WISE – Due to the lingering and ongoing effects of Winter weather in the Commonwealth, the UVA Wise softball doubleheader at Ferrum on Tuesday, February 10 has been moved from Ferrum to Wise. First pitch in what is now the home opener for the Highland Cavaliers is set for 1 p.m. on the Bill Gatton Softball Field.
This will be the first time Ferrum has played in Wise.
Links to live stats and video are available at
UVAWiseCavs.com.
The Cavs open their season today at Frost Stadium in Chattanooga when they take on Lee and Young Harris in the Lee Invitational. Tomorrow they will face West Florida and Union (TN) to close out the tournament. Frost Stadium (NOT named for the current weather conditions) is on the University of Chattanooga campus and is the host site for this year's NCAA Division II Softball Championship.
This will be the sixth meeting between the Ferrum Panthers and the Highland Cavaliers, mostly due to the different affiliations the two schools had for many years (UVA Wise being in the NAIA and then NCAA Division II while Ferrum was a NCAA Division III school until making the transition to Division II this season.)
The two first met on April 15, 1978 in the Ferrum College Girl's Intercollegiate Invitational Softball Tournament. Due to the number of games and teams (other teams there were Averett, Liberty, Emory & Henry, Randolph-Macon Women's, and Eastern Mennonite) there was a one hour limit on each game. Clinch Valley fell to Averett 8-7 in their opening game as Averett hit a 2-run single in the sixth inning and the Cavs didn't get another at-bat due to time. They bounced back by pounding Emory & Henry 14-6 with home runs by Terry Lanning and Debbie Hammock (Hammock was one triple away from hitting for the cycle). It was a double-elimination tournament, and they ended up facing Ferrum in an elimination game. The Cavs used their momentum from the E&H win to go up 9-5, but Ferrum rallied in the fifth to score nine runs before time expired to claim the 14-9 win over CVC.
The next time the teams met was in the 2008 season, when the teams met on March 13 in Ferrum. UVA Wise exploded for a seven run fourth inning and won the first game 12-1 and fell 3-2 in the second. Britney Lawson, Mary Wilson, and Shelley Newton each had three hits in game one, with Lauren Snead giving up two hits and striking out four batters. Game two saw the Cavs take a 2-0 lead before Ferrum tied it up in the seventh and scored one in the eighth to claim the 3-2 win. Sarah Frazier led the Cavs with two hits.
The most recent meeting between the two was on March 30, 2009, again in Ferrum, with UVA Wise sweeping both games of the doubleheader. In game one the Cavs took a 3-0 lead, Ferrum tied the game, and both teams scored again before the Cavs got one across in the top of the ninth to claim the 5-4 win. Holly Gilliam had three hits for the Cavs, while four others had two hits each. Snead went the distance, giving up five hits with only one earned run and striking out eleven batters. Game two was also a one run affair as UVA Wise took a 6-0 lead and held off a Panther rally to win 6-5. Gilliam once again led the team with three hits to go along with 3 RBI. Kaitlin Bennett added in two hits. Megan McCoy earned the win, going seven innings with five strikeouts and giving up five hits.
Following the games on Tuesday, the Cavs will host Cedarville and Charleston this weekend.
