NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team will play its last non-conference games of the year this Wednesday at Hampton before the final stretch of MEAC play the rest of the month. NSU and HU will play a doubleheader at 1 p.m. at the Lady Pirates Softball Stadium.
 
They were originally set to play on Tuesday, but the potential for inclement weather Monday night through Tuesday pushed the games back to Wednesday.
 
The games will mark the last for NSU before three straight weekends of conference action to close out the regular season. The first of those will find the Spartans at home this weekend for a three-game series against Coppin State.
 
Live stats will be available for both games against the Pirates. Norfolk State enters the week at 17-14 overall after having the weekend off from MEAC play. Hampton, now a member of the Big South, owns a 19-13 overall record after losing two of three against Charleston Southern this weekend at home.
 
NSU and Hampton will continue a series that has seen them play every year since 1998. The two teams had played as members of the MEAC Northern Division since 2012 before HU left for the Big South this year. The Spartans won two out of three in four of those seven seasons in the North, including last year. The Pirates earned a series win in the other three years. NSU is 52-70-1 against Hampton all-time.
 
The Pirates go into Wednesday's games hitting slightly better than the Spartans but holding a worse ERA. HU is batting .282 on the season, with Taylor Warrick tops on the team at .385 with 25 runs, eight doubles, five triples, five home runs and 31 RBI. DaSha Hill is second at .320 with 23 runs and 24 stolen bases.
 
Hampton has 92 stolen bases as a team, and the Pirates are ranked third in the nation in stolen bases per game at 2.88. NSU is 10^th at 2.26.
 
Emily Workman owns a 5-1 record with a 1.92 ERA in 47.1 innings for HU. Allie Hotetz has pitched 82.1 innings and carries a 9-6 record and a 3.83 ERA. As a team, the Pirates have a 3.68 ERA.
 
NSU, meanwhile, has the best ERA in the MEAC at 3.09. Hunter Halford leads the league with a 2.62 ERA, tallying a 9-8 record with 68 strikeouts in 101.1 innings of work. Skylar Swain is also up there with a 3.26 ERA in 58.0 innings.
 
Junior Shelby DesChamps is now hitting .429 after going 3-for-6 last Wednesday in a doubleheader at UMBC. She has scored 32 runs with seven doubles and 18 stolen bases. Kylee Lopez is hitting .337 with 21 runs, four home runs and a team-leading 27 RBI. Both players are second in the league in their respective categories of runs (DesChamps) and RBI (Lopez).
 
Sophomore Tuli Iosefa leads the league in home runs with six, and DesChamps also has the most hits in the MEAC with 45. DesChamps is 31^st in the nation in runs per game at 1.03, 32^nd in stolen bases per game at 0.58 and 39^th in average. Sophomore Jazzmaine Hammond is 14^th in the nation in stolen bases per game with 0.69.
 
The Spartans are still the only team in the league with a winning record. With 12 non-conference wins, they will finish with the most in the regular season since 2009 when they had 16.