TOWSON, Md. – The Towson University softball team will host Villanova for a mid-week doubleheader tomorrow, March 17 inside Tiger Softball Stadium. First game is scheduled for a 2 pm start time, with the second game starting 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
Pre-Season Poll
The Tigers was selected to finish third in the northern division in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) standings in the preseason poll. In the North division, Delaware collected four first-place votes for a total of 22 points, while Drexel received three first-place votes and 18 points, while the Tigers earned the final first-place vote and 16 points. Hofstra came in last in the North while JMU was first in the south division.
Newcomers
The Tigers welcome five freshman to the team this year.
Ally Hickman,
Naila Neely,
Madyson Peters,
Mackenzie Lake and
Maia Wilkins all joined the black and gold during the National Signing Day period.
Madeline Harris and
Rylee Penrod also joined the squad during the off season.
Returners
Towson welcomes back 17 returners including
Madison Wilson and
Lindsey Toneygay whose senior's season got cut short due to Covid-19. Wilson earned second team All-CAA honors in 2019 and drove in a team-high 11 runs in 15 games in 2020.
Lauren Ringhiser got off to a hot start a year ago, batting .378 in 14 games.
Last Time Out
The Tigers swept La Salle over the weekend including a 12-4 win on Sunday.
Towson (7-3) was led by center fielder
Nicole Kidwiler, who went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and a pair of doubles.
Julia Jackson pitched four innings for the Tigers, forcing seven ground outs along with two strikeouts.
Madeline Harris pitched the final two innings of the game, getting three ground outs from her defense and a pair of strikeouts. Towson had eight different runners score, led by three from
Mackenzie Lake.
Scouting the Tigers
The Tigers are 7-3 on the season.
Nicole Kidwiler has a .633 batting average and is 14-of-19 this season with six doubles.
Chloe Poulich leads the team in doubles with six.
Mackenzie Lakes leads the team in homeruns (3).
In the circle,
Julia Jackson has a 3.32 ERA with a 3-1 record and has 10 strikeouts. Both
Melissa Abrahamian and
Madeline Harris have 12 strikeouts this season.
Scouting the Wildcats
Villanova rallied to defeat Hofstra 8-6 to earn the sweep over the weekend.
Senior starting pitcher Anissa Amarillas pitched a completed game to earn her first win of the season. Three fielding errors by the Wildcats in the first three innings helped the Pride score four unearned runs, and Amarillas wound up yielding just two earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out three in her 19th career complete game.
Villanova leads the series 12-5. They defeated the Tigers 3-2 on April 17, 2019 inside Tiger Softball Stadium.
Tigers in the Community
The Towson University athletics department deems community service as one of its highest priorities to give back to the Greater Baltimore area.
Towson was on track to have its 8th consecutive year of over 10,000 hours of community service in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all activity. Towson finished with 7,527 hours last year, good for third in the NCAA Teamworks Helper Helper competition.
Towson ranked #1 nationally for community service and won the 2018 National Championship for Community Service through the Helper Helper NCAA Team Works Competition. Towson also won the 2018 Volunteer of the Year Award from Susan G. Komen of Maryland.
Up Next
Towson will continue its home stand hosting George Mason March 27-28. The first game on Saturday, March 27 will be at noon inside Tiger Softball Stadium.
