APSU Sports: Austin Peay Women’s Softball
Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University first-year head softball coach Stephanie Paris may suffer a little bit of déjà vu this weekend as her Lady Govs play a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series at her alma mater Tennessee Martin.
With this being the Easter Weekend, the series will begin on 1:00pm, Friday, at Bettye Giles Field with a doubleheader, while concluding with a 1:00pm, Sunday single game.
It will be the second straight weekend Austin Peay (10-13, 1-4 OVC) will face a team picked to win one of the OVC two divisions this season.
The Lady Govs split games with East Division favorite Jacksonville State last weekend. Now they will face a UT Martin (20-9, 4-2 OVC) that is the OVC’s only 20-game winner thus far.
Offensively, Austin Peay enters the series with four hitters batting better than the .300 mark, led by Laurel Burroughs (.380 batting average), including seven doubles, three triples and three home runs. Kayla Davidson is right behind her at .379, with seven doubles and four home runs.
Rounding out the group is Lauren de Castro (.347, six doubles, four triples, two home runs) and Mel Pavel (.305, five doubles, one triple and one home run).
UT Martin has three players hitting .300-or-better, led by Kenzi Tate (.360, 6 HR, 29 RBI), Leah Taylor (.346, 3 HR, 25 SB) and Lauren Smith (.325, 6 HR, 18 RBI).
In the circle, Austin Peay is led by de Castro and Morgan Brewer, who both have 5-6 overall win-loss marks. De Castro owns a 3.15 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 73.1 innings while Brewer has a 5.11 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 61.2 innings this season.
For the Skyhawks, Tate leads their pitching staff with a 11-1 record, with a 2.08 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 73.2 innings of work.
