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George Hartmann

Leatherneck Softball Plays Arkansas Tournament

| By: WIU Athletic Communications

Western Illinois has five games scheduled across three days this weekend (Feb. 18-20).

The Weekend Schedule
  • Arkansas: Friday (Feb. 18), 2:30 p.m.
  • Longwood: Friday (Feb. 18), 7 p.m.
  • Illinois: Saturday (Feb. 19), 10 a.m.
  • Wichita State: Saturday (Feb. 19), 4:45 p.m.
  • Longwood: Sunday (Feb. 20), 10 a.m.
Where | Arkansas Tournament – Fayetteville, Ark.
Social media | Instagram and Twitter + #TRADITIONofTOUGH

Matchup history: This weekend's five-game schedule is the second weekend of play for Leatherneck softball, coming off a 2-4 start in last weekend's tournament hosted by DePaul at the Rosemont Dome in Chicago, Ill. The tournament opens up with a game against tournament hosts Arkansas, who Western leads in the all-time series 3-2, most recently facing one another on Feb. 12, 2010, which finished as a 5-4 Leatherneck victory. The opening day concludes with a matchup against the Lancers of Longwood University, who the Leathernecks have yet to play in program history
 
Saturday starts with a 10 a.m. first pitch against Illinois, who Western holds a 2-4 record against in six previous matchups. The Leathernecks and Fighting Illini have yet to play a neutral site game, making this the first. Saturday concludes with a 4:45 matchup with Wichita State, who holds an 18-16 advantage over Western Illinois in 34 previous matchups. Sunday sees a second matchup with Longwood to close out the tournament.

Scouting the Leathernecks:   Nine new players joined the Tradition of Tough since the end of the 2021 season; six freshmen and three transfers. Kayla Zamora, Jillian Morris, Georgia Rea, Cynthia Hull, Kaylee Ketcherside and Megan Leonard are all entering their first season of collegiate softball, while transfers Emily Price (UMSL), Lilli Weir (Highland Community College) and Kaylie Reynolds (Des Moines Area Community College) have previous collegiate experience. Reynolds and Weir were both junior college All-Americans last season. Each of the players made their Leatherneck debuts last weekend, highlighted by Kayla Zamora's .316 average and four extra-base hits.
 
Four returners from last year's team played in all six games last weekend, with Savannah Rodriguez making starts as both a hitter and pitcher, Ami Ill who hit the game-winning sacrifice fly against Western Michigan and Piper Foote, who finished the weekend with a perfect fielding percentage. Gabriela Drager also played in all six games, making five starts in the Leatherneck infield.
 
What's next: After a weekend off the Leathernecks return to action March 5-6 in Bloomington, Ind., for four games: two against Valparaiso and two against Indiana.
 
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