What: Madeira Beach Invitational I, the first of three sequential events
Where: Madeira Beach, FL (in central Florida, within 30 miles of Clearwater & Tampa)
When: Friday, February 15 – Sunday, February 17
Who: Akron; Ball State; Belmont; Butler; Central Arkansas; Delaware; Drexel;
George Mason; Holy Cross; Monmouth; Murray State; Quinnipiac; South Dakota
Teams to Watch:
Central Arkansas
–> Just a few years removed from an NCAA tournament appearance, the Bears sit at 3-2 on the year, with a lopsided loss to a much-improved Southern Miss team and a midweek loss to NAIA school Lyon College on Tuesday. The Bears always seem to be an enigma of a team that wind up in the thick of contention in Southland play, and a winning record in Madeira Beach will be a high mark for David Kuhn’s squad.
Ball State
–> The Cardinals have gotten better on a nearly annual basis under Megan Bartlett, and started the 2019 season with victories over LIU-Brooklyn, Penn State, and Florida Gulf Coast, while also losing to the Nittany Lions and Eagles to head to Madeira Beach with a 3-2 record. The team’s pitching staff struck out thirty-four while allowing eleven earned runs in opening week, while the offense hit just .129 and needs to start clicking to get into gear before MAC play begins.
South Dakota
–> With a 4-1 record to start 2019, the Coyotes are off to an extraordinarily positive start, considering the calendar had turned to March before the squad recorded their fourth win of the season in 2018. On opening weekend – where the sole loss came in extra innings to Dayton – the Coyotes hit .377 as a team, while the squad’s three-member pitching staff recorded a team ERA of 1.91.
George Mason
–> The return of Marina Vitalich in the circle is good news for Mason, who only got to see their ace make six starts a year ago. Despite struggles on opening weekend that leaves the Patriots with a winless record after a week of play, those losses came to quality teams, including Ohio State; Ole Miss; and Central Florida The team needs to pick it up in week two, and if Vitalich specifically can get into her groove, the Patriots could right the ship sooner rather than later.
Players to Watch:
Adrian Smith, Akron
–> The former St. Francis pitcher transferred to join the Zips in the offseason, and should immediately be a quality arm for the front end of the program’s pitching staff. Smith threw more than 2/3 of the Zips’ innings in their opening week, recording a 2.33 ERA and both of the program’s wins to this point.
Kristi DiMeo, Drexel
–> Building off of an incredibly impressive freshman season in 2018, DiMeo, and the Dragons, kick off 2019 in Florida after being off during week one. DiMeo ended 2018 with a .399 batting average, sixteen home runs, and fifty-seven RBIs. She set four program single-season records in her first season as a Dragon, including home runs and total bases, and led the league in slugging percentage.
Anna Steinmetz, Delaware
–> Already the Blue Hens’ career home runs leader with thirty-six career roundtrippers, Steinmetz finished the 2018 season with first-time all-conference and third-team all-region nominations. A consistent hitter as well as a powerful one, she boasts a .333 batting average after three games in 2019, and ended last year with a .341 mark.
Jessica Rogers, South Dakota
–> A veteran backstop, Rogers has gone largely unheralded during her career with the Coyotes; she earned all-region honors in 2018 after hitting fifteen home runs and hitting .376 on the season, with a .415 batting average in conference play. She led the conference in slugging percentage and finished in second place in the league’s Player of the Year voting.
