EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Softball concludes the regular season this weekend, hosting Tennessee Tech University in an Ohio Valley Conference series Saturday and Sunday at USI Softball Field. First pitches for Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's series finale are at 12 p.m.
 
Admission to all 2023 USI Softball home spring games is free, courtesy of The Women's Hospital Deaconess.
 
USI Softball will celebrate the 2023 senior class this weekend with Senior Day ceremonies taking place after Sunday's game. USI will recognize four seniors – outfielder Emma Tucher (New Palestine, Indiana), infielder Rachel Martinez (Chicago, Illinois), utility Allie Goodin (Evansville, Indiana), and infielder Jordan Rager (Fishers, Indiana). The 2023 seniors have led the program from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 all the way through the program's first season at the NCAA Division I level in 2023.
 
The Screaming Eagles (18-21, 11-9) head into the OVC's final weekend in fourth place in the league standings. USI can finish as high as third by the end of the weekend, as Southeast Missouri State University and Eastern Illinois University have locked up the first and second seeds, respectively. The University of Tennessee at Martin is idle this weekend and sits just ahead of USI in third with a 13-10 conference record. Southern Indiana won two of three games against UT Martin earlier this season. Below USI in the league table, a lot of jockeying for position to determine the final seed order can take place this weekend around the OVC. However, Tennessee Tech (6-42, 2-19) is mathematically out of contention for a conference tournament berth in ninth place in the standings. The OVC championship tournament begins Wednesday, May 10 from Oxford, Alabama.
 
Southern Indiana is coming off a midweek matchup against Austin Peay State University, falling 8-0 to the Governors on Tuesday. Austin Peay grabbed an early 3-0 lead off a home run in the top of the first inning and never looked back. The Governors increased their lead in the top of the fifth inning with three consecutive RBI hits.
 
In the non-conference game against Austin Peay, Goodin hit her OVC-leading 15^th double for USI, while freshman Lavin Osborne (New Albany, Indiana) tallied her first career hit on Tuesday.
 
Goodin has carried a hot bat in the conference season. In OVC play, Goodin is batting .464 with eight doubles, five home runs, and 27 RBIs. In conference action, the senior leads the OVC in batting average and RBIs and is top-five in doubles, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. In Southern Indiana's last conference game on April 23, Goodin led USI to a 5-1 win and a series win against Tennessee State University after hitting two home runs with five RBIs in the series finale. Her multi-home run game was the first by a USI player this season and the fourth such game in Goodin's USI career.
 
Overall, this season, Goodin paces the Screaming Eagles with a .417 batting average, 15 doubles, five home runs, and 34 RBIs. Her batting average, doubles, and RBI numbers rank among the top-three of the OVC, and her batting average and doubles total are top-35, respectively, in the nation. Junior first baseman Lexi Fair (Greenwood, Indiana) is second on the team with four home runs and 22 RBIs. Junior outfielder Mackenzie Bedrick (Brownsburg, Indiana) is hitting .305, leading the squad with 27 runs scored. Southern Indiana is batting .249 as a team with 59 extra-base hits.
 
Sophomore pitcher Josie Newman (Indianapolis, Indiana) leads the pitching rotation with a 14-10 record, 2.40 ERA, 135 strikeouts, and 16 complete games. She has tossed five shutouts this season. Newman is at the top of the OVC, overall and in conference-only games, for wins, strikeouts, and complete games. During the conference season, the right-hander has worked the most innings in the OVC with 90.1 innings pitched. Newman is a three-time OVC Pitcher of the Week honoree this season. USI's pitching staff has a 3.41 ERA with over 200 strikeouts and a .237 opposing batting average.
 
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, a few USI players are climbing USI's all-time ranks. Fair has been hit by a pitch five times this season and 37 times in her USI career, which ties the all-time mark previously set by Mena Fulton. Fair is also tied for eighth all-time with 19 career home runs, needing two home runs to enter a tie for fifth. Goodin has 17 career home runs, sitting a home run shy of entering the top-10 in USI's all-time history. Junior Sammie Kihega (Greenfield, Indiana) is third all-time in USI history with 79 career walks. She is three walks away from second.
 
It's been a tough season for Tennessee Tech, who was projected third in the OVC's preseason poll. The Golden Eagles are coming off a series loss last weekend against Tennessee State but have won three of their last seven contests. Graduate senior Haeli Bryson leads the offense for Tennessee Tech with a .317 batting average. Bryson has a pair of home runs and a team-best 10 doubles and 25 RBIs. The Golden Eagles are hitting .235 as a team with 62 extra-base hits and 28 stolen bases. Tennessee Tech's pitching staff has an ERA above eight and opposing hitters are batting .350.
 
The weekend series will be the first all-time meeting between the two programs.
 
All three games can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+. Additional coverage links are on the USI Softball schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.