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5/10/2009 - SOFTBALL
Campbell Learns Its Fate in the Tournament
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BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Fresh off the second consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Softball Championship, Campbell (38-14) will head to the familiar location of Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on the second-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels (45-11) on Thursday, May 14 at a TBA time. The Camels also were selected to participate in the Chapel Hill Regional last season and knocked off and eliminated the home standing Heels by a 7-6 score at Williams Field.
The 2009 Chapel Hill Regional will also feature the Georgia Bulldogs (39-10), who finished third in the Southeastern Conference and also were part of the 2008 Chapel Hill Regional and Radford (40-13), the Big South Champion.
The Camels are making the school’s second consecutive appearance in the NCAAs and third appearance overall after defeating Mercer by a 1-0 score in the Atlantic Sun’s title game this season.
Campbell is led by senior Karlie Love, who is hitting .378 with 15 home runs and 51 RBIs. In the circle junior Brittany Stanley (19-4) has been the story. Stanley captured the conference’s Pitcher of the Year Award and followed it up with her second consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament MVP Award after going 4-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 31 innings during the course of the tournament. Taylor McGee came on strong with two game-winning home runs during the tournament play and has now homered 11 times this season and earned a spot on the A-Sun All-Tournament team along with senior outfielder Hilary Wheatley.
Campbell played one team in this regional during the regular season in taking a 6-1 loss to North Carolina on March 25. The Camels took on one other team in the tournament field this season when they lost a heartbreaking 7-5 game to Chattanooga on the first day of the season, February 6.
North Carolina is led by senior outfielder Breanna Brown, who is hitting .357 with 42 RBIs. The pitching duo of Lisa Norris and Danielle Spaulding have both won over 20 games this season and have amassed 260 and 323 strikeouts each.
Georgia is making the team's eighth-consecutive and eighth overall NCAA postseason appearance in school history. Sophomore infielder Alisa Goler is hitting .453 with 20 home runs and 75 RBIs this season and has only struckout a total of four times in 139 at-bats this season. Senior Christie Hamilton is 21-8 with a 1.64 ERA on the season.
Radford’s offense is keyed by freshman Leigh Godfrey who has a .467 batting average and 79 hits this season. In the circle sophomore Chelsea Kelley is 24-7 with a 2.46 ERA on the season.
A total of 64 teams were selected to the NCAA Tournament with 30 conference’s being awarded automatic qualifications, while the remaining 34 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 seeds were seeded nationally with Georgia earning the sixth national seed. Florida University earned the top seed in the entire tournament. All 64 teams will be playing for the right to advance to the 26th NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, May 28-June 3. The winner of the Chapel Hill Regional is slated to advance to take on the winner of the Columbus, Ohio Regional.
Game times will be announced early in the week.
