TOWSON, Md. – The Towson University softball team will hit the road for the first time this season to compete against Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) foe Drexel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Friday's doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. inside the Drexel Softball Field. Game two will begin 30 minutes immediately following the first game. Saturday's single game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start time.
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 defeated Morgan State Wednesday, April 14 inside Tiger Softball Stadium. The Tigers came from behind to defeat the Bears in the bottom of the sixth innging.
The Tigers had three doubles back-to back- by
Chloe Poulich,
Lauren Ringhiser and
Jess DaBreo to help the Tigers take the commanding lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Scouting the Tigers
The Tigers are led by freshman
Mackenzie Lake who has a .458 batting average with 32 hits, seven doubles and five home runs.
Chloe Poulich has 27 hits, two triples, eight doubles and leads the team with 19 RBIs.
In the circle,
Julia Jackson has a 3.66 ERA with 20 strikeouts and is 5-3 on the season.
Melissa Abrahamian has a 4.05 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 4-5 record.
Scouting the Dragon
Drexel dropped two games to Villanova on Wednesday, April 14 2-0 and 6-5.
The Dragon are led by Kristi DiMeo who has a .410 batting average five doubles and 33 RBIs. Elena Woulfe leads the team in doubles (8) and has 14 RBIs. Linda Rush has a .482 batting average with four doubles and 31 RBIs.
In the circle, Brooklyn Daly has a 1.91 ERA with a 5-1 record and 23 strikeouts.
History vs. the Dragon
The Tigers are 56-34-1 all-time against the Dragon. The two teams last met in 2019 due to the season ending abruptly in 2020 due to COVID-19. They actually faced Drexel in the opening round of the 2019 CAA tournament falling 6-1 to end their season. Prior to that they defeated the Dragon 3-2 and 3-1 in May of 2019 to help them get into the tournament.
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.
