FAMU (11-19) has won six of their last 10 games, including
three games last weekend at the USF Under Armour Softball Classic in
Clearwater, giving the Rattler Women positive momentum heading into their MEAC
opening series Friday and Saturday at North Carolina Central.
The Rattlers went 3-2 in the USF Classic, with wins over
Hartford (7-4), UMASS Lowell (1-0) and Maine (5-3), while their two losses were
nailbiting one-run decisions: 1-0 to Long Island University- Brooklyn in last
Friday’s opening game, and a 3-2 loss to Quinnipiac on Saturday.
FAMU is 11-19 overall with 20 games left in the regular
season, which has the ladies in position to improve on their 18-win total of a
year ago, which included the MEAC Tournament.
The rebound in the last 10 games (6-4) is uplifting, given
FAMU had started the season 3-0 and 5-3, before tumbling through a 12-game
slide for 5-15.
FAMU’s offense has begun to revive after getting outscored
97-23 during the 12-game slide, scoring 31 runs in the past 10 games, while
holding opponents to 31 runs, with two shutouts and two games allowing one run.
Sparking the offense to a .265 batting average, up better
than 30 points in the last two-plus weeks is junior center fielder Whitney
Farris (.400, 15 runs, 24 hits, nine stolen bases); senior infielder and
preseason first-team All-MEAC selection, Jessica Nathan (.340, 15 runs, 35
hits, 12 extra base hits (4 doubles, 5 triples, 3 HRs) and 14 RBIs); junior
left fielder Tashayla Irvis (.328, 19 hits, 10 runs, eight stolen bases);
junior third baseman/pitcher Amber Fullwood (.272, 5 doubles, one homer, 11
RBIs), along with sophomore infielder Toni Anderson (.270, 5 doubles, 3 HRs, 14
RBIs) and senior infielder Kieffi Myrick (.261, 11 runs, 3 doubles, 3 homers,
one triple).
The FAMU pitching staff has been solid, paced by junior
Kenya Pereira (7-9, 3.47 ERA) who has recorded 69 strikeouts in 103 innings,
and sophomore Veronica Burse (3-8, 5.12 ERA), who has 42 punchouts in 69.2
innings.
Head Coach Veronica Wiggins, in her 25th season at the helm,
was confident that this year’s group would turn the corner about this time
headed into league play.
“We set up our schedule with the early tournaments (five
tournaments, 26 games), to get us ready for conference play,” Wiggins said. “We
won 11 games in those tournaments, and the improvement and the growing
confidence is what we were looking for this year.”
Bettering their conference record is the next step as 15 of
their final 20 regular season games are league games, and FAMU is aiming for
the Southern Division title, a crown which has eluded them the past few years,
In fact, FAMU went 7-7 in MEAC play last year, but still
ended up winning the conference title with a 4-1 record in the championship
tournament. So the goal is to begin ramping up for postseason play during this
final stretch of the regular season.
Hopefully, FAMU will get an extra boost towards the Southern
Division title with the bulk of their
stretch run slate at home.
After this week’s league-opening series at North Carolina
Central, FAMU will host North Florida (Wednesday, March 30 – 4:00 p.m.
doubleheader), South Carolina State (Saturday-Sunday, April 2-3) and North
Carolina A&T (Saturday-Sunday, April 9-10).
FAMU closes the regular season April 29-May 1 in a
three-game home series against archrival Bethune-Cookman, with the April 29
games slated to be televised by ESPNU.