NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team has just two non-conference doubleheaders left before MEAC play, and the first of those two finds NSU at home against North Carolina A&T. The Spartans and Aggies will play a pair of games on Friday at 2 p.m. at the NSU Softball Field.
 
Both games against A&T can be seen live on the NSU website. In addition, live stats will be available as well.
 
Following Friday's games, the Spartans will take on Radford on the road for a doubleheader next Wednesday beginning at 2 p.m. Conference play begins on March 23 at Morgan State with a Northern Division three-game series.
 
NSU comes into the weekend sporting a 9-10 overall record following wins over South Carolina State (3-0), Albany (1-0) and Iona (6-2) to close out the Spartan/Pirate Classic last weekend at NSU. Seniors Hunter Halford and Shannon Buffington combined on a two-hitter against the Bulldogs, and the next day sophomore Skylar Swain threw all seven innings in a four-hit shutout against Albany.
 
The Aggies, members of the MEAC Southern Division, sport a 3-13 overall record after falling to UNCG on Wednesday at home, 8-6. Their three wins this year came against UMBC (6-1) in a tournament at UNCW and then at home against Saint Peter's (8-3) and Rider (7-3).
 
North Carolina A&T hits just .228 as a team, and the only player hitting over .300 with at least 15 at bats is Zadaisha Waddell at .379. She owns one of the team's three home runs on the year with eight RBI. Samantha Ramirez is batting .278, and Alyssa Smith owns a .257 average. All other players are at .250 or below. The Aggies have scored just 37 runs in 16 games.
 
Waddell is one of three pitchers the Aggies have used regularly. She owns a 5.16 ERA in 29.2 innings of work. Hailee Cutts has two of the team's three wins with an 8.88 ERA in 24.1 innings. Mohagony Headen has pitched 37.0 innings as well but has an ERA north of 9.00.
 
The Spartans are hitting .274 as a team and have a staff ERA of 3.45. In the circle, Halford owns a 4-6 record with a 3.00 ERA, striking out 46 in 60.2 innings of work. She has started 11 games so far this year, while Swain has started six times. She carries a 3-3 record with a 3.34 ERA. Buffington has pitched in 13 games, 11 of those in relief, and owns a 2-1 record with a 4.11 ERA in 30.2 innings.
 
At the plate, junior Shelby DesChamps is batting .409 and has scored 19 runs with six extra-base hits and seven stolen bases. Freshman Makenna Heimann missed several games this past weekend but is still at .343 for the year. Senior Kylee Lopez is hitting .339 and leads the team with 14 RBI. She has scored 10 runs as well.
 
Other notable performances include sophomores Tuli Iosefa (.300, six doubles, two homers, 13 RBI) and Jazzmaine Hammond (.259, nine runs, 14 stolen bases) and freshman Gabby Vaughan (.255, six doubles, 13 RBI). As a team, the Spartans are 42-of-47 in stolen base attempts.
 
Just 1 More
Lopez now has 22 career home runs, and she needs one more to own the school record all by herself. She currently sits in a tie with Whitney Williams, Ursel Bruton and Lekita Wilson, who all had 22 during their respective careers with the Spartans. Lopez is also eighth with 26 career doubles and 12^th in total bases (204).
 
Who Else
Halford now has 21 career wins, which puts her 13^th in NSU records. She is also eighth in innings pitched (336.0), ninth in starts (55), 10^th in strikeouts (193), and 11^th in appearances (65) and complete games (32).
 
At the plate, Halford is also ninth in home runs with 13. Now that she has enough innings, Swain is 15^th in career ERA at 3.37.
 
2 More Wins
NSU needs two more to reach 11 non-conference wins this year. Since the 2010 season, NSU has had 11 non-conference wins (not counting wins in the MEAC tournament) four different times: in 2010, '12, '13 and '18.
 
The Spartans could get their most non-conference wins in a regular season since 2009 (16) with doubleheaders against A&T, Radford, UMBC and Hampton still to go.