Rare Match-Up Puts Spotlight on ASC
April 2, 2008

February 23, 2008. Memphis, Tennessee. The sports world stopped for about three hours and enjoyed a rarity in college sports, a No. 1 versus No. 2 regular season match-up. A game that is usually reserved for the post-season was being played on this cold winter night in February. Memphis vs. Tennessee, it had been billed as an epic matchup. And as if the One vs. Two stigma wasn’t enough, Memphis was chasing a perfect season.

Fast forward to April 3 and adjust your GPS to Pineville, La where another One vs. Two match-up is brewing. It is almost like the groundhog coming out of its hole twice in one year. Well maybe not exactly like that, but rare nonetheless.

On Thursday, the top-ranked UT Tyler Patriots softball team visits the 2nd-ranked Lady Wildcats of Louisiana College in a regular season American Southwest Conference doubleheader. The similarities between the two games are actually quite noticeable. A one vs. a two, a game that looked to be competitive at the start of the season, but no one thought it would be this big, plenty of blue and orange to go around, and oh yeah, one team is chasing a perfect season. But on this night there will be no ESPN, no $1,000 tickets in the parking lot, and very little fanfare, just two teams doing what they have done all season, playing their best.

It has been an unbelievable season thus for the two teams, as UT Tyler will enter the game at 24-0 and Louisiana College comes in at 23-1. Both teams had high preseason expectations, but no one could have imagined this. Well maybe a few, the matchup seems to enforce what UT Tyler head coach Mike Reed has thought for sometime.

“All the coaches in the ASC have felt for years that our conference is one of the strongest in the nation. These games help spotlight ASC softball on the national level,” said Reed.

The series is being billed as Pitching vs. Hitting, the Unstoppable Force vs. the Unhittable Objects. The Patriots currently rank 2nd in the nation in slugging percentage, 4th in batting average, scoring, and doubles per game, and 6th in homeruns per game.

"UT Tyler is an unbelievable offensive team. This might be the best offensive club that we've ever faced,” said Tim Whitman, coach of the Lady Wildcats.

As good as the Patriots are with the bats, Louisiana College is equally as good from the pitching circle. The Lady Wildcats currently hold the 7th best ERA in the nation.

So what does all that mean and how do the two teams matchup? Well in comparison, UT Tyler has Division III’s 37th best ERA, while Louisiana comes in at 91st in batting average. Translation, the game should comedown to how well each team does in the other’s specialty.

The games will also feature the two East Division pre-season honorees in pre-season Pitcher of the Year McCaslin Carson of Louisiana and pre-season Hitter of the Year Lindsay Peters of UT Tyler. While seeing Peters, the nation’s 20th best hitter, take on Carson, the nation’s 11th best pitcher, provides plenty of intrigue to the series; it is the emergence of two other players that gives the series even more firepower.

Freshman pitcher René Schwartzenburg of Louisiana College and UT Tyler junior Megan Richardson have turned a lot of heads since bursting onto the scene in February and have added more depth to each team’s area of expertise. Richardson currently leads the nation in slugging percentage and RBIs, 7th in on base percentage and 14th in homeruns per game, while Schwartzenburg is currently 7th in saves and 24th in victories.

In the end, the stats will mean nothing, the message board chatter will cease and all that will be left to do is to play the games. Although there will be not be hours of pre-game coverage and weeks of talking, nothing will be stripped down about the way the two teams will play. Fans should expect nothing but the best from both teams, as both will undoubtedly leave it all on the field.

So Thursday, on a small patch of dirt in central Louisiana, something beautiful will happen. Two top-notch teams will take to the field, not in front of thousands, but just a few family and friends. There will be no multi-million dollar contracts on the line, just a group of young women who will compete for the love of the game and in the end that is the absolute best kind of rarity.

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