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University of North Florida Athletics

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DIAMOND PREVIEW: River City Leadoff

2/9/2023 2:30:00 PM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - North Florida softball makes its season debut as the co-hosts of the third annual River City Leadoff tournament. UNF, along with Jacksonville University, will jointly host games from Feb. 10-12 to open the season against IUPUI, Syracuse, Furman and Georgetown.

This will be the first of four home tournaments that the Ospreys will be hosting on the year. The UNF-JU Invitational takes place next weekend from Feb. 17-19, followed by the Spring Break Challenge from Mar. 3-4 and the UNF Invitational from Mar. 10-12.

All matchups hosted at the UNF Softball Complex will be broadcasted on SWOOPLife Live. Updates for each game will be made through live stats, as well as on Twitter at OspreySB for UNF games.


WHAT TO KNOW

  • Halle Arends was recognized by the ASUN as the Preseason Pitcher of the Year in January.
  • Last season, the junior was an All-ASUN Second Team selection that finished the season with a 20-6 overall record, along with a 1.74 ERA and 170 strikeouts.
  • Shannon Glover was also selected to the Preseason All-Conference team as an outfielder by the league.
  • She enters her senior season coming off a First-Team All-ASUN season with a team-high .337 batting average and 62 hits, along with nine home runs and 38 RBI.
  • Jeff Conrad will enter his first season as the head coach of the Ospreys after spending the past seven seasons as an assistant coach, as well as an associate head coach, at UNF.
  • He has helped produce 14 All-ASUN honorees, nine ASUN All-Freshmen, three ASUN Scholar-Athletes of the Year and one ASUN Defensive Player of the Year during his tenure in Jacksonville.
  • Along with Glover, the Ospreys return three regular starters from last season with Kayla Harper, Abi Annett and Savannah Channell.
  • They will also have Izzy Kelly as a returner on the mound after she pitched over 30 innings last season.
  • UNF brings in 12 total newcomers for the 2023 season, as seven of them are true freshmen after only having one last season.
  • After finishing as the runner-up in the ASUN Championship tournament last season with a 42-17 record, the Ospreys were picked to finish fourth in the coaches' poll this season with 148 total points.


OPPONENT NOTES

  • IUPUI finished last season with a 12-38 overall record to go along with their 9-17 conference record. The play in the Horizon League and finished the 2022 season with losses in seven of their last nine games. They start this year at the River City Leadoff, followed by the Pinnacle PC Invitational, the Samford Bulldog Classic and the Hoosier Classic. They were picked to finish seventh in their conference's preseason poll and are led by Jaida Speth and Jaylin Calvert, who combined for 57 hits last year.
    • This will be the first meeting between these two teams in program history.
  • Syracuse played in the ACC with a 26-21 overall record an 7-15 conference record last season. They defeated Louisville in the first round of the ACC Tournament but lost to No. 2 Virginia Tech to end their season. They head to the River City Leadoff to open their season with two matchups against IUPUI and UNF. The Orange return their top hitter from 2022, as Angel Jasso will attempt to build off a season where she had 50 hits, 30 runs, and five home runs. Kelly Breen also comes back as a sophomore after hitting seven home runs last year.
    • This will be the first meeting between these two teams in program history.
  • Furman went 22-33 overall and 8-10 during conference play in their 2022 campaign. They went 2-2 during the SoCon's Softball Championship with wins over No. 5 Mercer and No. 6 Western Carolina, but losses to No. 1 UNC Greensboro and No. 2 Samford. They enter the 2023 season with four All-SoCon Preseason selections with Ashlee Lykins making first team, along with Sierra Tufts, Riley Ladlam and Caitlin Goldwait being tabbed as second team. The Paladins were also selected to finish fourth in their conference, which puts them tied with Western Carolina.
    • This will be the first meeting between these two teams in program history.
  • Georgetown sported a 15-28 record overall and a 5-14 record in Big East play during the 2022 season...they will head to Jacksonville to open their season with a pair of matchups against Furman and JU, as well as one game against UNF...Mae Forshey, who was an All-Big East Second Team selection last year, returns for her graduate season as an infield player...she averaged .333 behind the plate, along with a 1.032 OPS and nine home runs.
    • UNF leads the overall series against the Hoyas, 2-0, with the last meeting being an 5-0 victory at home in 2019.


RIVER CITY LEADOFF SCHEDULE (at UNF)

Friday
IUPUI vs. Syracuse - 10 a.m.
IUPUI vs. UNF - 2:30 p.m.
Syracuse vs. UNF - 3 p.m.

Saturday
Furman vs. Georgetown - 2:30 p.m.
Furman vs. UNF - 5 p.m.
Georgetown vs. UNF - 7:30 p.m.

Sunday
Furman vs. IUPUI - 10 a.m.
Syracuse vs. UNF - 12:30 p.m.
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