ANDERSON, S.C. - The Anderson University softball team is set to open a four-game South Atlantic Conference road swing, beginning with a twin bill at Newberry Saturday afternoon. First-pitch at the Wolves' Smith Road Complex is set for 1 p.m.

The Trojans
With the conference road test looming, Anderson has won 17 of its last 20 decisions and is 21-5 overall, including 4-0 in SAC action. The Trojans have the second-best record in school history at this point of the season since the 2013 squad posted a 29-5 record en route to an appearance in the Savannah Super Regional. AU also received votes in the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division Poll for the first time since garnering recognition in the preseason.

The Trojans extended their win streak to six games by sweeping Mars Hill, 9-5 and 7-2, three days ago at Smethers Field, as sophomore Courtney Czentnar and freshman Cailah Niles each clubbed grand slams to power AU past the Lions.

Niles, who entered the Mars Hill doubleheader tied for first in the nation in home runs and leading the country in RBI, slammed her league-leading 13th homer of the season in the nightcap. The Phenix City, Ala., native paces the Trojans and stands third in the league with a .439 batting average and ranks second with her .963 slugging percentage. Senior Jessica Neidigh, the reigning conference player of the week, is riding a six-game hitting streak and has reached base in 17 straight contests while hitting .425 on the season. She is second in the league with 11 stolen bases and has yet to be thrown out on the base paths this season. Freshman Chelsea Jones posted a pair of hits in each of the last two games and is hitting .373 heading into Saturday's twin bill, while ranking third on the team with 22 RBI.

Junior Molly Child is tied for third in the league with a team-high eight doubles, while batting .354. The LaGrange, Ga. native is second on the team with 23 runs scored and is third in slugging percentage (.561) and hits (29), and fourth with 16 RBI. Freshman shortstop Carli Hurtado is batting .304 with a pair of doubles and 11 RBI on the year, while going 10-for-10 in stolen bases.

Jones (7-1), who earned conference pitcher of the week accolades earlier this week, claimed both wins in the sweep of Mars Hill last Tuesday. The Eufaula, Ala., native has stuck out 46 batters while walking just two in 42 1/3 innings and is third in the SAC with a stellar 1.65 ERA. Sophomore Augie Pena is 7-1 on the season in 12 appearances and is third in the league with 8.73 punch-outs per game. Sophomore Lauren Rudesheim (7-3) leads the pitching staff with 16 appearances and seven complete games, has tossed 64 innings and is fifth in the league with a 1.75 ERA.

The Wolves
Newberry (19-12, 3-1 SAC) was a preseason pick to finish 12th in the South Atlantic Conference in a poll of the league's coaches after finishing 10th in last season's league standings with a 21-27 overall record and a 7-15 mark in the SAC.

Newberry has already defied the odds through the first half of the season, as the Wolves are tied for second, alongside Carson-Newman, Wingate and Coker through the early part of the SAC campaign. Newberry is an impressive 14-2 at home this season and has posted a 39-19 overall record at the Smith Road Complex.

Outfielders Ashlen Ayres and Gabby Bedard, who both returned for their senior campaigns in 2015, paced the Wolves' offense last season. Bedard had a team-high 50 hits and 14 steals with 27 RBIs last season, with a .345 average. Ayres hit .276 with 40 base hits and a .350 on-base percentage, while shortstop Hailey Drawe returned after leading the team in home runs, with five last season.

Led by seniors Brittany Middleton and Madison Burnett, the Newberry pitching staff returned three hurlers from a year ago. Middleton went 12-11 on the year with a 2.45 ERA in 137 innings and 17 complete games with a pair of shutouts in 2014. She finished in the top-10 in the SAC in wins, ERA, complete games and strikeouts a year ago. Burnett was 7-12 last season with a 2.58 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 111 1/3 innings pitched.

Junior infielder/pitcher Maude McCourry became the Wolves' first SAC Player of the Week selection since the 2010 season on March 10, after helping lead Newberry to back-to-back sweeps of Erskine and UVa-Wise. McCourry hit .667 (8-for-12) with a double, five runs scored and three RBIs over the four-game span, with a .750 slugging percentage and a .714 on-base percentage. She also earned a win In the circle, posting a 3.50 ERA, while allowing five earned runs in 10 innings on nine hits. She struck out 15 batters and walked only two.

As a team, Newberry is third in the conference with 239 hits on the season and is aggressive on the base paths, topping the SAC with 35 stolen bases, while also getting thrown out a league-leading eight times.

While five Wolves are boasting batting averages of at least .300 this season, Bedard paces the squad and ranks ninth in the conference with her .411 batting average. Ayers is fourth in the conference with 36 hits, including seven doubles and is hitting .371 on the season, with McCourry posting a .346 average through 31 games.

The Series vs. Newberry
The Trojans and Wolves have met 30 times in a series that dates back to the 1998 season, with eight of the meetings occurring since Anderson joined the South Atlantic Conference for the 2011 campaign. Anderson leads the all-time series, 18-12, and has won seven of the last eight matchups, including five straight. The early 2000s saw the Trojans win nine straight in the series, while Newberry countered with five consecutive victories from 2004 through 2007. Following the 2007 campaign, the series lapsed for three years before AU joined the SAC.

In the regular-season doubleheader last season, then-senior Abby Child and Czentnar combined for five home runs and nine RBI to help lead Anderson to an 11-2 and 5-3 sweep at Smethers Field. Czentnar slammed three round-trippers on the afternoon, marking the first time an Anderson batter has recorded three home runs in a doubleheader since former standout Emily Monteith slammed three in a sweep past St. Augustine on March 2, 2011. Child blasted two homers in the nightcap.