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HOUSTON – Houston Baptist will look to regroup after season-opening 4-0 and 3-2 losses at McNeese State on Tuesday, when the Huskies participate in the UT-Arlington Classic from Feb. 24-26 at Allan Saxe Field.
HBU will open the tournament against Drake at 1 pm on Friday, followed by a meeting with the host Mavericks at 5 pm. The Huskies face Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 11 am Saturday before the semifinals begin. HBU is 2-0 all-time against UTA, while this will be the first meetings against Drake and UAPB.
HBU (0-2) is led at the plate by
Michaela Granchelli with a .400 batting average.
Rebecca Rademacher, whose .286 average is second on the team, has the Huskies' lone double.
Mac Christensen and
Victoria Granchelli have one RBI apiece. As a team, the Huskies are hitting .148.
In the circle,
Keely Shuler has a 0.00 ERA, followed by
Beth Evans with a 2.45 mark. She is 0-1 with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Kendall Stiefel follows Evans with a 3.00 ERA. She is also 0-1 and has walked four and struck out seven.
Drake (2-5) went 0-3 at the South Florida Invitational on Feb. 18-19, losing to Arkansas, 4-1, Georgia Southern, 2-0, and Wisconsin, 8-0.
Macie Silliman and Lindsey Vande Wall lead the Bulldogs with a .263 batting average each, going 5-for-19. Four of Vande Wall's five hits have been doubles. Amy Pierce and Torey Craddock each lead the team with four RBI. As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .203.
Drake features just two pitchers: Rebekah Schmidt and Jordan Gronewood. Schmidt is 1-2 with a 4.37 ERA, walking 17 and striking out 22. Gronewood is 1-3 with a 5.04 ERA, walking 12 and whiffing 19.
UT-Arlington (5-2) defeated Texas Southern, 9-0, and Dayton, 5-2, in the CenturyLink Classic at Texas State on Feb. 17.
Charne Office and Sarah Higginbotham both lead the Mavericks with a .500 average. Office has gone 4-for-8 with a double and five RBI. Erica LeFlore leads the Mavs with six RBI, as she is hitting .400 with one double and two home runs. As a team, UTA is hitting .318.
The Mavs also feature just two pitchers: Teri Lyles and Callie Collins. Lyles has a record of 2-1 and an ERA of just 0.91. Control has been a bit of an issue, as she has walked 17 and struck out 12. Collins is 3-1 with a 3.50 ERA, walking nine and striking out 11.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-6) lost four games to Creighton and two to Central Arkansas. The Lions have been outscored 82-4.
Allison Gutierrez leads UAPB with a .500 batting average. Tanisha Bradford is second with a .375 average. Heather Leigh leads the Lions with two RBI.
In the circle, Lacie Sutterfield is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA, walking two and striking out three. CeCe Kolesar is also 0-2 with a 15.40 ERA, walking eight and whiffing eight.
Following the game against UAPB, the Huskies will have to wait until the conclusion of the UTA-Drake game at 1 pm to find out who they will be facing in the semifinals. The semifinals are at 3 and 5 pm, with the consolation and championship games scheduled for 10 am and 12 pm starts, respectively on Sun., Feb. 26.
