Thursday, May 12, 2011

Mercer’s Jenni Holtz holds the school record in career wins and strikeouts as well as the single-season mark for wins with 23 in 2009. Yet with all of those accomplishments, Holtz had to share the pitching spotlight with fellow senior Kari Chambers this season as Chambers emerged as the Bears’ top starter with a 15-9 record and 1.52 ERA entering the 2011 A-Sun Softball Championship.

Bears head coach Mike Raynor moved Chambers to the top of the rotation and Holtz to a reliever role, where both pitchers have thrived towards the end of the season and into the conference tournament. Holtz has earned both victories for Mercer coming against Campbell and USC Upstate, while only allowing two earned runs on seven hits in 14.1 innings of action.

Holtz capped off the Thursday slate of games by entering in the second inning against USC Upstate and holding the Spartans to one hit for the remainder of the game, while fanning five batters.

For Holtz, her supreme performance in tournament play is nothing new as she picked up two wins in 2009 as a sophomore en route to a championship game appearance for the Bears and added a win as a freshman in the 2008 championship.

“Jenni went from being an everyday-type pitcher with 20-plus win starting pitcher two years ago and she has slid into a new role and she has accepted her new role really well and the team likes her in that new role and well and we are going to see how far we can ride this horse.”

Mercer’s 2009 Championship game opponent, Campbell, awaits the Bears on Friday in an elimination game and if the pitching duo of Chambers and Holtz can continue their one-two punch then MU will be in great shape to advance