CEDAR CITY, Utah - The Southern Utah softball team will be back on the road this weekend to compete in the Hillenbrand Invitational hosted by the University of Arizona from February 19-21. The Thunderbirds will be playing six games over three days against Seattle University, the University of New Mexico, and No. 4 Arizona.
Last Time Out
The Thunderbirds are coming off of a win over Dixie State on Tuesday, beating the Trailblazers 12-6 for their first win of the season.
Josey White hit her second grand slam of the season in the win, highlighting a six-run second inning with the blast. Makall Whetten and Reilly Williams also hit home runs in the game, giving the T-Birds three total on the day.
Tyler Denhart picked up her first career win in the circle after pitching five innings of relief and giving up just three runs on six hits. Grace Owen also pitched a scoreless inning of relief to close out the Trailblazers.
The T-Birds also competed at the UNLV Rebel Kickoff last weekend, but didn't pick up a win despite some close contests.
White and Whetten provided the offensive power for the Thunderbirds all weekend as they hit a combined .433 with 15 RBI and five home runs. White hit .438 with four home runs and eight RBI. The redshirt sophomore slugged 1.250 and also scored five times. Whetten hit .429 with seven RBI, two doubles, and a home run.
Tournament Preview
The 2021 Hillenbrand Invitational will consist of four teams playing in a round-robin format: Seattle University, University of New Mexico, Southern Utah, and the host Wildcats.
The Wildcats opened the season at the No. 3-ranked team in the country, but after the Texas Classic was canceled last weekend due to weather conditions and they did not play any games, they dropped to No. 4 this week. The Wildcats have two of the best home run hitters in the country in Jessie Harper and Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza. Harper is the active career leader with 76 home runs, 19 shy of the NCAA record, while Palomino-Cardoza is third among active players with 61 homers. Head coach Mike Candrea enters 2021 as the winningest coach in NCAA softball history, with 1,633 wins (all at Arizona).
This weekend will be opening weekend for New Mexico as they did not compete last weekend. The Lobos return almost all of their starters from 2020, highlighted by the return of seniors Cameryn O'Grady, Kiana Spencer and Lauren Wilmert. UNM also adds 10 newcomers to the roster with six freshmen and four transfers. The Lobos finished with an 11-15 record in 2020 when the season was cut short.
Seattle U opened the season last weekend at the Kajikawa Classic hosted by Arizona State. They lost all five of their games including three to Utah, one to BYU, and one to the host Sun Devils. The Redhawks were picked to win the WAC in the 2021 Preseason Coaches' Poll for the second-straight year after winning the WAC championship and making a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2019. They were 9-15 in 2020 when the season was cut short.
Game Day Information
The Thunderbirds will open the tournament on Friday at 9:00 a.m. against Seattle University followed by a matchup with No. 4 Arizona at 3:00 p.m. On Saturday they will play New Mexico at 9:00 a.m. and Seattle at 12:00 p.m. They will wrap up the tournament on Sunday against New Mexico at 12:00 p.m. and the No. 4 Wildcats at 3:00 p.m.
All non-Arizona games will be streamed live on FloSoftball, a paid subscription service. You can sign up for a FloSoftball account to watch the games here.
When the T-Birds are playing Arizona, the games will be streamed live on the Wildcats' PAC-12 stream for free.
Live stats for every game will be available at tbirdstats.com.
Follow Us
Stay up to date during the 2021 Thunderbird Softball season by following @SUUSoftball on Twitter and Instagram and liking the Southern Utah Softball page on Facebook.
