EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After opening the Missouri Valley Conference season with an 0-3 record against Northern Iowa, the University of Evansville softball team hopes to use a midweek doubleheader at Middle Tennessee State to get back on the winning track before resuming conference play this weekend. The Aces (7-14) will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Wednesday for two games with the Blue Raiders beginning at 1:00 p.m.
 
Evansville enters the week hitting .276 as a team. Just 21 games into the season, the Aces have already notched 26 doubles as a team, exactly half of the team’s total in 2011. Ten Aces have contributed to the tally, with freshman Kayla Fortner and sophomore Niki Rahming leading the team with five doubles each. Evansville currently ranks fourth in the MVC with 1.24 doubles per game. 
 
Sophomore Taylor Perry leads the Evansville pitching staff with an ERA of 3.03. Perry owns a 1-2 record in the circle, collecting 20 strikeouts and owning a team-best .236 opposing batting average. Junior Sarah Patterson leads the team with 47 strikeouts on the season, averaging 5.9 strikeouts per game.

Game Coverage

	Live Stats	Radio	Game Notes
3/21/12 at MTSU (DH)	Click Here	91.5 WUEV	Week 6 Notes (PDF)

Scouting the Blue Raiders
Middle Tennessee State (7-13, 0-3 Sun Belt Conference)
The Blue Raiders’ stat sheet is nearly identical to the Aces, as both teams come off an 0-3 showing in the opening weekend of conference play. MTSU enters with a 7-13 overall record after being swept by Sun Belt Conference member North Texas in last weekend’s three-game series.
Hitting:
The Blue Raiders are hitting .279 on the season, averaging just over seven hits a game as a team. Kayla Toney leads the offense with a .474 average at the plate, with a team-high 27 hits and 16 runs scored. Kaycee Popham and Kelsey Woodruff are second and third, respectively, in RBI production and have each tallied four of MTSU’s 18 homeruns.
Pitching:
The Blue Raiders’ five-member pitching staff has accumulated a 4.82 ERA in the circle, led by Shelby Stinnett who has a team-best 3.65 average. Caty Jutson has seen the most action in the circle, tossing 44 innings with seven starts so far this season. With a 5.41 ERA, Jutson has totaled 20 strikeouts on the year.