ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland University Softball opens the 2023 season with The Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Florida at ROC Park with five contests starting on Friday, February 24 against Notre Dame on FloSoftball.
Just like last year, Oakland kicks off the season a few weeks deep into the 2023 campaign with The Spring Games. Head Coach Lauren Karn led the squad to a 4-3 win over receiving votes James Madison last year to start while posting a 3-2 opening game record in her tutelage.
Sydney Campbell will anchor the team's pitching following a #HLSB Pitcher of the Year performance in 2022. The La Grange, Ohio native posted a league-best 2.23 ERA with a 23-9 record, allowing only 204 hits in 864 at-bats.
Allisa DiPrima and Lauren Griffith return to the lineup as the top two returning batters from a season ago with .324 and .314 averages, respectively. DiPrima notched 15 runs with 22 hits and 12 RBI while Griffith had a staggering 15 doubles and four home runs with 37 total hits.
Jen Krizka, Maci Brown, and Reese Ruhlman will also make their appearances known in the lineup with five of 2022's nine in a Golden Grizzly jersey again this year.
Oakland was picked first in the preseason #HLSB Coaches Poll on February 8 with eight of the nine first-place votes.
Recaps of The Spring Games will include all games from that particular day.
Golden Grizzlies The Spring Games Schedule
Friday, Feb. 24, 11:00 AM // Oakland vs Notre Dame
Friday, Feb. 24, 1:30 PM // Oakland vs Siena
Saturday, Feb. 25, 11:00 AM // Oakland vs UT-Martin
Saturday, Feb. 25, 1:30 PM // Oakland vs FIU
Sunday, Feb. 26, 12:30 PM // Oakland vs Valparaiso
SCOUTING REPORT
NOTRE DAME
The Fighting Irish are already two weeks deep into the new year having played the SDSU Season Kickoff in San Diego with a 4-1 record with a marquee win over Arizona State and a loss to host San Diego State. Next came the ACC-Big Ten Softball Challenge with a single win coming against Ohio State and two losses to familiar Northwestern from the NCAA Tournament last year.
This may be the first time Oakland will kick off a season with an opponent that the squad faced in the last game of the previous season as the Golden Grizzlies suffered a 16-1, five-inning defeat in the NCAA Tournament in Evanston, Illinois last May. Jane Kronenberger has a .419 batting average while Micaela Kastor posts a 1.17 ERA with a 1-0 record.
SIENA
The Saints are off to a hot 5-0 start with a double-header win against Monmouth on February 10 and a three-game series sweep of North Carolina Central. McKenzie Swinson posts a .667 batting average with nine at-bats, six hits, and five RBI. The pitching group is led by Nicole Patille with a 2-0 record and an ERA of 0.75 with only four hits allowed in 30 batters faced.
Siena was selected fifth in the preseason MAAC Coaches Poll with 74 points and no first-place votes following a 32-23 mark from a year ago that saw a loss to Canisius in the MAAC Championship game.
UT-MARTIN
At 1-4 overall in the short season, the Skyhawks are also two weeks into the season with only one game played at the Stinger Classic in Montgomery, Alabama, a 4-1 win over Kennesaw State as the rest of their matches were canceled. Further north, UT-Martin saw four-straight losses at the UE Softball Invitational to Kansas City and #HLSB member Green Bay.
The Skyhawks were picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference this year as the blue and orange are spearheaded by Kaci Fuller with a .632 batting average while a 1.80 ERA by both Emily Brown and Brooklynn Linneman lock down the pitching.
FIU
The Panthers are slated to tie for eighth in the Conference USA along with Middle Tennessee as the team didn't make the conference tournament a year prior. Brooke McCann is at a .476 batting average with 10 hits in 11 total bats. Ella Whitney is 2-2 with the best ERA of 4.36 while in the circle.
FIU is 6-5 overall so far this year and will start the multi-team event with Dartmouth, the only team Oakland won't see this weekend. The Panthers had success at the Felsberg Invitational against Kansas City and Georgia State but had two losses to No. 10 Clemson.
VALPARAISO
Valpo is 1-4 entering the weekend with a start against Siena after securing the team's only win against Western Illinois 1-0 at the DePaul Dome Tournament as losses piled in from DePaul, Saint Louis, Bowling Green, and Eastern Kentucky.
Taylor Herschbach has the Beacons' best batting average of .286 with four hits and two RBI in four at-bats. Easton Seib is 1-2 in the circle in the short season at 3.00 ERA in 18.2 innings pitched as the workhorse leads a pitching group that has ERAs of 12.16, 12.60, and 14.00.
PICKED FIRST… AGAIN!
The Golden Grizzlies are slated to be first in the Horizon League for the 2023 season as voted on by the conference's Head Coaches back on February 8 with eight of the nine first-place votes.
STARTING AT 100
Head Coach Lauren Karn will start the 2023 campaign with 100 wins in her pocket as the all-time winningest head coach in Oakland Softball history. Prior to THE Spring Games on February 24, Karn sits at 100-104 in her five-year career.
A STORM IN THE CIRCLE
Pitcher Sydney Campbell returns to play as the reigning #HLSB Pitcher of the Year following a 2.23 earned run average with only 204 hits allowed in 864 at-bats the La Grange, Ohio native has faced. Campbell's name is littered through the OU record book as she's first in-season appearances (43) and season wins (23).
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
Six freshmen join the Oakland roster in Jenna Johnston, Kayla Rodriguez, Maraina Smith, Taylor Carraway, Hailee Jenkins, and Kamryn Troyer.
