CONFERENCEUSA.COM - The Official Athletic site of The Conference USA

Miners Return Home to Face East Carolina In Three Game Tilt
The UTEP softball team returns to Helen of Troy Field after a 10-game absence to take on East Carolina in a three game conference home stand.

	Diana Parada

April 9, 2009

Game Notes

EL PASO, Texas - The UTEP softball team returns to Helen of Troy Field after a 10-game absence to take on East Carolina in a three game conference home stand. UTEP's will be put to the test, as the Miners will face one of the toughest bullpens in the league.

Five-time Pitcher of the Week, Toni Paisley, is the Pirates' leading hurler, with a 19-6 record. The sophomore is tossing a stellar 1.31 ERA with six shutouts and a save.

Paisley will have to get past the tandem of Camilla Carrera and Chelsea Troupe. Carrera is batting .423 and leads the Miners in hits (52), runs (40), doubles (15) and home runs (12) - all which rank among the nation's best.

Troupe has a team-leading .431 batting average and has already broken the freshman record for runs, doubles, home runs and stolen bases.

This Week in Minerville... UTEP returns home after a three week absence, to take on east carolina in a three game conference series ... The slate begins with a doubleheader on friday at 3 p.m. And concludes with a single game on Saturday at noon ... The miners played their last 10 games on the road, going 7-3 in the stint ... Included was a 2-1 series victory over uab the last weekend of march.

A Look Back... The miners played their final game of a 10-game road stint, falling 1-0 to San Diego State ... The miners recorded just three hits in the outing ... Stacie Townsend, despite being the losing pitcher, was the only offensive highlight, knocking two of the miners' three runs ... The crowd favorite, Chelsea Troupe registered the miners' other hit ... The single game was preceded by a 1-1 week, as UTEP defeated Tennessee Tech in Cookeville but followed with a 3-2 heartbreaking loss to no. 13 Tennessee ... Townsend continues to show her dominance in the circle, securing her third double digit strikeout performance, as she struck out 14 batters against TTU, tying her career high and UTEP's single game record ... Camilla Carrera also posted a stellar performance, belting her 12th home run of the season to become the miner's all-times single season leader ... Shea Lodes knocked her sixth dinger of the season against the 13th-ranked lad volunteers, recording her fifth long ball since UTEP took to the road.

A Look Forward... The miners will head to Hattiesburg, miss. To continue league action, taking on southern miss. ... It will be just the second time the miners have visited the southern state since joining Conference USA.

Scouting East Carolina... East Carolina comes into the tilt ranked second in league standings with an 11-4 Conference USA record ... Overall, the pirates are 26-11 with a 12-3 road record ... East Carolina have won six consecutive away games since dropping a C-USA series at southern miss on march 12 ... The pirates are backed by a stellar bullpen who have a combined era of 1.56. Series history: the pirates hold a 3-6 series advantage over the miners and a 1-2 advantage at Helen of Troy ... The pirates have visited the "sun city" just once - 2007 - taking the first and final game of the conference series ... Sandwiched between the losses as an 8-5 UTEP victory. Pitching staff: the pirates are paced by Toni Paisley, named pitcher of the week five times in 2009 ... The sophomore hurler leads the team with a 1.31 era and a 19-6 record in 31 appearances ... Paisley has tossed 22 complete games with five and a half shutouts ... She leads the league in at least five defensive conference-only categories including era (1.28), opposing batting average (.155), innings pitched (76.1), strike outs (65) and batters struck out looking (24) to name a few ... She ranks eighth nationally in wins and saves and 27th in era ... Brooke swan is also a force with a 1.92 era in 11 appearances ... She boasts a 5-1 overall record with two shutouts. At the plate: the pirates are batting .241 as a team compared with just 1.82 of their opponents ... Jessica Johnson is the pirates' main force at the plate ... Batting .383, she is the only player on the squad to belt double-digit doubles with 10 .... She also leads the pirates in hits (41), runs (20), home runs (six) and RBI (26) and slugging percentage (.664).

