TOWSON, Md. – The 2019 season gets underway for the Towson University softball team this weekend as it travels to Spartanburg, South Carolina for the USC Upstate Tournament.
The Tigers will face Miami (OH) on Friday, Feb. 8 at 11 a.m. before taking on the Penguins of Youngstown State at 5 p.m.
On Saturday, Feb. 9 Towson will face host team USC-Upstate at 3 p.m. and the Pirates of East Carolina at 5 p.m. All games will be played in Cyrill Staduim.
Last season the Tigers were 42-19 overall and ended the 2018 season ranked fifth nationally in batting average (.327) and in doubles per game (1.66). The Tigers also finished seventh in scoring (6.18), 11th in slugging percentage (.500) and 16th in on-base percentage (.400).
Towson had the most wins in school history and advanced to the National Invitational Softball (NISC) Championship.
"We are focused at taking it one weekend at a time," said head coach
Lisa Costello.
The Tigers are returning nine student-athletes who will be great contributions to the team.
Seniors include
Kendall Arcia,
Cassidy Meyer and
Nicole Stockinger who all should be great leaders on and off the field.
"Cass is doing great right now," Costello said. "She is hitting the ball well and we look forward to using her offensively this year." Last season Myer played in 21 games with 33 at bats, nine hits and one homerun.
"Nicole is going to be in the outfield, we may look to move her out of right field," Costello said. "We're going to look for her to continue driving in runs for us this year."
Stockinger started in all 60 games for the Black and Gold last season. She finished the season with a .347 batting average, 59 hits and 15 home runs. She tied Towson's single season record for home runs.
"Kendall is coming off a really good fall," Costello said. "She played very well and will be getting reps in the outfield."
Towson has 13 newcomers who are eager to jump into the swing of the program.
"Their coming along really well," Costello said. "They worked really hard to learn the way we do things which isn't too drastically different from what they have done in the past. They are a really hardworking group and hold each other accountable."
With the weather being a factor for the Tigers in the past couple of weeks they are looking forward to the warm weather ahead with the upcoming road tournaments.
"We are excited, we just want to be outside for a little while," Costello said. "We haven't had much of an opportunity this spring to be out. The weather has been really tough. We are excited to get outside see everybody on the field and see where we go from there."
"We are playing some good teams," Costello said. "Upstate is coming off a good year, ECU is always strong. It's good to be playing those southern schools and should be a good test for us."
Towson heads to South Carolina three different times in the coming weeks for the Coastal Carolina Tournament and the Furman Tournament.
The Tigers' home opener will be against Yale in the Towson Invitational on Friday, Mar. 1. Towson's longest home stand is seven games from April 10-17. The Tigers will face Georgetown, Howard, the College of Charleston and Villanova.
Key dates for Towson include the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opener at UNCW on Saturday, March 23. Towson's home CAA opponents are James Madison (March 30-31), Charleston (April 13-14) and Drexel (May 3-4). The Tigers will celebrate senior day on May 4. Towson will also visit reigning CAA Tournament champion Hofstra (April 20-21).
James Madison will host the CAA Tournament, which runs from May 9-12.
The NCAA Tournament begins May 17 with the Regional round from May 16-18, the Super Regional on May 23-25 and wraps up with the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City on May 30-June 5.
