MONTGOMERY, AL – The Alabama State softball team will get ready to go back on the road for a SWAC Eastern Division showdown and three-game series at Alcorn State on Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.  

The series concludes with a 1 p.m. start on Sunday.  

The schedule was pushed back a day with impending heavy rains in the forecast for Mississippi.

Although ASU won all three prior meetings with the Braves in 2015 by a combined score of 29-3, Alcorn State could arguably be the conference's most improved team.

The Braves (9-16 overall, 5-1 SWAC) are off to a strong start in conference play after sweeping Southern in a three-game series by a combined score of 23-6 and then took two of three games against Prairie View A&M  by a combined score of 23-13.

"This is the first step toward our goal this season-to win the Eastern Division," said ASU head coach Chris Steiner-Wilcoxson.  

"Alcorn is headed in the right direction and they're going to be a great challenge for us this weekend.  We're not trying to live in the past and we have to understand that last year was last year.   Our kids are focused and they're not going to take anybody lightly.  

Alcorn State also boosts one of the best starting pitchers by the numbers.

Junior Ashley Breal, a transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, has affixed herself as the Braves' ace with a conference-best 93 strikeouts in 94.1 innings pitched.  

Breal (8-8) also has pitched 14 complete games with two shutouts.

The Lady Hornets (15-19 overall, 6-0 SWAC) have also begun a successful stretch in which it has won seven of its last nine games after earning a split with Mercer at home on Wednesday with an 8-7 victory in game one and followed that up with an 16-5 loss in six innings in game two. 

The two-game series points to improvement shown over the past year for ASU after losing both at Mercer during the 2015 season.  
 

Alabama State will counter with senior Maddie Phelps (9-7), who picked up her conference-leading ninth victory of the season in Wednesday's game one victory against Mercer after hurling three innings in relief.  
 

Phelps is ranked second in the SWAC in strikeouts with 70 and has now reached the century mark in innings pitched with 100.  

She also holds the lowest ERA in the conference with a 3.15.  

Arkansas Pine-Bluff's Karia Hall holds the next lowest individual ERA at 3.53.

"They [Alcorn State] got a quality kid right now [In Breal] and she's doing a great job in leading her team," coach Steiner-Wilcoxson said. 

"She's helped turn their program around.  I'm proud of Maddie [Phelps] with all the forward progress that she has made this year.  I think it will be a great match up.  They are other good pitchers in the conference too so we have to take it with the one game at a time approach."

Follow live stats for all the games here: http://www.sidearmstats.com/alasu/softball/

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