BOONE, N.C. – Appalachian State University softball welcomes USC Upstate on Tuesday for a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. at Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium.  The Mountaineers will make their lone trip to Virginia on Thursday as they take on Radford at 5 p.m.

SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS

Appalachian State won its first Southern Conference series this past weekend in Greenville, S.C. as they won the final two games of the three-game series against Furman.

On Saturday, Caroline Williams improved to 3-1 after limiting Furman to three runs on six hits while walking one and striking out one.  The Wainright sisters combined for five-hit shutout on Sunday. Freshman Caroline Wainright hurled 5.2 innings and scattered five hits to up her record to 5-3 in the circle before senior Caitlin Wainright  tossed 1.1 innings of perfect relief to pick up her first save of the campaign and tied the school record with Teri Fister with four career saves.

Senior Megan Rembielak leads the Mountaineer offense with a .450 batting average to go along with 19 runs, 36 hits and 12 stolen bases.  Sarah Warnock and Allie Cashion rank second with a  .385 average. Cashion leads the team with eight homers, 25 RBIs and 21 runs while Warnock has tallied 16 runs, nine RBIs and four doubles.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS

USC Upstate enters Tuesday's contest on a two-game winning streak after defeating Western Carolina last week. The Spartans pounded out 23 hits en route to scoring 14 runs in two games against the Catamounts, taking victories by the scores of 6-2 in game one and 8-5 in game two.

With 12 freshmen on the team and as many as six or seven in the starting lineup in any given game, it should be no surprise that certain freshman would step up and begin to be leaders the team. That certainly has been the case this year for Upstate. Currently, three of the top four hitters on the team are freshman. Cheyenne Griffin leads the team with a .400 batting average. Fellow freshman Shellie Robinson ranks second with a .390 batting average and tops the club with eight home runs, 17 RBIs and 24 runs. Lindsay Kelly, who was an All-Freshman selection in the A-Sun a year ago, is the only non-freshman in the top four hitters, hitting .389 on the year. Hayley Reinfeld ranks fourth on the team with a .367 batting average. Another freshman, Lindsey Greeson, leads the team with 13 stolen bases.

SCOUTING THE HIGHLANDERS

Radford are 4-0 at home and 12-8 overall and are on a five game winning-streak.  The Highlanders went 5-0 at the Radford Invitational last weekend after spending nearly two weeks in Hawaii.

Nichole Beall is the only RU hitter batting over .300 with a .421 average and leads the team with 11 RBIs, 16 runs and five homer runs.  Ryndee Ruch ranks second with a .296 average with seven runs and five RBIs.  Jackie Jenkins leads the pitching staff with 51.1 innings of work in the circle with a 1.91 earned run average and a 4-2 record.  Micalah Sacre leads the staff with 30 strikeouts on 32.1 innings pitched.

ON DECK

The Mountaineers host Chattanooga this weekend for a three-game series. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled to start a 1 p.m. and first pitch on Sunday at 1 p.m.