TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

LADY LIONS' POST-SEASON OPENER DELAYED TWO HOURS

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Concord's Softball team will seek to change its history when it opens play in the WVIAC Tournament Thursday afternoon at Jackson Park in Vienna, WV.


The 11th-seeded Lady Lions take on the 6th-seeded University of Charleston at 12:00 pm.  (The contest was originally scheduled for 10:00 am, but had to be pushed back to noon due to heavy rain on Wednesday night.  The WVIAC has announced the entire first-day schedule is under a two-hour delay.)

Casey Ord Scores vs UC #2 235 x 247

Since 1995, Concord is under .500 overall in the tournament, and against the Golden Eagles. CU is 20-30 in the conference playoffs and 2-4 against Charleston.

All six of the Lady Lions' post-season meetings with UC came in a nine-season span between 1995 and 2003. Concord won the first matchup (a 6-4 win in '95) then dropped four straight post-season games to Charleston before claiming a 4-2 victory in 2003.

This year's Concord and Charleston squads are familiar with one another, having just played a doubleheader in Athens on Monday. UC took the first game, 4-3 in 8 innings, and Concord rebounded for an 8-4 win in the nightcap.

A glance at this year's WVIAC statistics shows that Concord goes into Thursday's matchup with the advantage on offense, while Charleston has an edge in pitching.
CU is third in the conference in batting average (.317); Charleston is 11th (.240).
Concord is fifth in runs (195) while Charleston is 10th (136).

The Lady Lions are much more active on the base paths – Concord has 55 stolen bases, second-most in the league, while Charleston has swiped ten bases in just 13 attempts

CU has shown a greater ability t
Brooke Bowling Pitch vs UC #1 314 x 235
o stop stolen bases, too. Concord's opponents have been successful in 69.6% of their stolen base attempts; Charleston's opponents have stolen bases at a 92.5% clip.

In the pitcher's circle, Charleston is third in ERA (2.58), while Concord's 3.93 ranks them ninth.
The Golden Eagles also have an impressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.93, compared to CU's 1.90.

The winner of Thursday's game advances to meet #3 seed West Virginia State at 7:00 pm.
The loser will face #1 West Virginia Wesleyan, #8 Seton Hill or #9 Alderson-Broaddus in an elimination game at 10:00 am on Friday, April 29.

2011 WVIAC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT CENTRAL






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