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March 14, 2005
ORLANDO - Renee Luers-Gillispie will go for win No. 400 against her former team, Bradley University, on Tuesday, March 15 at 1 p.m. at the UCF Softball Complex. The UCF softball team will begin a 13-game home stretch with the doubleheader against the Braves. The Knights enter the first game 22-15-1 on the season after defeating No. 8 Washington and No. 20 FIU, while the Braves enter 3-5 after defeating Bowling Green, Virginia and Rider.
This will be the first time that UCF and Bradley have met on the softball diamond. Luers-Gillispie was the head coach at Bradley for three seasons in the mid 1990s. While at Bradley, Luers-Gillispie complied an 86-53-1 record for a winning percentage of .618.
Stephanie Best paces the offense with a .343 batting average, and leads the Golden Knights with 37 hits, including 13 home runs and 29 RBI. Best has drawn 21 walks, and also has a .750 slugging percentage. Bryttani Lindheim is second on the team in batting average with .301 with 28 hits, eight of which are doubles and one home run. Amber Lamb is second on the team in hits with 28, while producing 23 RBI. She has already surpassed her RBI total from a season ago.
Lindsay Enders and Kelly McIntyre (Richmond, British Columbia) anchor the pitching staff. McIntyre is 14-4 in her last 18 decisions dating back to last season. This season McIntyre is 9-2 with 2.99 ERA. Enders comes in with a 8-9 mark, and paces the staff by far with 98 strikeouts. The opposition comes in only hitting .203 against Enders this season.
Last time out, UCF went 3-3 at the 2005 Speedline Tournament, defeating Temple (3-2), Northern Illinois (6-5) and Long Island University (8-0) before falling to No. 10 Baylor (1-0), USF (6-2) and Purdue (2-1). Best led the Knights with a .389 batting average and a .889 slugging percentage. She was 7-for-18 on the weekend with three home runs, five RBI and four runs scored. Crystle Krafft was second on the team in batting average (.375) and slugging percentage (.813). Krafft was 6-for-16 at the plate with two doubles, one triple and one home run, while driving in three RBI and scoring six runs herself.
The Braves are hitting .227 as a team with Brittany Mynsberge leading the way with a .360 batting average. Mynsberge has nine hits with two doubles. Joanna Pettit leads the team with seven RBI.
Trish Kowalewski paces Bradley with a .625 slugging percentage after getting eight hits with one double and two home runs. Pettit is second on the team in slugging percentage with .591 after six hits with one double and two home runs.
On the mound for the Braves is Brittany Dehler and Rebecca Bishop. Dehler has an ERA of 1.28 after going 2-1 for the season. Opponents are hitting .212 against her. Dehler has struck out 13 walked 10 while giving up nine runs on 22 hits. Bishop is 1-3 in the circle for Bradley with an ERA of 3.05. She has given up nine runs on 27 hits.
After Tuesday's doubleheader against Bradley, the Knights will feature Georgia Tech, Kent State, Charleston Southern and Northern Illinois in the UCF Tournament starting Friday morning. Game one of the tournament will include Georgia Tech and Charleston Southern at 9 a.m. The Golden Knights will take on Charleston Southern in the third game of the day at 1 p.m.