Amy Kelley will see the majority of action behind the plate this season and boasts a .277 career batting average.
Play Ball: 2008 Softball Season Has Arrived!
2/15/2008 10:05:48 AM | Softball
WACO, Texas. – The Orange softball team begins the 2008 season with its first ever showing at the Getterman Classic hosted by No. 7/10 Baylor from Friday, Feb. 15 - Sunday, Feb. 17. The three-day affair will include games against Baylor, Centenary and Purdue. Syracuse plays a total of six games, with Centenary being the first opponent today at 11 a.m. The Orange then plays Baylor at 4 p.m. On Saturday, SU faces Centenary at 11 a.m. again and then plays Purdue at 1:30 p.m. The weekend ends on Sunday with contests against Purdue at 10 a.m. and Baylor at noon.
Fans can follow the Orange via livestats (clicking here). Both contests against Bears can be heard for free through Baylor's website (click here).
This season is the first time since 2004 that the Orange is not beginning play at the Kajikawa Tournament in Tempe. Ariz. Syracuse is 4-4 in season-openers, all time and its last season-opening victory came against No. 3 UCLA (2-1) at the 2005 Kajikawa Classic.
Syracuse is in pursuit of its 200th victory and enters the 2008 campaign with a 195-200-1 record. In the program's eight years of competition, SU is averaging 24.4 wins per season and has amassed 130 wins away from the friendly confines of the SU Softball stadium.
Mentoring the Orange for the second year are head coach Leigh Ross and associate head coach Kyle Jamieson. In 2007, the duo led the Orange to the program's sixth 20-win season and fourth consecutive and led the team to its fourth straight trip to the BIG EAST Championship.
SU ended the 2007 regular season by winning five of its last six outings. Senior right fielder Rachel Tilford ended her junior year on a seven-game hitting streak and accumulated a team-best 10 home runs. Classmate and centerfielder/pitcher Chanel Roehner is coming off her best season at SU, where she batted a team-best .336 and produced a team-high tying 50 hits. She was selected to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Region First Team and the All-BIG EAST First Team.
Junior Amy Kelley will see the majority of time behind the plate, where she started 40 games a season ago. She threw out six runners stealing and posted a field percentage of .984 in 2007. At the plate she posted a .274 batting average and drove in 19 runs.
Centenary and Purdue were both in action during the past weekend. Centenary began its season at the Texarkana Tournament in Texarkana, Texas. The Ladies twice faced Oklahoma State, Alabama-Birmingham and Arkansas and lost all six games. Sophomore infielder Allison Shepperd leads the team with a .438 batting averaging and is tied with two RBI.
The Boilermakers are 2-2 after competing at the Hampton Inn Bama Bash in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Purdue claimed victories against Jacksonville State (5-4) and South Alabama (7-6 (8)), while losing to Alabama twice (8-0 and 11-0). Freshman pitcher Suzie Rzegocki and junior pitcher Dana Alcocer each tallied a win and a loss. Rzegocki has pitched 14.2 innings, posting an ERA of 7.16, while Alcocer has pitched 7.1 innings, registering a 12.41 ERA.
Like Syracuse, Baylor begins play at the Getterman Classic. The 2007 Women's World Series Classic participant welcomes back 10 letterwinners and six starters. Junior infielder Brette Reagan returns after finished second on the team in 2007 with a batting average of .341, while sophomore utility player Kirsten Shortridge posted an average of .340.
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