Live Stats | Live Video (with audio commentary)

NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team will finish its 2011 home and MEAC schedules and honor its departing seniors this weekend as North Carolina A&T comes to town for a three-game series Saturday and Sunday at the NSU Softball Field.

The two squads will play a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. and finish things up with a single game Sunday at noon. The softball program will honor senior Jeanette Sauceda and junior Casey Pomeroy, who's forgoing her senior year and graduating a year early, at 12:45 p.m. prior to Saturday's twinbill.

NSU athletics will provide a live video stream of the weekend's action, and for the first time ever, www.nsuspartans.com will incorporate audio play-by-play as part of the broadcast. Ross Gordon of the NSU Sports Network and former NSU softball player Meghan Ramsey will provide the audio commentary for all three games as part of the video stream. As usual, live stats for the games can will also be available.

MEAC Standings: NSU sits third in the Southern Division with a 3-6 record, while South Carolina State – whom NSU has a tiebreaker over – also owns a 3-6 mark. Bethune-Cookman continues to top the standings with a 6-0 record, while Florida A&M is second at 5-1. North Carolina A&T, 1-5 in conference play, stands fifth.

B-CU and FAMU will battle for first place this weekend, while next weekend, S.C. State will take on FAMU and A&T will face B-CU. If NSU sweeps A&T or takes two out of three against the Aggies this weekend, the Spartans will automatically advance to the MEAC tournament, as only the top four teams in the division head to the tournament.

If A&T wins two out of three, the Aggies would still need to win one game against B-CU while S.C. State would need to win two against FAMU in order for both of those teams to finish ahead of NSU in the standings. If A&T sweeps NSU, S.C. State would need a win against FAMU to finish ahead of NSU.

If NSU finishes as the third seed, the Spartans would face the No. 2 seed from the Northern Division in the first round of the MEAC tournament, currently Morgan State. Delaware State sits atop the North, while Hampton is currently in third place. Delaware State faces Hampton this weekend and Morgan State next weekend. Morgan State must still face Howard, while Hampton also has Coppin State left to play.

About N.C. A&T: The Aggies own a 7-29 overall record, including 1-5 in MEAC play 2-19 away from their home field. In their last competition on Wednesday, UNC Greensboro won a pair of 11-3 games over A&T. The Aggies split with Savannah State last weekend, winning 11-2 before falling 16-14.

Offensively, four players for A&T are hitting above .300, beginning with Hope Fletcher (.388, 14 runs, 5 triples) and Ryanne Hill (.370, 5 homers, 20 RBI). Detavia Kenan (.326, 14 runs, 12 RBI) and Lauren Clement (.314) also hit for a high average, and Juanita Jernigan (7 home runs, 15 RBI) and Tiffany Macklin (3 homers, 17 RBI) provide even more firepower.

Opponents, though, are hitting .375 against the Aggie pitching staff, which carries a 7.39 collective ERA. Fletcher has started 17 games and owns a 6-12 record with a 7.14 ERA, while Tranea Jones has started 15 games and carries an 8.30 ERA. Those two along with Clement have managed just 47 strikeouts in 215 innings.

Last Time Out: NSU used a seventh inning rally to win Game 2 over Hampton, 6-5, on Thursday after the Spartans claimed a 5-3 win in the first game. Danielle Wright added a pair of RBI in the first game, while Nikki Jones and Gipsy Ramirez each scored two runs. Whitney Holland hit a two-run double in the four-run seventh, while Candice Vasquez added an RBI groundout for the winning run.

NSU's Cal Ripken: Jeanette Sauceda has made 176 consecutive starts since her freshman year and has appeared in 183 career games, missing just one game during her NSU career during her sophomore season. Former teammate Brianeisha Eure, though, did one better, appearing in all 196 games during her four-year career from 2007-10 and making 195 career starts.

Boyd At It, Again: It's starting to become old news when talking about Morgan Boyd, who is now up to .343 on the season in batting average after sitting at .167 in mid-March. Boyd has hit safely in 19 of her last 21 games, owning a .435 average during that time frame. She had her best game of the season at UMES Wednesday, hitting 4-for-5 with two runs and three RBI in Game 1 of the doubleheader.

Not to be outdone, Danielle Wright has hit safely in 12 of her last 14 games and owns a .452 average during that streak. The duo have also combined for 39 stolen, the NSU Division I mark for most stolen bases combined by two teammates. Wright needs two more to tie the D-I mark of 24 stolen bases in a season, set by Cassandra Petway in 2005.

Other players who have hit well recently include catcher Kathy Cortez (10-for-30), Jeanette Sauceda (9-of-21), Melina Valles (11-of-20), Whitney Holland (10-of-22), Nikki Jones (9-for-27) and Gipsy Ramirez (11-of-30).

Up Next: NSU will play a three-game series at North Carolina Central May 7-8 for the final regular season games of the year.