EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Softball heads to Rock Hill, South Carolina this weekend for the Winthrop University Coach Cooke Memorial Tournament. The tournament marks the final set of games before the start of the Ohio Valley Conference season for the Screaming Eagles.
USI (1-8) will square off against Marist College (10-4), tournament host Winthrop (9-5), University of South Carolina Upstate (15-1), St. Bonaventure University (3-1), and Youngstown State University (0-10). On Friday, USI faces Marist and Winthrop at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. CT, respectively. The Screaming Eagles will then play a back-to-back on Saturday against USC Upstate at 9 a.m. and St. Bonaventure at 11:30 a.m. CT. USI concludes the weekend trip Sunday at 9 a.m. CT against Youngstown State. USI is playing each school for the first time.
The Spin 95.7 FM will have radio coverage for all USI games this weekend except for Saturday's tilt against St. Bonaventure due to USI Basketball coverage.
The Screaming Eagles are coming off a trip to the University of Alabama Birmingham Green and Gold Classic last weekend. USI went 0-4, falling to Samford University, Belmont University, Purdue University, and UAB. Some of the highlights for USI in the tournament included a three-home run game against Belmont and a near comeback win against UAB.
Sophomore infielder
Sydney Long led Southern Indiana at the plate in the UAB Green and Gold Classic. Long batted .455 with two runs, four RBIs, and two home runs, both of which came in the game against Belmont. It was the first multi-home run game by a USI player since Allie Goodin had two against Tennessee State University in April 2023. Freshman catcher
Jordan Mackey also hit her first career home run in the same game against Belmont. Senior outfielder
Kennedy Nalley was also a big contributor during the tournament, recording two doubles and two RBIs. Freshman pitcher
Kylie Witthaus stood out in her start against UAB. Witthaus tossed her first career complete game, allowing only two earned runs.
On the season, junior outfielder
Caroline Stapleton is USI's top hitter with a .357 batting average. Stapleton has also scored a team-high four runs. Long is also hitting above .300 and is tied with Nalley for a team-best four RBIs. On the pitching side, Witthaus (0-3) has a 4.85 ERA, and senior pitcher
Josie Newman (1-4) has a 4.90 ERA. Newman tops the squad with 30 innings pitched, three complete games, and 46 strikeouts.
After two starts with double-digit strikeouts during opening weekend, Newman only totaled 12 strikeouts last weekend at the UAB Green and Gold Classic. However, Newman eclipsed 600 career strikeouts during the weekend. As one of three pitchers in USI Softball history with 600 or more strikeouts, Newman is 36 strikeouts away from second place all time (Brooke Harmening, 2012-15). Jennifer Leonhardt (2017-20) is USI's strikeout record leader with 787 strikeouts.
Links and coverage information for the weekend can be found through USI Athletics social media platforms and at usiscreamingeagles.com.
