Elon Softball Faces UNCG in Three-Game Set This Weekend

ELON, N.C. – Coming off a 10-game road swing, the Elon University softball team is back at the home confines of Hunt Softball Park this weekend, facing UNCG to begin a three-game set. The Phoenix and the Spartans open the series with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 7, at 1 p.m. The series finale will be held on Sunday, March 8, in Greensboro, N.C., starting at 1 p.m.

FOLLOW THE PHOENIX
• Live stats will be available for the series by going to the team’s schedule page at elonphoenix.com.
• Updates will also be posted on Twitter at the team’s account @ElonSoftball.

GAMEDAY PROMOTIONS
• The team will be giving out mini boxes of cereal to Elon University students for Saturday’s doubleheader in correlation for National Cereal Day.

LOOK BACK AT THE LIBERTY SOFTBALL CLASSIC
• Elon last competed at the Liberty Softball Classic this past weekend, Feb. 29-March 1 to close out a 10-game road swing.
• The Phoenix went 2-2 at the tournament, picking up victories over Fairfield and Yale. It was the final road tournament of the season for the maroon and gold.
• Claudia Penny’s walk-off home run helped the maroon and gold to a 6-4 victory over Yale on Sunday, March 1. Penny’s homer capped off a five-run bottom of the seventh as the Phoenix rallied for its first-ever win over the Bulldogs.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• The Phoenix enters the 2020 season with one of its youngest rosters in recent years. Among its 18-player roster, the Phoenix have 14 athletes that are freshmen and sophomores with 11 of those players having seen time on the field this season.
• Senior Morgan Reich and junior Ally Repko are the only upperclassmen position players for the Phoenix. Around them, Elon has seen 11 underclassmen play in at least 10 games while making at least one start.
• Elon is even less experienced in the circle, with senior Kenna Quinn entering the 2020 campaign as the lone pitcher who has started a game at the Division I level.

GRANT TABBED CAA ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
• Megan Grant was selected as the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Week on Tuesday, March 3. It was the first career weekly accolade for the Vinton, Va., native.
• Grant led the Phoenix at the plate last week, batting .429 (6-of-14) while posting a .643 slugging percentage and having a .529 on-base percentage.
• She helped the Phoenix to a 2-1 win at North Carolina last Wednesday, Feb. 26, going 2-of-3 with a double and a RBI for Elon’s third straight victory over the Tar Heels.
• She also had another multi-hit effort in Elon’s 6-4 win over Fairfield, going 2-of-4 and added a triple while scoring a run in the Phoenix’s 6-4 come-from-behind win over Yale at the Liberty Softball Classic.
• It was the second CAA weekly award for the maroon and gold this season. Quinn was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 10.

SERIES BREAKDOWN
• UNCG is the Phoenix’s most-faced opponent all-time with the two programs having squared off 83 times going into the weekend in Elon’s fastpitch era (since 1990). Both programs were league opponents in the Southern Conference from 2004-2015.
• The Spartans hold a 44-38-1 record all-time over the Phoenix. UNCG swept the maroon and gold in a three-game series last year and has won five out of the last six contests.
• Elon last win over the Spartans came in 2018 with a 6-4 victory at Hunt Softball Park.

SCOUTING UNCG
• UNCG sits at 11-6 on the season after going 3-1 at its home tournament, the Spartan Classic, last weekend. The Spartans defeated Oakland and Dayton (twice) before falling in its finale versus Appalachian State.
• The Spartans went 33-23 last season with a 12-5 ledger in the SoCon and were selected as the conference’s preseason favorite for 2020.
• UNCG is hitting .214 with two regulars in the lineup hitting north of .300 in sophomores Samantha Lagrama (.333) and Delaney Cumbie (.304). Cumbie is tied for second on the squad with her 12 RBI and three home runs behind senior Kayleigh Willis’ team highs of six home runs and 15 RBI.
• In the circle, UNCG has posted a cumulative ERA of 3.04 with four pitchers having tossed 10.0 or more innings. Rookie Morgan Scott has been the main workhorse for the Spartans toeing the rubber with a 6-4 record and a 2.82 ERA in 62.0 innings. She has also struck out 76 batters.

ON DECK
The Phoenix heads to Duke for a midweek contest on Wednesday, March 11. That game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.