South Alabama Single-Game Football Tickets Available On Saturday
South Alabama Football single-game tickets go on sale on Saturday for the Jaguars six-game home schedule.
Tickets will become available for purchase online through the South Alabama Sports website www.usajaguars.com on Saturday then will be available to be purchased over the phone on Monday morning.
The Jaguars games against Gardner-Webb on September 5 (season opener) and Appalachian State on December 5 (regular season finale) will cost $20 for sideline tickets and $10 for end zone tickets.
The Jaguars big match-up against North Carolina State on September 26 will cost $30 for sidelines and $20 for endzone seats.
Arkansas State on Tuesday, October and Louisiana-Lafayette on Thursday, November 12 will cost $25 for sidelines and $20 for endzone seats.
Finally USA’s Homecoming game against Idaho will cost $10 for sidelines and $5 for endzone seating.
The USA Ticket office has a special two-game package which will be $30 sideline ticket for both NC State and Idaho.
The Jaguars will being their season on September 5 against Gardner-Webb with kickoff scheduled for 5pm for a nationally broadcast game on ESPN3.
South Alabama’s Preseason Camp Begins Tuesday
Shavarez Smith holds up the SISU War Hammer at midfield prior to their homecoming game against Georgia State.
The 2015 season is right around the corner.
Tuesday night will officially mark the opening of the 2015 campaign when the Jaguars are scheduled to hit the field for the first time after making history their first-ever postseason bowl appearance.
The Jaguars will practice for two hours beginning at 6:30pm at the James A. and Frances H. Yance Football Practice Facility. The will follow that up with another practice session at the same time on Wednesday before shifting to a morning schedule.
Practices on Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all set for 7:15am and are scheduled for 2 1/2 hours.
After an off day on Sunday, the Jaguars will pick back up on Monday with their first of two-a-day’s with morning sessions beginning at 7:15 am and the second beginning at 4:30pm. Thursday will also be another two-a-day practice. Each two-a-day practice is scheduled to be 1 1/2 hours long.
The first full week of preseason camp will start at 7:15am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
The first preseason scrimmage is scheduled for Saturday, August 15 at 9am and the second scheduled for the following Saturday, August 22 with both occuring at off-campus facilities that are yet to be announced.
USA’s annual Fan Day will be held on Sunday, August 23 at the Mitchell Center from 4-6pm.
Four Jaguars Earn All-SBC Preseason Honors
The Sun Belt Conference office released the 2015 preseason All-Sun Belt Conference teams on Monday in conjunction with Media Day. The South Alabama Jaguars had three first-team selections and four Jaguars overall were honored.
Chris May, Josesph Scelfo and Aleem Sunanon were all selected as first-team All-SBC student-athletes. Safety Roman Buchanan was voted second-team preseason All-SBC.
May, a 6’5″ 290-pound senior from Tuscumbia, Alabama, has earned his second all-conference honor. He was chosen first-team All-SBC in 2013 then was an honorable mention selection last year. Last season he graded out at 80 percent or higher on six occasions with a total of 33 knockdown blocks. He received a season-high grade of 85 in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl against Bowling Green.
In addition to being selected to the All-SBC team, Scelfo was recently added to the Rimington Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award Watch Lists. Scelfo is coming off of a season where he graded out at 80 percent or better on six occasions with 20 knockdown blocks. He earned the coaches’ offensive line award in 2014 after USA wins over Idaho and Troy, posting a season high 88 percent grade against the later as he helped the offense rush for 296 yards. The 6’1″, 295-pound junior center earned the highest grade on the team against SEC schools.
Sunanon, who is also on two watch lists himself, was 15-of-18 on field goal attempts last season while leading the team in scoring with 69 points. In 2013 he converted 18-of-23 attempts for a team-best 91 points and earn honorable mention All-SBC. Sunanon converted his last eight attempts of the season, including a school game-record-tying four at South Carolina. He ended the season tied for the league lead and 12th nationally with a 83.3 percent success rate. He was also third in the conference with a 1.15 field goals per game average.
Buchanan ended last season third on the defense with 74 total tackles and tied for second with seven passes defended. The 6’2″ 210-pound native of Enterprise, Alabama had a career-high nine stops on three seperate occasions last season including each of the last two games against Navy and Bowling Green at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. That also included recording three tackles for loss, two of which came against the Midshipmen. His first nine-tackle game came against Georgia State where he also forced a fumble and broke up a pass.
USA was chosen to finish sixth in the conference in the conference preseaosn poll released on Friday. The Jaguars begin their 2015 campaign on Saturday, September 5 against Gardner-Webb. The game will kick off at 5pm CDT and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.
