Softball 2/25/2019 3:35:00 PM Jordan Alves

Lady Tiger softball opens home portion of schedule on Tuesday afternoon vs. Brescia

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — After not playing for nine days, Lady Tiger softball is scheduled to host their home opener this week at Hord Softball Field at Veterans Memorial Park.

No. 11 Campbellsville for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. ET against Brescia University. Fans can tune into the Campbellsville University Sports Network starting at 1:45 for live video provided by CU.

The Lady Tigers enter the week after going 5-1 in the RussMat Softball Classic in Auburn Dale, Florida last week. Campbellsville took one to the chin in the opener to Warner University, 8-0, but rallied to win five straight games including a pair of Top 25 wins over Southeastern University. CU also walked off with an eight-inning victory over Keiser University, 4-3, to close the trip.

Brescia is 2-2 on the young season after dropping a pair of games on the road to Union College and sweeping a home doubleheader over Cardinal Stretch.

Cancellations galore:

Campbellsville has cancelled or postponed eight straight games – which were all scheduled for last week.
CU had its first true road series of the year postponed against Union College on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The Lady Tigers and Bulldogs rescheduled that contest for Thursday, March 14 in Barbourville, Ky.
The Lady Tigers were scheduled to travel to the Reinhardt University Classic in Waleska, Ga. To face three teams in the NAIA Top 30.
CU attempted to pick up two games at Centre College on Sunday afternoon but both were cancelled after the weekend storms.

Aleigha Talsma has solid opening-weekend:

Freshman Aleigha Talsma is battling back from Tommy John Surgery during her sophomore season of high school and went 2-0 in her CU debut.
In three starts, she earned a pair of wins, tossed 17 innings, allowed 15 hits and three earned runs while striking out 10.
In her first-two starts on the year, she tossed a pair of complete game wins. In the third start, she lasted only three innings, allowing two earned runs.
The performance on the week earned her MSC Pitcher of the Week honors and also NCCAA Student-Athlete of the Week honors.

Who will lead the offense?

The Lady Tigers are looking to find their identity at the plate after hitting just .238 during the first six games in the RussMatClassic.
Mia Aldridge leads the way early after hitting .438 (7-of-16) with a double and four RBI. Aldridge didn't tally a hit in the first-three games but went 7-for-11 in the final three contests with four RBI.
Ryley Whitney and Tori Humphry both delivered a pair of home runs in their season-opening weekend. Whitney is hitting .316 after tallying hits in four of the six games, including multi-hit games vs. Southeastern and Keiser.
Humphrey had a big game vs. Bryan College in the third game last weekend but struggled in the rest. She went 2-for-4 with three RBI vs. Bryan but finished the week with six strikeouts.
Freshman Lexi Miller stepped up twice to lead Campbellsville to a pair of come-from-behind wins.
Against Southeastern in game two, Miller delivered a pinch-hit double to uncork a 2-2 tie and lead CU to a 4-2 win.
Against Keiser in the finale against Keiser, the Lady Tigers were down to their last out, but Miller tied the game at 3-3 with an RBI single up the middle. She later scored after an error by the Skyhawks to give CU the victory in extras.
Freshman Payton Blades saw action at three different defensive positions last week but remained in the leadoff position in the batting order throughout.
Although she went 5-for-21 at the plate, Blades was robbed three times with diving catches and squared the ball up multiple times that led to line drive outs.
Also, out of the 23 runs scored by CU in Florida, eight of those came with two outs. But Campbellsville was .196 with runners in scoring position.

Finding rhythm on defense:

Early in the season the defense is usually the one thing that can suffer a little bit because players are seeing action at multiple positions.
Last weekend, coach Shannon Wathen had a different outfield rotation three times, used two different catchers, third basemen, second basemen and first basemen.
CU fell victim to 13 errors on the defense side and nine unearned runs were scored.
Catcher Ryley Whitney did throw out three would-be base stealers on the week in the seven attempts.

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