Softball Opens MEC Tournament Play Friday - West Virginia State University Athletics

West Virginia State University Athletics

    The Yellow Jacket softball team has wrapped up its regular season and opens play in the Mountain East Conference tournament at 2:30 p.m. Friday against Fairmont State in Salem, Virginia.

    Click here to go to the tournament information page on the MEC website.

   WVSU has shown great improvement this season under first-year Head Coach Mattie Best going from 11-21 in the conference a year ago to 18-14 this season, good enough for second place in the South Division. The Jackets are 30-20 overall.

    One factor in the turn around has been the emergence of freshman Emily Moore as one of the better pitchers in the MEC.

     The former Winfield star currently has a 13-7 record and leads WVSU pitchers with a 2.07 earned run average.

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Junior Emily Thompson (left) and senior Calli Norton round out the staff. Thompson is 12-6 with a 2.32 ERA while Norton is 5-7 with a 2.72 ERA.

     Collectively they rank fourth in the MEC allowing just 2.31 earned runs a game.

     They are backed by the top defense in the conference which not only has the best fielding percentage at .966 overall but also has turned a league high 18 double-plays this season.

     Junior Brittany Allison leads the way at the plate with a .355 average, 11 doubles, six home runs, and 33 runs batted in.

      After Allison come fellow juniors Brookelyn Hale, who is hitting.314 and has driven in 25 runs, and Kayleigh Thompson, .313 with a perfect 12-for-12 mark in stolen base attempts.

      Senior second baseman Micca Mirabella is also having a strong year hitting .316 with 17 runs batted in and 19 stolen bases.

      West Virginia Wesleyan took first place in the South with 28-4 league mark. Shepherd took the North with a 22-10 MEC record. 5171

       The top four teams in the final standings in each division qualify for the league tournament.

       Notre Dame (19-29 overall, 14-17 in MEC), UVa-Wise (27-21, 16-16) , Wheeling Jesuit (24-22, 20-11), and Concord (17-25, 14-18) complete the field.

       Fairmont State comes into Friday's contest with a 22-24 overall record and 18-14 conference mark.

       The Yellow Jackets swept a doubleheader from the Falcons by scores of 5-1 and 3-1 in Institute just this past Friday.

        The tournament runs Friday through Sunday at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia









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