Event: National Invitational Softball Tournament
Teams: UC Davis vs. Canisius; Sacramento State; Vermont; Colorado State; UNLV
Records: Aggies, 10-9; Griffins, 4-5; Hornets, 5-12; Catamounts, 1-10; Rams, 11-8; Rebels, 16-8
Where: SJSU Field and PAL Field – San Jose, Calif.
When: Friday at 11:15 a.m., 1:15 p.m.; Saturday at 11a.m., 1:15 p.m.; Sunday at 11 a.m.
Who to watch: With the Aggies‘ inability to score in their past few games, they are going to need to look to manufacture some runs this weekend.
Senior Belinda Paine leads UC Davis with a .286 average, four stolen bases and three sacrifice hits, all keys to a successful game of small ball.
Did you know? With her four stolen bases this season, Paine is the new Aggie career record holder as she has stolen 46 bases in her career. She’s only been caught 14 times, good for a 77 percent success rate.
Preview: UC Davis had a tough time getting runners across the plate in each of their games this past weekend.
The Aggies had been averaging 3.4 runs per contest in their previous 15 games, but in the four games last weekend were only able to score twice.
UC Davis will look to get back to being offensive this weekend as it faces three teams with losing records.
The Aggies will start play Friday with Canisius. Sophomore Lauren Hope leads the Griffins with a .355 average, .613 slugging percentage and five stolen bases.
The second game of the day will match UC Davis up against a Sacramento State team that it saw in doubleheader action earlier this week.
On Saturday, UC Davis will begin play with a struggling Vermont team that has only one win on the season and has lost its last five.
UC Davis will then face Colorado State in the afternoon game. The Rams beat the Aggies 3-0 at the San Diego Classic I earlier this season.
Weekend play ends on Sunday as UC Davis matches up against UNLV, which has won 10 of its last 11 games.
Three of those wins came against Big West Conference teams – two against UC Santa Barbara at the UNLV Invitational last weekend and an 8-5 victory over Cal Poly on Feb. 22.
– Max Rosenblum
