February 8, 2008 --- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

Lady Pioneers To Open Season Against 1st Year Program Stanly CC
SMC Squad Looks To Build On Successful Fall and Go To Region Tournament 

SPARTANBURG, SC – The SMC Lady Pioneers softball team looks to build on what head coach Rick Pauly calls its best fall yet as it opens its spring 2008 season this Saturday against the first-year Stanley Community College softball team. 

The Saturday doubleheader is at 1 pm and 3 pm at Grant Softball Field on the Spartanburg Methodist College campus. 

“With this being Stanly’s first year of play, we’re really not sure how their recruiting has gone and what kind of talent they’re going to bring, but we’ll assume that we’re going to be the better of the two teams. We have a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this game and this season as a whole,” says Pauly. 

While the lineup for Saturday’s game has not been finalized, Pauly says a core six are set and the remaining three positions will be filled by strong players as well. 

With freshman Laura Trout, of Summerville, SC, at shortstop and sophomores Anna Oswald, of Columbia, SC, and Whitney Wiles, of Starr, SC, at first base and left field, respectively, the Pioneers are set to kick the season off with an impressive performance. 

The team will also be looking at its front-line pitchers to be at the top of their game. 

“As always in fast-pitch softball, pitching is the key,” says Pauly.

Pitcher Chelsi Edwards, a sophomore from Inman, SC, was ranked 10th  in the NJCAA last season in strikeouts per seven innings. Also expected to  help shut down Stanly’s offense is pitcher Brittany Scoggins, of Boiling Springs, SC. 

Pauly says the goal of the season is to win the regional tournament and get to Nationals – but it will be a challenging season. 

He expects matchups against Aiken Tech and Louisburg Community College to be the team’s toughest. 

“We’ve beefed up the front end of the schedule to make us tough. We’ll find out the weekend of February 15 at the Aiken Tech tournament how we’re really going to be this season. The Aiken Tech tournament is one of the top junior college tournaments on the east coast,” Pauly adds.  

Pauly predicts that fellow junior colleges Georgia Perimeter College and Walters State Community College will also be tight matchups. 

“Georgia Perimeter finished fifth in nation last year – but we did beat them on the road last year. Walters State is near the top also,” he says.

But the Lady Pioneers are counting on the momentum of the fall season to help start the spring season on a positive note and propel them to successful bid at the Region X tournament.

The team’s fall season included six scrimmage wins against National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics member teams, along with holding three others to a tie game– in addition to a competitive matchup with Furman University which the Lady Pioneers lost by only 2 runs in the final inning. 

“We had a great fall by our standards. We played 25 games which were mostly against NCAA Division II schools. Our girls played very strong considering we are a two year program competing against four year programs,” says Pauly. 

The Lady Pioneers will meet up against North Greenville University twice this season – on Feb. 14 and March 11. SMC lost to NGU in a fall season scrimmage 5-1.

Spartanburg Methodist College has 14 intercollegiate teams that compete in Region X of the National Junior College Athletic Association, which includes colleges in the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia.  

The College is in its 97th year of providing a quality education to students in a Christian environment. More than 90 percent of SMC graduates continue their education at other institutions of higher learning. 

For more information, contact head coach Rick Pauly at (864) 587-4399. 

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