Home Sweet Home... After being away from their home field for three weeks, the miners make their triumphant return to Helen of Troy after 10-game road tilt ... After starting the season 1-6 on the road, the miners posted a 7-3 away mark to go 7-9 on road games in 2009 ... The miners are 10-6 in home games this campaign, batting a whopping .342 in the process ... UTEP is 4-2 in conference games after 2-1 conference series victories over Memphis and Houston ... In league home games, the miners are batting .381, including a .714 showing by UTEP freshman Chelsea Troupe ... In fact, four miners are batting over .300 in C-USA home games, including Camilla Carrera (.652), Jennifer Davis (.500), Stacie Townsend (.421) and Amber Bennett (.308) ... Moreover, 12 of the miners' 23 home runs at Helen of Troy have come in C-USA contests.

In the National Ranks... The miners rank in the top 20 nationally in five offensive categories, including a top-10 showing in home runs per game ... The miners rank ninth after averaging 1.26 long balls per game ... The miners rank 11th in doubles per game (1.68), 15th in slugging percentage (.513), 18th in scoring (5.81 pg), and 19th in batting average (.309) ... Individually, Camilla Carrera ranks ninth nationally in on base percentage (.551) ... Carrera is among the national ranks in batting average (19), doubles per game (22), slugging percentage (31) and runs per game (22) ... Chelsea Troupe is also atop the national leader boards in batting average (22), slugging percentage (36), runs per game (16), home runs (19) and on base percentage (15).

League Leaders... UTEP leads the league in nearly all offensive categories ... the miners rate first in runs, hits, doubles, RBI, home runs, slugging percentage, on base percentage, hit-by-pitches, innings pitched and putouts to name a few ... in the individual ranks, Stacie Townsend, Chelsea Troupe, Camilla Carrera and Amber Bennett.

Stacie Strikes Out... Stacie Townsend fanned 14 batters at Tennessee tech, tying her career-best she captured against northern Colorado earlier in the season ... The punch outs tie veronica flouncy who set the game standard in 2006 ... The feat comes after fanning 12 batters against UTSA for her third double digit strikeout game in 2009 ... Besides the three games, Townsend has hurled double-digit strikeouts three other times - 12 vs. Memphis (April 15, 2008), 11 vs. UAB (March 8, 2008) and 10 vs. Southern miss (April 15, 2007) ... Townsend followed with another stellar performance against Texas state as the junior fanned nine batters for the 2-0 victory, her first shutout of the season.

Stacie Gets it Done on the Road... Stacie Townsend has found her strike on the road, garnering five of the miners' six road victories on the stretch ... The miner has posted an era of 1.27 in her last eight appearances, with a 6-2 record and a save ... The junior hurler has struck out 63 batters on the stretch while holding opponents to a .209 batting average ... To put it into perspective, Townsend was 8-10 coming into the road stretch with an era of 4.45 with 105 strikeouts in 26 appearances.

Chasing the Long Ball... The miners blasted 52 home runs so far in 2009 ... The miners need just 6 to top their season record of 57 set in 2006 ... Six players have six or more long ball belts ... Sophomore Camilla Carrera leads the way with 12 and Chelsea Troupe ranks second with eight ... She is followed by Stacie Townsend who has seven and Ashley Ellis, Jennifer Davis and sheaf Lodes each have six belts ... Five other miners have contributed to UTEP's home run tally - Amber Bennett (3), Shea Lodes (4), Jennifer staler (2), Diana Parade (1) and Becky Smith (1) ... Carrera and Ellis is the only miners to have laced a grand slam in 2009 and Carrera and Lodes are the only UTEP sluggers to have belted same game homers.

Camilla on the Record... Camilla Carrera knocked same game home runs for the third time in 2009 against Tennessee tech ... Carrera becomes the first player in UTEP history to belt same game long balls in a season, much less multiple times ... With the feat, Carrera has now belted 12 dingers, becoming the miners' all-time single season leader ... The sophomore utility has hit 20 long balls in her career which ties for second best in UTEP annals ... She needs just five more to become UTEP's all-time home run leader - a feat that took four year starter and current record holder Simone Holland to do ... Seven of Carrera's 10 home runs have come in conference play.

