Hatter Classic Tournament Central

South Dakota is headed to sunny Florida this weekend for five games at the Hatter Classic hosted by Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., about a half hour from Daytona Beach. The Coyotes will face Cornell (0-0) and Stetson (10-3) Friday, LIU Brooklyn (5-8) and Bethune-Cookman (1-14) Saturday, and LIU Brooklyn again Sunday.
 
The Coyotes went 3-2 at a tournament hosted by Santa Clara in California last week to run their record to 5-7. More than half of South Dakota's games have been against 2016 NCAA Tournament teams and the Coyotes are 2-5 in those games with wins against Long Beach State and Wichita State. Add two more games to that tally this weekend as USD is set to face LIU Brooklyn twice. The Blackbirds are defending Northeast Conference champs who were eliminated in the NCAA Tournament by USD head coach Robert Wagner and his Arizona State Sun Devils in Louisiana.
 
South Dakota shortstop Shelby Keil was 9-for-15 with three doubles, three RBIs and seven runs scored in five games at last weekend's tournament. She earned Summit League Player of the Week honors for her performance and leads the league with a .455 average.
 
Wagner has used the same nine starters in his lineup for all 12 games this season. In addition to Keil, sophomore catcher Jessica Rogers is batting .367 and junior designated player Emily Winckler is hitting .333. Winckler hit .474 (9-for-19) during a recent seven-game hitting streak with a homer and five RBIs.
 
Freshman pitcher Ally Wiegand was limited to 1 1/3 innings of work in California due to injury. She is not yet 100 percent, but Wagner said she may net more innings this weekend. Rachel Cue (2-2) and Megan Green (1-2) have both pitched 21 innings each. Cue pitched in all five games last weekend, totaling 17 1/3 innings. She posted two wins, a save and 10 strikeouts with an ERA of 2.83.
 
This week's opponents:
Cornell (9-32 in 2016)
The Big Red are just beginning their season while the other four teams each have at least 12 games under their belt. Cornell lost its three top hitters, but returns senior Jessica Bigbie, a career .321 hitter, and gets back senior Michiko McGivney, who missed all of last season. McGivney is a 2014 first-team All-Ivy League performer. Junior Maddie Orcutt has won 15 games in her first two seasons in the circle. Rookies Cora Geunes, Katie Lew and Lisa Nelson all expect to earn innings this season.
 
Stetson (30-24 in 2016)
The Hatters are 10-3 with losses to Kansas, Ole Miss and South Florida. Stetson returns first-team all-Atlantic Sun performers Jessie TenBroeck and Kelsey Waters, both seniors who play second base and left field, respectively. Waters leads the team with a .462 average. Tenbroeck is at .314 and has 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts. Freshman catcher Blake Crews is hitting .371 with a team-high 20 RBIs. Stetson returns all four pitchers from last season including a pair of 12-game winners in Tori Perkins and Brooke Hutto. Perkins has started nine of 13 games and logged 58 innings. She is 6-3 with 30 strikeouts against seven walks and a 3.26 ERA.
 
LIU Brooklyn (30-27 in 2016)
The Blackbirds have had an interesting start to their season. They were outscored 32-1 in a four-game sweep to Florida Gulf Coast to start the season, went 3-2 at a tournament in Orlando, and went 2-2 last weekend in California with wins over No. 23 BYU (10-5) and Purdue (21-5), and losses to Ohio State (5-0) and Arizona (21-2).
 
Regardless, LIU Brooklyn is picked to repeat as NEC Champions. The team returns NEC Pitcher of the Year Erynn Sobieski, a junior who pitched in all but nine games for the Blackbirds a year ago. She is 3-3 in nine appearances this season with five strikeouts and an ERA of 5.90 in 40 1/3 innings of work. Battery mate Victoria Zamora was also a first-team, all-NEC performer last season after batting .342 with five home runs. Sophomore Schae Dickson currently leads the team with a .424 average and 13 RBIs after going 5-for-52 (.096) in limited time last season.

Bethune-Cookman (21-32 in 2016)
The Wildcats have lost 12 straight, though some of their losses have come against Stanford, LSU, Texas and Michigan. Bethune-Cookman is picked to finish second in the MEAC and has four preseason all-conference honorees including pitcher Sabrina Anguiano, the team's ace the past two seasons. Anguiano has pitched just 15 innings thus far and the staff has combined for a 7.13 ERA. Offensively, the three preseason honorees – Iesah Waters, Annie Bakenhus and Brianna Sanders – are batting .244, .213, and .135, respectively. Junior Mariah Davis (.391) and senior Kaitlin Alamprese (.344) are the only hitters above .270.