Cougars Head to Conway for the Battle at the Beach

Friday, February 14

Conway, S.C.

5:15 PM

College of Charleston

Northern Illinois

2/13/2020 1:54:00 PM | Softball

Charleston, S.C. – The College of Charleston makes the short trip to Conway, S.C., this weekend for five games in the Battle at the Beach tournament, hosted by Coastal Carolina at St. John Stadium.

The Cougars open play against Northern Illinois on Friday at 5:15. They play twice on Saturday against Jacksonville State at 4:15 and Delaware State at 6:30 and two more on Sunday, taking on Jacksonville State at 11:15 a.m. and the host Chanticleers at 3:15.

Live stats will be available for all five games as will video streaming for the game against Coastal. Links for live stats and video are available on the Charleston softball schedule page.

The Cougars will be looking to bounce back from four defeats at the Trojan Classic last weekend in Troy, Ala. Chandler Sparkman and Drayton Siegling turned in solid performances in the circle, with Sparkman tossing a three-hitter with six strikeouts in a 1-0 loss to Lipscomb on Sunday.

Sparkman and Siegling both had nine strikeouts over the weekend, with Siegling fanning a career-high seven against North Florida. Jenna Helberg had four hits and drove in four runs during the tournament, while freshman Jenna Carter had four hits, scored four runs and stole a base.

Northern Illinois won one of five games to start the season, riding a shutout by Amber Bumbalough to a 1-0 victory over Bethune-Cookman. Katie Keller is the top returner for the Huskies after batting .424 with 21 doubles, 26 RBI and 13 steals a year ago en route to being named to the NFCA Freshman Top 25 list.

Jacksonville State earned an 8-7 win over IPFW among its three games last weekend after going 36-15 overall and 17-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2019. Karsen Mosley was named to the all-conference first team in 2019 with a .355 average, seven home runs and 25 RBI.

Delaware State opens its season this weekend after going 10-32 last year. Jasmine Melgoza was named to the MEAC preseason all-conference first team following a 2019 campaign which saw her bat .391 with 12 doubles. She has been a first team All-MEAC selection the last two seasons.

Coastal suffered a pair of one-run losses in going 1-3 last weekend, with its victory coming against East Carolina. The Chanticleers were 39-21 last year, losing to Louisiana in the Sun Belt championship game. Coastal returns the top two home run hitters in the Sun Belt, with Kassidy Smith belting 15 and Courtney Dean adding 13. Kaitlin Beasley-Polko won 23 games, saved five and struck out 172.