MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama State University softball team returns to action on the road Thursday night, in the first of two games carried by the SEC Network this season, facing Mississippi State University at Nusz Park.
First pitch is scheduled for 6 pm, and the game will be carried on ESPN3.
Alabama State (3-9) hits the road for the fifth consecutive game after playing four games in Nashville over the weekend, winning one of those contests against Tennessee State. In the games over the weekend,
Valerie Centeno and
Kendall Core each had big weekends. Centeno recorded seven consecutive hits against Tennessee State before being retired in her final at-bat of the second game, while Core recorded nine runs batted in with a pair of home runs.
The Lady Hornets have become road warriors this season through 12 games, playing nine of those contests on the road with a pair of victories over Central Arkansas and Tennessee State. Although the Lady Hornets have played nine games on the road thus far this season, only four have been true road games and Centeno leads the way at the plate for Alabama State in those games with a .583 (12-of-17) batting average.
Perry Hindi is hitting .429 with a home run in those four contests, while Core is at .357 for the season in true road games.
Centeno leads Alabama State for the entire season, 12 games to this point, at the plate as she is hitting .462 with three triples, including a pair in one game. Hindi is hitting .455 with seven extra base hits, including three home runs; while Core is at .382 with four home runs and a team-high 18 runs batted in.
Laura Aguilar – who set the school record for hits in a single season last year – is hitting .333 with nine runs scored so far this year.
The Lady Hornets will be facing a Mississippi State (12-3) pitching staff that has recorded a 1.11 earned run average with 90 strikeouts, and allowing just 17 earned runs off of 77 hits. They are led by Alexis Silkwood (7-0) who has thrown five complete games and allowed just five runs in 48.2 innings of work.
Meanwhile,
Vanessa Bradford (3-3) leads Alabama State in the circle for the year as a true freshman. She has logged 32.1 innings this season, allowing 25 earned runs off of 48 hits and striking out 23. She has struck out a career-high five two times this season. Fellow freshman
Justine Jean (0-4) has lowered her earned run average to 6.53 after a stellar outing against Tennessee State over the weekend, while
Charlene Castro (0-2) has recorded a pair of saves for the Lady Hornets.
They will be facing an offense that is hitting .288 on the season with 61 runs scored off of 117 hits this season, while pounding out 30 extra base hits (including eight home runs). Bevia Robinson leads the Bulldogs offensively, hitting .500 with 10 stolen bases; while a trio of players – Reggie Harrison, Olivia Golden and Morgan Bell – have combined for seven home runs and 16 runs batted in Mississippi State.
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