DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern will face its toughest competition to date when it head to Tucson, Ariz., to play in the NFCA Division II Leadoff Classic Feb. 15-17.
The Savage Storm will face at least three top-10 teams in the nation, beginning with a Feb. 15 meeting with No. 8 Augustana at 9 a.m.
SE will also face No. 2 California-San Diego at 1 p.m. on Feb.15. UCSD was national runner-up in 2012 after winning the title in 2011.
Southeastern's gauntlet will continue into Feb. 16 action when it faces No. 10 Minnesota State-Mankato at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with pool play concluding after a 12 p.m. matchup with Missouri-St. Louis.
Feb. 17 action will be in a final bracket with opponents to be determined through pool play.
The weekend's games are big not only because of their rankings, but due to the fact that Augustana and Minnesota State-Mankato are both Central Region foes.
SE enters the weekend at 8-3 on the season and coming off a 5-1 weekend in which the offense started to come out of its shell.
While
Jacee Bennett earned Great American Conference Pitcher of the Week honors and a spot on the Southeastern Regional Invitational All-Tournament team, it was timely hitting that powered SE through the weekend.
Joining Bennett on the all-tournament team were
Darrian Williams,
Laramie Beal and
Courtney Moore who each posted big weekends.
Moore and Williams both pushed their averages to .333 on the season, with Moore posting a total of four homers and 11 RBI, has driven in four and scored nine runs.
Beal picked up her first two homers of the season over the weekend, one of which tied the game against Central Missouri in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Storm is hitting .293 as a team with
Jessica Simmons posting a .357 average in the leadoff spot to lead the way and pitching in eight stolen bases with 10 runs scored.
Bennett is 5-1 on the year with a 2.22 ERA in 41.0 innings pitched. She has 45 strikeouts on the year and is holding foes to .196 hitting against her.
Friday's contest against SE will be the season opener for the Vikings who posted a 53-12 record last season while advancing to the NCAA Division II College World Series.
UCSD is off to a 6-2 start and is coming off a 3-1 series against Cal State-San Bernardino that was the conference opener for the club.
The Tritons are hitting .318 as a team and are led by Nicole Spangler who is hitting .500 on the young season with seven RBI. The team also features two others batting over .400 in Callie Grant and Amani Proctor.
Kayla Hensel is off to a 5-0 start to the season with a 1.06 ERA and has struck out 13.
MSU-M will also be opening its season at the Leadoff Classic and are coming off a 49-10 season in which it hosted a sub-regional.
UMSL will be the third of SE's weekend opponents that will be opening their season's at the Classic. The team is coming off a 27-25 season in 2012.
