Lady Tigers Set To Play In MEAC Championship

SSU vs. Norfolk State Live Stats

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – The Savannah State softball team will open the 2013 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship on Thursday, May 8 in Ormond Beach, Florida against the Northern Division #2 seed Norfolk State University. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m.

SSU enters the Championship as the Southern Division #3 seed after finishing the regular season with an 8-7 conference mark. SSU ended the regular season this past week with a three-game sweep of South Carolina State for a 24-22 overall record.

In 2012, Savannah State entered its first MEAC Championship as the #1 seed out of the Southern Division. The Lady Tigers were upset in game one with a 4-5 loss to the Northern Division #4 Hampton University.

SSU regrouped after the loss, responding with back-to-back wins over Delaware State and North Carolina A&T. The Lady Tigers season ended in Game 12 of the Championship, falling to Florida A&M, 0-8.

After defeating Hampton Florida A&M loss to Bethune-Cookman in the Championship game. It was the third consecutive MEAC Championship for the Lady Wildcats.

Scouting Report
Northern Division #2 seed Norfolk State enters the 2013 Championship with a regular season record of 26-20 and a conference mark of 15-3.

The Lady Spartans were edged out of a regular season title with two losses to the Northern Division #1 seed Hampton University last weekend.

Sophomore Haley Ward leads the Lady Spartans with a .504 batting average, 60 hits, 17 doubles and 40 RBI. The team is batting .328 overall with a .394 on base percentage. From the mound, Norfolk State is led by Jamie Shulle. She has a 16-11 overall mark with a 3.13 ERA.

Thursday's matchup is not the first for the teams this season. Early in March, Norfolk State visited Savannah for a nonconference doubleheader. The Lady Tigers swept the series with 8-7, and 12-7 wins.

Record Setting Season
Savannah State is coming off a record setting regular season. The Lady Tigers, as a team, set a record for batting average with a .301, eclipsing the 2011 record of .285. The 2013 squad also set the record for runs (241), doubles (63), home runs (29), and RBI (200) in a single season.

A couple of Lady Tigers set individual school records as well. Freshman Torrian Wright now holds several single-season school records, including runs (37), batting average (.408), RBI (51), and home runs (16).

Senior Madison Hedderly set a single-season school record for doubles (12). In 2012, Hedderly finished with an ERA of 1.92, also a school record.

Nationally, Wright is ranked 12^th in slugging percentage (.864), and 39^th in batting average. She is 25^th in home runs per game, and 33^rd overall in home runs. The team is ranked 23^rd in doubles per game.

Milestone
On May 5, SSU downed S.C. State 5-1 in the opening game of a twinbill. The win broke a seven game losing streak for the Lady Tigers and garnered head coach Jose Gonzalez a milestone in his coaching career – his 100^th win.

Gonzalez is the winningest softball coach in school history. He is 102-156 overall and 20-10 in the MEAC.

Originally a defensive backs coach for Savannah State, Gonzalez took over the position six years ago and slowly built a team that had only nine Division I wins in the five years prior to his tenure.

Schedule
Regardless of the first game's outcome, SSU will play a second game in the two-game elimination tournament, on Thursday.

The Lady Tigers will play the loser of game 1 (#1 South vs. #4 North) at 4:30 p.m. if they lose the first game. If SSU beats Norfolk State they will play at 7 p.m. against the winner of game 1.

Follow the Lady Tigers on Twitter @savstatetigers for live tweets of the championship games. Live Stats will be available for all the games.

Coach Jose Gonzalez talks about the season the MEAC Championship

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