BUIES CREEK, N.C.Looking to
regain some home field magic, Campbell hosts Atlantic Sun rival
Lipscomb Saturday afternoon at the Eakes Athletic Complex beginning
at 2:00 pm. CU will honor seniors Jessica Huffman, Stephenie
Pappas, Megan Paul and Kelly Weaver as well as junior Lauren
Caviness in between games as part of Senior Day.
The Camels (24-36-1,
5-9 A-Sun) have struggled at home this season with a 3-11 mark in
Buies Creek, but with their final five games of the regular season
at home they can end the season on a high mark.
Lipscomb (23-23-1,
8-7-1) jumped out of the gates to a 7-2 mark in the Atlantic Sun
but has struggled down the stretch posting a 1-5-1 mark in its last
seven league games.
The Camels enter the
critical conference doubleheader one game ahead of Belmont for the
final spot in the A-Sun Tournament; the Bruins (5-11) travel to
second place Stetson (8-4) on Saturday. The race above Campbell is
just as jumbled and with a sweep of Lipscomb, the Camels would find
themselves just a half game behind the Bisons for the fourth spot
in the tournament.
Campbell got a pair of
outstanding pitching performances Wednesday night from Caviness and
freshman Brittany Stanley despite dropping a pair of games to North
Carolina State in front of a record crowd of 514 at the Eakes
Complex.
Caviness (12-20)
allowed just one run and struck out seven Wolfpack batters in the
opener, but suffered her eighth loss of the season where she
allowed two or fewer runs. Stanley's (9-10) lone mistake of the
ball game was a two-run home run in the second inning of game two.
She yielded just four hits and one walk while fanning four NC State
hitters.
Caviness is closing in
on several Campbell single-season records as the season winds down.
The southpaw needs just eight innings, four appearances, five
starts and five complete games to put her name atop the record
books. The Fuquay-Varina, N.C. native has logged 69 percent of the
innings in the circle (98.1 of 142.2) since March 23 and has
started the five of the last six A-Sun games. She already set the
single-season strikeout record and the career strikeout record this
season.
The Camels are just two
home runs away from setting the team single-season record with 28.
Freshman Shayla Cullum leads the team with six blasts and is second
on the team with a .324 batting average.
Huffman stole her
42nd base of the season against North Carolina State and
entered the week ranked 10th in the nation in the
category. Huffman leads the team hitting .328 on the season with 15
doubles.
In Campbell's last
conference doubleheader, the Camels set the school double play
record recording their 29th of the season breaking last
year's mark of 28. Campbell entered the week ranked eighth in the
nation averaging 0.48 double plays per game.
Lipscomb
enters the doubleheader leading the Atlantic Sun hitting .306 as a
team on the season. The Bisons are second in doubles trailing
Gardner-Webb by four and second in home runs trailing the Bulldogs
by just one, but have played four fewer games than
Gardner-Webb.
Abby
Keese leads a group of six Bisons hitting over .300 on the season
checking in with a .376 batting average, which is fourth in the
A-Sun; she leads the conference with 13 home runs.
The
weakness of the Bisons has been their pitching staff which has a
staff ERA of 4.14 and an opponent batting average mark of .295.
Christen Campbell leads the group with a 15-11 record and 2.94 ERA
making 25 starts, eight more than Kim Jacobson (7-9,
5.49).
Former Campbell
standout pitcher Lexi Myers is an assistant coach for the Bisons
this year. Myers is third all-time in Campbell history with 360
strikeouts, second in appearances (119) and seventh in wins
(34).
Lipscomb leads the
overall series 4-2.