How About That Home Run... Diana Parada and Becky Smith each blasted their first career home runs against UTEP's series versus Houston ... Parada's long ball came in the nightcap on Saturday ... The hit was just Parada's third collegiate hit in just her eight at bat ... Smith followed with her dinger on Sunday ... Of seven newcomers on the squad - three have now contributed to the miners' 39 long balls ... Chelsea Troupe leads the newbies and the team with eight.

Chelsea Steals... Chelsea Troupe has snatched 13 stolen bases for 2009, owning UTEP's single-season record ... The record was previously 11, held by Sarah Hernandez who had topped the mark in 2006 ... Troupe needs just one more take away to list herself among UTEP's career thieves and 10 to own the career record ... Troupe had a string of 11 consecutive stolen bases - also a UTEP record ... Her stolen bases tally is the most by a freshman in school history.

Bennett Breaks Barriers... Senior Amber Bennett continues to make her mark in UTEP softball history, etching her name in nearly every offensive category in UTEP's career record books ... Bennett already holds the top spots in runs (148), hits (179), doubles (39), hit-by-pitch (25), and walks (85) ... Before the season is over, Bennett will also hold the records for most games started, most at bats and most games played ... Bennett also holds the season records for runs, most games started and most times hit-by-pitch.

Miners Go the Extra Mile... The miners defeated UTSA in the opening game of a doubleheader tilt, 2-1 ... The game was tied 1-1 after regulation to send the game into extra frames ... The seven-plus inning game was the fifth for the miners in 2009 ... The miners had gone the extra mile against Houston just four days prior ... The miners are 4-1 in extra frames with their only loss coming in UTEP's 2009 home opener on Feb. 18 ... Other than Houston and UTSA, the miners also defeated central Michigan twice in the extra stanzas.

Back-to-Back League Honors... Chelsea Troupe and Amber Bennett were named back-to-back conference USA hitters of the week ... Troupe received the honor on Feb. 16 and Bennett was awarded the accolade on Feb. 23 ... The feat marks the first time in school history UTEP has garnered the back-to-back weekly honor ... the miners have had same-season honors twice in 2006, 2007, 2008 ... The award was the first career honor for troupe and the second for Bennett who was so honored as a freshman on Feb. 20, 2006.

Preseason All-Conference USA... Amber Bennett, Camilla Carrera and Stacie Townsend were tabbed preseason all-conference USA ... UTEP's three selections were the second most in the league behind Houston's five ... Bennett, Carrera and Townsend were all-conference USA honorees in 2008 ... The three selections marked another first for the miners, as UTEP had never garnered more than preseason selection.

Miners Continue the Climb... UTEP's fifth season of softball in 2008 continued to bring a multiple of firsts ... The miners garnered their first 30-win season ... The miners participated in their first league championships ... The miners advanced to the semifinal for the first time in history ... The miners landed two players on the all-conference USA first team ... The miners' Camilla Carrera became the first miner to be named to two post season team honors ... The miners defeated a ranked opponent in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history ... The miners swept a series from a conference opponent for the first time in school history.

The Coaches... Kathleen and James Rodriguez begin their sixth season at the helm of the softball program ... The two are co-head coaches, one of three husband and wife combinations in the country (the Lotief's at Louisiana-Lafayette and the weekly's at Tennessee) ... The two have brought the program a long way since being announced as the miners' first head coaches of the UTEP's new intercollegiate program ... Since being at UTEP, the two have tutored 14 all-conference selections, 15 NFCA scholar athletes, six academic all-conference and nine conference players of the week.

A Young Team... After losing seven letterwinners from the 2008 season, the miners add eight new faces to the 2009 squad ... Seven freshman (Ashley Collazo, Kelynn Frye, Kristin Lusby, Chelsea Mayer, Diana Parada, Chelsea Troupe and Courtney Ware) and a junior transfer, Becky Smith ... The freshman class hails just one pitcher after the miners lost three, but add an arsenal of versatility as four of the seven can play multiple positions.

Miners to Host Conference-USA Softball Championships... UTEP will host for the 2009 conference USA championship, may 7-9, at the state-of-the-art Helen of Troy softball complex ... This marks the first time in the history of the program the miners will host league championships ... The championship game is slated for Saturday, may 9, and will be televised live by CBS college sports for the fourth consecutive year.