Georgia Southern Softball travels to Jacksonville on Tuesday afternoon for a doubleheader against the Dolphins. The 5 p.m. doubleheader closes non-conference play in the regular season for the Eagles. GSU enters the games as the SoCon’s first place team with a 31-16 overall record and a 16-2 league record. Jacksonville is 28-21 overall and 9-7 in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
In their last outing, the Eagles dropped their second league contest of the season, a 2-1 loss at Appalachian State. GSU leads the all-time series against Jacksonville by a 7-5 margin. The series dates back to the 2007 season. Last year, JU took both games from the Eagles.
Marie Fogle hit two home runs last week including one in the Appalachian State series. She leads the Georgia Southern offense with a .418 batting average. Her home runs raised her season total to seven this year, tying her with Mackenzie Williams for the team lead. Fogle is fourth all-time in career home runs with 25 while Williams has 20 career home runs to rank in a tie for fifth.
Sarah Purvis enters Tuesday’s games with 183 total strikeouts which ranks her second at Georgia Southern in a single-season. She needs 23 more strikeouts to tie the school record, set by Cary Moone in 2004. Overall, she has a 16-8 record with 13 complete games on the campaign. Allie Miles picked up her fourth victory of the season in game two on Saturday against the Mountaineers. The SoCon Preseason Pitcher of the Year has returned to her 2010 form with one runs or less in each of her last four outings.
The Dolphins won both games against North Florida on Sunday after dropping the finale Saturday’s doubleheader at Florida Gulf Coast. Kayla Ouellet is hitting .349 this season to lead JU’s offensive attack. Sara Sigrest is 16-10 this year in the circle with a 2.17 ERA. Brittany Eppley is 9-8 with a 1.88 ERA.
This weekend, Georgia Southern hosts the final regular season games at Eagle Field for the 2012 campaign against Elon. GSU will honor its seniors on Saturday prior to the 1 p.m. doubleheader.
