April 11, 2008

ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio softball team will host Akron in a two-game series this weekend. The `Cats and Zips will face off at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Live stats are available via OhioBobcats.com.

Series Information
This weekend's game will be the 69th and 70th all-time meetings between Ohio and Akron. The Zips lead the series with a 54-14 record. The teams last met for a series on April 21-22, 2007. The Zips swept the `Cats 6-2 and 3-2 in Akron.

A Look at the `Cats (16-15, 3-5 MAC)
The Ohio Bobcats are fourth in the MAC East standings with a 3-5 (.375) conference mark. The team's .272 batting average is second best in the MAC. Five players are batting above .300 on the season, led by freshman Melissa Bonner with a .318 average.

Scouting Akron (13-27, 2-6 MAC)
Akron is fifth in the MAC East standings with a 2-6 conference record. The Zips are batting .260 as team, led by Lisa McClean with a team-high .362 average. She is the only player batting above .300. She also leads the Zips with 47 hits and 17 runs.

Cooling Waters
Bobcat senior Courtney Waters is on a team-best four-game hitting streak and hit the first home run of her career in Ohio's 3-2 win over Marshall on Wednesday. Waters is batting .307 on the season and leads the team in six offensive categories, including hits (31), doubles (5) and runs scored (25).

Go Shay Shay Shay Shay
After nabbing 29 stolen bases in her rookie campaign, sophomore Shalene Petrich continues to move up the list of best base-thieves in program history. Petrich is leading the team with nine steals, which brings her career total to 38 and advances her two spots in the record book to No. 5. Petrich is currently second on the team with a .313 batting average and 30 hits. She has scored 11 runs, has walked five times and has batted in nine runners.

Thirst Quencher
Since setting a career-high 11 strikeouts in her career circle-debut earlier this season, freshman Emily Wethington has proven why she was named Indiana's Gatorade Player of the Year two times in high school. Wethington is a double threat for opponents as she contributes on offense and defense. As a pitcher, she has recorded eight wins and has struck out 83 batters in just 87.1 innings of action. In addition, Wethington accounts for three of Ohio's seven home runs this season. She is third on the team with a .309 batting average with 10 RBI.

Seniority
With the most innings pitched of any Bobcat player in the last seven years (593), senior Michelle Sauter knows how to handle pressure. After the Bobcats lost the first game of a doubleheader to Marshall on Wednesday, the veteran pitcher went into game two and grabbed her eighth win and matched her season-high of seven strikeouts. Sauter allowed just one earned run out of 29 batters faced. She has a team-best 1.93 ERA and is eight wins away from grabbing Ohio's all-time record for career pitching wins.