weekend at the FIU Invitational last week.
ABOUT THE BLACKBIRDS
Senior Whitney West led the team offensively at last weekend's tournament, registering seven hits and boasting a .500 batting average and a .611 on-base percentage. The speedy outfielder ranked third among all tournament participants in on-base percentage and tied for fifth with those seven hits.
Junior Kayla Gloady and sophomore Angie Vazquez also had standout weekends at the plate. Gloady went 4-for-8 and drove in a run while Vazquez hit .375 with a pair of runs batted in. In the circle, sophomore Erynn Sobieski registered a complete-game win over Valparaiso and has a team-best 3.07 ERA heading into play this weekend.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Southern Illinois (3-2)
The Salukis opened the season at the Lion Classic in Hammond, La., and earned three victories - all of which came via shutout. Brianna Jones was named Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week after going 2-1 with a 0.00 ERA over three appearances. Jones struck out 16 batters in 14 innings, while her teammate Savanna Dover also struck out 16 in 17 innings of work. The duo combined for a 0.90 ERA over the first five games. Offensively, Shaye Harre smacked a pair of home runs in Louisiana and Sydney Jones has five hits and a .417 batting average.
Marshall (2-0)
The Thundering Herd played a pair of games in Alabama last weekend, earning extra-inning victories over Troy and Alabama State. Briana Daiss was named Mid-American Conference Co-Player of the Week after hitting two game-winning home runs. Daiss hit .800 with two home runs and seven runs batted in for Marshall in her first collegiate weekend. Jordan Dixon, a second team All-MAC selection last season after winning 33 games, pitched 13.0 of the team's 16.0 innings and garners a 1.38 ERA.
Saint Louis (3-2)
The Billikens played their opening weekend at the Northern Iowa Dome Tournament, and earned three victories. SLU defeated Northern Iowa, Western Illinois and South Dakota Sate, while falling to Nebraska and Drake. Alex Nickel blasted three home runs to lead the team and hit .313 over five games, while Mackenzie Peters had seven hits including three doubles. Maddie Baalman earned two of the three wins in the circle and has a 2.86 ERA entering the weekend.
Florida Gulf Coast (1-4)
The Eagles hosted their first of four weekend tournaments last week and dropped four of five games, including contests to Michigan State and Kent State. The lone victory was a 4-3 triumph over Illinois-Chicago. Louie Ross hit .467 with a double and a triple for FGCU, while Kelsey Huff and Racquel Fournet each had five hits. In the circle, three pitchers - Riley Randolph, Ashley Dobson and Taylor Wade - split the majority of the innings with Randolph holding the best ERA of the bunch (0.70).