BALTIMORE, Md. (April 7, 2017)-Winners of two straight and seven of its last eight games, the Morgan State softball team returns to action this weekend for a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Northern Division match-up against Norfolk State at Lois T. Murray Field.

The three-game series gets underway with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. and will conclude on Sunday with a single game beginning at noon. Sunday's contest will mark 'Senior Day' for six Lady Bears (Audrianna Alvarez, Alyssa Blanco, Briana Jones, Korynna Lara, Victoria Propst and Kate Vosper), who will all be honored prior to the game.
 
Morgan State (14-11, 3-0 MEAC) currently sits atop the MEAC Northern Division standings tied with Hampton at 3-0. The two teams had their original MEAC opener (March 18-19) called off due to weather and will now square off in the regular season finale (May 5-6) in Baltimore.
 
The Lady Bears are coming off a 3-1 win at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) on Wednesday afternoon. The win capped off a season series sweep of the Retrievers this year, as Morgan State won all three meetings against UMBC.
 
Audrianna Alvarez leads the Lady Bears with a .316 batting average, along with a team-leading 24 hits and 14RBI. Damali Young leads Morgan State with 26 runs scored, doubles (5) and triples (3). Young also leads Morgan State in stolen bases with a perfect 28-for-28 on the season. Young is second on the team with 23 hits and has a .307 batting average. Kate Vosper is batting .291 on the season with 16 hits and 12 runs scored. Vosper ranks second in both RBI (10) and triples (5). Pitcher Amy Begg leads Morgan State with an ERA of 1.82 and sports a 12-5 record heading into this weekend. Begg, a four-time MEAC pitcher of the week selection this season, has tallied 100 strikeouts in 107.2 innings of work.    
 
As a pitching staff, Morgan State leads the MEAC with a 3.61 ERA, while Norfolk State is second with a 3.82 ERA.
 
Norfolk State (9-13, 2-4 MEAC) enters this weekend losers of five of its last six games. In their last outing the Spartans lost to Maryland Eastern Shore (4/3) by a score of 4-0 to drop two of the three games in the series to UMES.
 
D Bitler leads the Spartans in batting average (.394) and hits (26). H Halford is batting .311 on the season and leads Norfolk State with 18 RBI. Halford is also tied with K Lopez with a team-leading four homeruns. Halford also carries a 6-6 mark as a pitcher for the Spartans with eight complete games pitched. She's thrown a team-high 42 strikeouts in 85.1 innings of work.
 
The Lady Bears are 4-1 at home this season, while Norfolk State is 0-5 on the road.