LAKELAND, Fla.- The No. 4 ranked Southeastern softball team will see the toughest stretch of their regular season schedule this week as they host two NAIA Top 15 ranked teams including the 2022 NAIA World Series Runner-Up, University of Mobile, on Thursday at 1 & 3 p.m. and will conclude the week with a doubleheader against No. 11 Grand View on Saturday, also at 1 & 3 p.m.
Southeastern (2-2) will look to bounce back from their last performance which saw them drop two contests to Truett McConnell at home last week.
Offensively, the Fire have posted a .387 batting average through their first four contests and average nine hits and 6.5 runs per contest. Sophomores
Chapel Cunningham and
Leah Gonzalez have swung the hot bat, both going 6-10 to open the season with Cunningham tallying four runs and four RBI's and Gonzalez recording five RBI's with two doubles. Freshman
Mallory Watts sits as the team's co-leader in RBI's with five after going 3-7 with the Fire's lone long ball.
Riley Sanders picked up where she left off last season, stealing seven bases through four games played.
The pitching staff for the Fire have combined for a 3.09 ERA with
Autumn Hunter holding a staff-best 1.75 ERA and .172 opponent batting average through eight innings.
Claire Sekinger has sat down 10 batters on strikes through 9.2 innings of work.
The Rams will look to advance their 3-0 record this week with six contests in a three-day span after most recently defeating No. 8 Central Methodist behind a go-ahead grand slam by Jill Robinson. The lone loss of the season came against the University of Houston-Victoria earlier that day by a score of 3-0.
The pitching staff has kept their team in the win column thus far, posting a collective 1.30 ERA after allowing just five earned runs through 27 innings. Emily Butts and Brinkley Goff both return after First-Team All-American seasons last year with Butts allowing three earned runs through 13 innings and Goff allowing two earned in 11 innings.
The offense has had a slow start to the season, sitting at a collective .238 average. Honorable Mention All-American, Caitlin McRee, has had an impressive start as she holds a team-best .545 average (6-11) with half her hits being doubles.
Southeastern holds the historical 4-2 record over the Rams with four of the six contests being decided by just one run including the last two matchups where the Fire took both contests by scores of 6-5 and 4-3 in 2021.
The Vikings of Grand View have posted a 7-1 overall record, dropping the lone contest to Northwestern College.
The pitching staff has allowed one or fewer runs in five of their eight contests this season and holds a collective 2.88 ERA. Senior Jessica Walljasper has allowed just three earned runs through 21.2 innings for an ERA of .96 and opponent batting average of .143. Through 13.1 innings of work, Lani Gannon has averaged 9.97 strikeouts per seven innings after retiring 19 batters on strikes.
The offense averages 6.6 runs per contest behind a .323 batting average and is led by Abby Sutten who holds a .435 average through 23 at bats with nine RBI's.
Last season at home, the Fire split the series with the Vikings after dropping game one 5-2 and taking game two 6-3.
To purchase tickets to this week's home contests, go to fire.seu.edu/tickets.
