March 21, 2005
ORLANDO - The UCF softball team hosts Atlantic Sun rival Lipscomb in its first conference matchup of the 2005 season on Tuesday, March 22 at 1 p.m. The Golden Knights enter game one of the doubleheader 27-17-1 on the season, while the Lady Bisons come in 12-11.
UCF took second place at the 2005 UCF Invitational over the weekend after going 4-1. The Black and Gold defeated Charleston Southern 9-1 (6), Northern Illinois 8-0 (6), Kent State 4-2 and No. 20 Georgia Tech 1-0 before falling to Georgia Tech 8-0 (6).
Stephanie Best paces the offense with a .347 batting average and leads the Golden Knights with 43 hits, including 16 home runs and 35 RBI. She has a team-high slugging percentage of .774. Bryttani Lindheim is second on the team in batting average with .301 with 34 hits, nine of which are doubles and one home run. Crystle Krafft and Amber Lamb are tied for second on the team in hits with 38, while Jania Shinhoster is a close third with 37. Lindsay Enders and Kelly McIntyre anchor the pitching staff with a combined record of 22-13. McIntyre is 11-3 with a 3.01 ERA, while Enders is 11-10 with a 2.42 ERA. Enders leads the pitching staff in strikeouts with 112 as opponents are only hitting .199 against her.
In the Atlantic Sun statistics, Best, Krafft, Lamb, Shinhoster and Lindheim (34) are among the top-10 in the conference for hits, while Best and Krafft (6) are also among the top-10 in home runs. Cici Alvarez has a conference-high 18 stolen bases, while Shinhoster is fifth with 10 in the stolen bases department. Best is tops in runs scored (31), total bases (96) and walks (27), while placing second in RBI. She is also third in slugging percentage (.774). Enders tops just about every pitching category in the league including wins (11), shutouts (5), innings pitched (152.2), appearances (27), games started (21) and complete games (18).
Leigh Little leads the way for Lipscomb with a .404 batting average and 23 hits, eight of which have been doubles. Julia Davidson leads the Lady Bisons in home runs with four, while Jessica Wilson leads the team in RBI with 17. Danielle Catalano paces the pitching staff with a 6-4 record and a 2.05 ERA. Catalano has struck out 46, while only issuing 13 free passes. The opposition is hitting .260 against her.
This will be the fifth time that UCF and Lipscomb have met on the softball diamond with the Black and Gold leading the series, 3-1. The last time that these two teams met was on March 26, 2004 in Nashville, Tenn. with UCF taking both games of the doubleheader, 5-2 and 4-2. Rachelle Schmidt led UCF, going 3-5 with one double, one homerun, two runs and four RBI. Kelly McIntyre and Lindsay Enders picked up the wins in the circle for the Knights.
Game one of the doubleheader begins at 1 p.m. Admission is free to the public to all UCF softball games.