Lady Flames Begin Road Trip at Elon, Tuesday
4/3/2023 4:38:54 PM | Softball
Liberty (21-13, 7-2 ASUN), coming off of a three-game sweep of Kennesaw State, heads to North Carolina to take on Elon (14-18, 8-3 CAA) on Tuesday to begin a stretch of six straight away games.
Hunt Softball Park
Elon, N.C.
Tuesday, April 4
Liberty at Elon – 4:30 p.m. Live Stats | Live Video (FloSoftball ($))
• Megan Fortner, a transfer from Jacksonville State, was named ASUN Player of the Week on Monday, batting .462 last week. Fortner recorded a pair of four-RBI contests (at Virginia Tech, home vs. KSU) while piling up nine RBI. She ranks third in the ASUN with 10 RBI in conference play this season.
• Liberty jumped out to an 5-0 lead and held off a late Elon rally on Feb. 26 in Lynchburg, as the Lady Flames defeated the Phoenix 6-4. Emily Estroff earned her first win as a Lady Flame, while Devyn Howard and Caroline Hudson opened Liberty's first inning with back-to-back homers.
• Liberty makes its first visit to Elon since opening the 2012 season at the Elon Invitational. Elon defeated Liberty 4-1, which was the first game as head coach for current Elon Head Coach Kathy Bocock and first game as Liberty's softball SID for current assistant athletics communications director Joe Carmany.
• The Lady Flames swept Kennesaw State at Liberty Softball Stadium over the weekend, outscoring the Owls 14-5. Liberty scored the game-winning run in the sixth inning on both Friday (go-ahead three-run homer by Caroline Hudson) and Sunday (go-ahead RBI groundout by Alexis Soto). On Saturday, Paige Bachman struck out a career-high 12 batters in a two-hit shutout, a 6-0 win over KSU.
• Beginning with last Tuesday's game at Virginia Tech, Rachel Craine set a program record by reaching base safely in 11 straight plate appearances (5-for-5, five BB, one HBP). She broke the previous record of 10, which was shared by four players, including current Lady Flames Devyn Howard and Rachel Roupe.
• Karlie Keeney (14-6, 1.98 ERA) is the ASUN leader with 14 victories, is tied for 11th nationally with five shutouts and is fourth in NCAA Division I softball with 134 1/3 innings pitched. Paige Bachman (6-6, 2.16) has thrived in an expanded role after pitching just 1 2/3 innings as a freshman last year. Her 12 strikeouts against Kennesaw State were the most by a Lady Flame since Emily Kirby struck out 13 batters in the first game of the 2022 NCAA Durham Regional, a 2-0 Liberty win over No. 19 Georgia.
• Rachel Craine (.342) leads the team in batting average and is second in the ASUN with a .480 on base percentage. Megan Fortner (.328) has recorded two homers and 11 RBI in the last 10 games. Devyn Howard (.306) is tied for second in the ASUN with 26 runs scored and has reached base safely in each of Liberty's last 12 games. Rachel Roupe (.298) is fourth in the ASUN with a .464 on base percentage and has hit two grand slams. KK Madrey (.295) is a team-leading 13-for-14 on steals. Caroline Hudson (.286) leads the ASUN with nine homers to go along with 26 RBI, while Mary Claire Wilson bats .280.
