CHICAGO – IUPUI softball will take on Northern Kentucky in the first round of the 2019 Horizon League Softball Championships on Wednesday (May 8) with first pitch being set for 1 p.m. ET on the campus of UIC. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

The Jaguars come in to the tournament as the No. 5 seed after finishing the season with an 11-11 record in Horizon League play. Northern Kentucky just overtook IUPUI for the No. 4 seed with a win on the final day of the season to finish at 12-11 in league play.

IUPUI's offense has carried the Jaguars through Horizon League play as the Jaguars have the third-best batting average in the league at .281. IUPUI's 18 home runs and 96 RBI are second in the league.

Individually, McKenzie Loge sits fifth in the league with a .382 batting average. Sabrina Trevino's six home runs are second in conference play and Mandy Dallas sits in third with five long balls. Trevino is also in fourth in RBI during league play with 18.

The Jags have struggled in the circle with a team ERA of 4.87, which is ninth out of ten teams in Horizon League play. The pitching staff has given up a league-high 29 home runs and allows teams to hit .308, second-highest batting average in the league. This has happened in a league low 146.2 inning pitched. The defense has been stressed to make plays as the pitching staff has a league-low 57 strikeouts.

The defense has been up for the task as the Jags sit third in fielding percentage in the league at .963 with only 23 errors.

SCOUTING REPORT
Northern Kentucky sits in the middle of the pack on both offense and pitching in the Horizon League. The Norse offense is fifth with a .267 batting average and the pitching staff's ERA is fourth in the league at 3.63. NKU's 73 strikeouts are ninth, just above IUPUI's. On offense, Northern Kentucky has hit a league-low seven home runs in conference play.

In league play, Ava Lawson leads the Norse with a .382 batting average and Jose Frazier is hitting .330 as the only two Norse to hit above .300. Lawson and Madi Mulder are tied for the team-lead with two home runs each.

In the circle, Taylor Ginther has been the workhorse for NKU, throwing 110 of the team's 169.2 innings in league play. Ginther has a 2.10 ERA and an 8-5 record while the other two ERAs on the pitching staff are 5.63 and 7.14. In her 110 innings, Ginther has only allowed three home runs and batters to hit just .255.

SEASON SERIES
IUPUI swept the season series against Northern Kentucky in Highland Heights, in what was both team's league-opening series. It was the only series that Northern Kentucky was swept and one of two sweeps for IUPUI.

All three games were very different with the first being a 4-2, eight-inning, comeback win for the Jags, the second, a 13-5 win in five innings and the final game of the series was a 1-0 win with Lexi Lucas throwing a three-hit shutout.