BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The College of Charleston softball team concludes its regular-season campaign with a three-game stand at Samford on Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6. The teams play a doubleheader Thursday beginning at 5 p.m. EST and the series finale on Friday at 3 p.m. EST.
CofC (32-17, 11-9 SoCon) is riding the momentum of two straight conference sweeps over SoCon-leading Chattanooga and most recently, a three-game sweep of Western Carolina over the weekend. The Cougars are winners of eight of their last nine overall.
The Western Carolina series saw CofC dominate Saturday's doubleheader with 6-0 and 8-0 victories before a 10-inning, 3-2 victory in the finale capped the sweep. Kristy Giragosian (Charlotte, N.C.) plated the winning run with a bunt single as part of a squeeze play.
The Cougars have three hitters batting over .300 on the year in Carly Corthell (Reno, Nev.), Katie Forbes (Odessa, Fla.) and Kelsey Hodgson (Woodstock, Ga.). Corthell leads the team with a .340 average followed by Forbes' .339 and Hodgson's .336.
Two-time SoCon pitcher of the week Alexa Datko (San Diego, Calif.) leads CofC and ranks second in the league with a 1.84 ERA in 148.1 innings pitched.
Samford (11-37, 7-14 SoCon) comes into the games with a week's rest after their non-conference set with Mississippi State was rained out. In their last action, the Bulldogs were swept by UNCG with 12-4, 4-1 and 3-2 defeats. Briana Chambers was the bright spot in the losing effort with her 5-for-9 showing in the series.
Nicole Bobrowski and Robyn Harmon sit at the top of the Bulldogs' batting statistics. Bobrowski improved her batting average to .310 with a 3-for-7 performance over the weekend against the Spartans. Bobrowski also boasts four doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI on the year. Harmon holds a .306 average at the plate and leads the team in doubles (6) and triples (2) and is second in home runs with four.
Kayla Burris (8-14) continues to be Samford's most consistent pitcher. She holds a 4.45 cumulative ERA and leads the team in strikeouts with 91. She has started 23 of the 28 games she has played in and pitched 16 complete games and 140 innings.
The Bulldogs lead the all-time series with CofC, 5-3. In Samford's first year in the SoCon, Samford took the series from the Cougars and then defeated them, 6-1, in the first round of the conference tournament. Last season, Charleston took the series, defeating Samford 10-2 and 4-0 before being shut out, 2-0, by the Bulldogs in the final game.
The Cougars will await seeding and compete in the Southern Conference Championships next week at Statesboro, Ga., on the campus of Georgia Southern.
