The Lady Yardcocks look to take care of Business on Wednesday afternoon against UNC Charlotte
The Ladies in Garnet are currently sitting at 15-6 after winning both games in a double header against Gardner Webb Tuesday night. The No. 20 ranked girls look to face off against UNC Charlotte who are 14-7 coming into the game. The Game is set to take place at 2:00 pm and the girls are ready to keep rolling into the weekend against UCF.
Hitting:
The girls have been batting relatively well even when they were swept by Arkansas this past weekend. Aaliyah White is batting really well having batted 3-4 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. Kassidy Krupit 3-5 with 5 RBI’s and 3 runs scored. The team collected 18 RBI’s against the Runnin’ Bulldogs and collected 14 hits to outscore Gardner-Webb 20-4. The Lady Gamecocks have no problem scoring consistently and abuse all parts of the field with their bats. Baserunning seems to be second nature at this point, because out of the 174 hits on the season 35 are doubles in comparison to opponents only having 20.
Defensively these girls are still solid:
The girls are still consistent in holding opponents to 50 RBI’s. These lady 49ers have a batting average of .292 with 101 RBI’s so they are no world beaters in the batter box by no means. The leadoff batter for the 9er’s leads with 14 RBI’s, 6 home-runs on 64 at bats. Kourtney Gremillion has the most RBI’s with 19, and the team has a total of 163 hits on the season. Bailey Betenbaugh has to continue to be stunning on the season along with Leah Powell both being 4-0 on the season. The team has a total ERA of 2.21 and look to add to the team’s overall strikeouts totaling 84 as it stands currently. This pitching crew has allowed only 122 hits on the day. These underhanded bosses have only given up 42 runs compared to opponents 127.
This team and coaching staff:
As far as the way this team is playing, they have shined for the most part, but have had several bad moments. Coach Beverly Smith has led the Gamecocks to 7 NCAA tournaments in the past 10 years, so she knows exactly what to expect. She has this program consistently great and as far as her tenure she has broken 28 school records. To say Coach Beverly has what it takes to get these girls into, yet another tournament run is an understatement. She has recorded a record of 333-221, of the 7 postseason appearances, 5 were regional finals, and one resulting in a super-regional. These girls have 6 ranked series left in the season, and currently sit 1-3 against ranked opponents. When trials come solutions must follow, and so far we’ve seen promise but few results.
Overall:
I would be lying if I didn’t think the Gamecocks don’t make light work of Charlotte this afternoon. The Gamecocks are setting up to face off against Central Florida this weekend, but this 49er team is not to be taken lightly. When you look at this team’s stats, they lead their opponents with every stat but doubles, so they might not be the best in the world, but they can hold their opponents to less. That’s the name of the game, you don’t have to score 100 points, just hold your opponent to less hits, less runs, and just do enough. Overall, I think this team wins and looks to deal with the Knights this weekend when they come to town. This type of mid-game weeks is where you clean up on mistakes, solve problems and get prepared for the weekend. These ladies have to keep showing promise, keep the errors low, the ball flying off the bat, and sitting down batters. I have all the faith in Coach Smith to get this team to another NCAA Tournament appearance, but where they can go from there is uncertain. As is stands challenges have folded this team but this afternoon will not be as tall of an order to fill. Look for the Lady Yardcocks to provide a solid performance and be ready to take on the Knights this weekend.