April 17, 2016 ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Oakland softball team hosts archrival University of Detroit Mercy in a Metro Series showdown driven by Trinity Transportation beginning with a single game on Monday, April 18 at 2 p.m. The series concludes with a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 19 starting at 2 p.m. that will be broadcast live on ESPN 3 from the Oakland Softball Field.
SCOUTING THE TITANS: UDM (11-31, 3-9) dropped a three-game set to Green Bay over the weekend. Junior Alyssa James leads the team in batting (.290) while sophomore Savvy Frestle is tops on the team in hits (34), RBI (18) and home runs (2). Freshman Ashley Mauser is the staff ace in the circle with a 6-10 record, 50 strikeouts and 4.02 ERA. Oakland leads the all-time series over UDM 17-8.
METRO SERIES HISTORY: During last season's inaugural Metro Series, Oakland trailed 8-4 overall and outscored UDM 18-6 through the winter and spring competitions capped off when Golden Grizzlies swept the Titans at Buysse Ballpark to capture the Metro Series. This year, Oakland holds a commanding 17-3 lead and will retain the cup for the second consecutive season.
POND SAVES THE DAY: Laura Pond picked her first career save striking out two in 1.1 innings of relief including getting out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning as Oakland held off Eastern Michigan, 6-5, (April 12). Haley Zemmer picked up the win not allowing an earned run in 5.2 innings of work with two strikeouts.
HARTLEY TIES ALL-TIME HOME RUN RECORD: Sarah Hartley belted two home runs in Oakland's 2-0 win over YSU (Apr. 1) and now has five home runs on the season and 18 for her career moving into a first place tie with Ericka Burns (2000-03) for the most career home runs in program history.
DYNAMIC DUO: Brittney Miller is leading the team and ranks fourth in the league in batting (.408), slugging percentage (.634) and on-base percentage (.533). Hartley is second on the team and 10th in the league in hitting (.360) and fifth in slugging percentage (.607). Both also lead the team in RBI (17).
RING EM UP: Zemmer ranks fourth in the league strikeouts (54) and seventh in conference-only statistics (20).
LONG BALL TANDEM: Hartley is one of five players in the league tied with five home runs while Miller has three accounting for eight of the team's 10 home runs.
THREE THE HARD WAY: Hartley and Kelsie Swanson are two of 10 players tied for third in the league in triples (2).
TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM: Lyndsay Hill ranks second in the league in sacrifice bunts (7) while Abbey Walewski and Kelsie Swanson rank third in (6).
ZEMMER CLOSE TO NO-HITTER: Zemmer tossed a one-hit complete game shutout with nine strikeouts losing her no-hit bid with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning against YSU (Apr. 1).
RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY: Due to rain and snow weather conditions, Oakland had four league games cancelled. The series finale against YSU was called in the bottom of the second inning (Apr. 2). The Green Bay series (Apr. 9-10) has been rescheduled to a doubleheader on May 3
#WEARtheBEAR
