NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team will conclude the regular season this week when the Spartans host five games in four days. Included in there is Senior Day for the program as it celebrates its four departing players.
 
NSU kicks off the closing stretch on Thursday against Longwood, with the non-conference doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. at the NSU Softball Field. Beginning on Saturday, the Spartans play their last MEAC series of the year against rival Hampton in the Battle of the Bay. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by a single game at noon on Sunday.
 
Senior Day will also take place on Sunday before the start of the game, as NSU gets set to honor seniors Seana Moriarty, Megan Przeslawski, Jaylene Pryor and Julianne Gillo. The official Senior Day recognition will start at approximately 11:40 a.m.
 
Norfolk State will have live stats and live video for all games available.
 
The Spartans not only close out their regular season, but with a good showing they can earn a spot in the MEAC tournament. Right now, NSU sits in fifth place in the Northern Division, a half game behind Coppin State for the division's fourth and final tournament spot.
 
NSU currently sits 8-7 in the league, just behind both Coppin State (8-6) and
Delaware State (9-6). Morgan State currently leads the division at 13-2, while Hampton enters the weekend with an 8-4 mark.
 
The only guarantees for the Spartans are that they would lock up a tournament berth with a sweep of Hampton and be out of the tournament completely if they fell to the Pirates in all three games. Should NSU win one out of three games, it would need Coppin State to lose all three games this weekend against Morgan State as well as next week's makeup game against Howard to finish ahead of CSU in the standings.
 
Should the Spartans win two out of three against Hampton this weekend, they would either need Coppin State to lose three of its last four games, or for Delaware State to take at least two out of three games against Hampton next weekend.
 
Both Coppin State and Delaware State own tiebreakers against Norfolk State. The winner of the NSU-Hampton series would also own a tiebreaker against the other. The Spartans could finish as either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed from the North should they qualify.
 
NSU owns a 19-26 overall record, while Hampton carries a 19-20 ledger into its games on Thursday against Liberty. Longwood, a perennial contender in the Big South, sports a 30-14 overall mark this season.
 
Southern Standings
Florida A&M leads the South at 11-1, with Bethune-Cookman squarely in second at 9-3. Right now, Savannah State (6-6) and North Carolina Central (5-7) have the third and fourth spots locked up ahead of North Carolina A&T (4-8).
 
HR Leader
One fact to look out for: junior Kylee Lopez is currently tied for the school's single-season home run record. She has hit 12 bombs this year, joining Lekita Wilson in 1997 as the only players in school history to hit that many. Only those two and Micki Rodriguez (11 in 2006) have ever reached double digits in home runs in an NSU uniform.
 
Lopez also has 15 doubles this year, the fourth-most in NSU history, as well as 40 RBI, the fourth most in NSU's Division I history. She has tallied 101 total bases this year, also third in D-I records.
 
NSU's home run power, which also includes eight from junior Hunter Halford, has put the Spartans within the school record as well. They have 35 on the year, with the fastpitch record of 36 set in 2014.
 
Leaders of the MEAC
Lopez is tied for the league lead in RBI and is second in doubles, home runs and total bases. She also ranks third in hits (50), fourth in slugging (.721), seventh in runs (30), ninth in walks (15) and 10^th in batting average (.357).
 
Halford sits fifth in home runs (8) as well as tied for first in walks (22) and sixth in total bases (68). In the circle, she ranks fifth in ERA (2.86) and fourth in opponent batting average (.244).
 
NSU leads the conference with 35 home runs, 15 more than the next closest team.
 
Series Facts
NSU has never defeated Longwood, going 0-23 against the Lancers all time. That includes a pair of losses last year by scores of 3-1 and 2-1. Hampton, meanwhile, owns a 69-50-1 edge in the series against the Spartans. The Pirates swept NSU last year, while the Spartans won two of three in both 2015 and '16. This will mark Hampton's last year in the MEAC.