2015 Sun Belt Conference Media Day
The 2015 Sun Belt Conference Media Day was held on Monday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Head coach Joey Jones along with student-athletes Chris May and Roman Buchanan all spoke to the media.
Below are highlights from their time with the media.
Joey Jones
Opening statement:
“We had a good year last year, going to our first bowl game was a big deal for us. But our guys want to achieve more. They want to win a bowl game and a conference championship — those are our two goals. We have some great leadership on this football team, probably the best we’ve had. These guys are meeting once a week, talking to all the players and doing things behind the scenes that make a team great. Everybody knows we had 31 seniors last year who graduated, including 17 starters, and is concerned about that, and I am too. But if you could look in that locker room, be around the guys and be on the practice field with them, maybe we will surprise some people this fall.”
Jones spoke about the potential impact UAB transfers will have on the team this year:
“We’ve got several. I think Cameron Blankenship will start for us at right guard, he’s a tough, athletic football player. Cody Clements has a chance to be the starting quarterback, I feel real good about him, and D.J. Vinson is doing really well at the slot receiver. Gerald Everett is doing extremely well, he’s a lot like Wes Saxton in that he’s an athletic tight end. I could go on and on, but those are some of the guys who have shown that they can really play the game. The great thing is they have been able to take our system, which [assistant] coach [Bryant] Vincent brought from here to UAB last year, so there was no learning curve with terminology. From day one [of spring practice] they were able to play at a high level. With us losing so many seniors and starters, they have been able to fill some voids on offense that were highly needed.”
Jones spoke about the leadership he’s seen in this year’s senior class:
“I think they have stepped up well in that regard. I’ve been extremely impressed with their ability to lead. Talking about leading and leading is two different things, and I think these guys are truly leading every day. We’ve had some great leadership in the past and they have learned from those guys, just like you learn from your parents.”
Jones spoke about what Chris May means to the offense:
“He’s completely changed in that regard. Chris’ attitude is A-plus, his effort is A-plus, he’s a great athlete. I expect great things out of him not only on the field, protecting our quarterback and run blocking, but also as a guy who can lead, which is going to bring some of these young guys along. I’ve been real impressed with Chris May.”
Jones on the experience gained playing at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl:
“Every time I think about coming on the field for that game, I think it’s one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever been involved in. To see our players who had fought to get there all those years, and to look up into the stands and see all of our fans who had come up from Mobile, all of our alumni who had come from across the Southeast yelling as loud as they could, it was a chilling moment. It was a moment that I and all of our players had dreamed about, so it’s exciting that we were able to do that in our second year as an NCAA Division I program.”
Chris May
May on his role of being a leader entering his senior year:
“Honestly, I just want to leave a legacy of building leaders, not just being a leader of our offense or our team. It’s more about putting time in with the younger guys and trying to develop them as well because when the older guys leave we have to have someone who will provide the foundation.”
May spoke about how the transfers from UAB have fit in:
“When they first got here it, even though they fit in, it was kind of awkward. What they went through was a traumatic situation. But this summer we’ve been able hang out — cooking out, going bowling, things like that — to build chemistry with them, which has been awesome.”
May on the goals of the offense in 2015:
“Coach Vincent has been pounding into our heads that we want to be the best offense in our conference and one of the best, if not the best, in the country. We had the weapons last year to be a lot better than we were, and we have the weapons now to be a lot better than we were last year. A lot of people are pointing out that we lost a lot of people from our defense last year, but I think the finger should be pointed at us [the offense]. We need to learn how to develop better chemistry and instead of underachieving we need to overachieve.”
May on adjusting to [assistant] coach [Bryant] Vincent returning just before the bowl game last season:
“He did a very good job of using what we were already doing, but tweaking it to make it his own. He didn’t really change a lot of terminology, he didn’t change a lot of plays, he just tweaked some stuff to do what he wanted to do. We only had one game, and we couldn’t completely reinvent our offense in one week. We really haven’t changed a lot of stuff, we’re going to do things a lot faster and be a lot more aggressive, so it’s not a huge transition. It’s a different mentality but the same type of system.”
May on his experience taking the field at the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl last year:
“The process of getting to the bowl was really cool, and then running onto the field with the fireworks was a cool experience even if it caught me off guard. But once the game started the feeling was gone, it was just another game. It was a really cool experience.”
Roman Buchanan
Buchanan on how important is it for the program to take the next step:
“I feel that this year is the year for us to prove that we are a unit. Losing some players [from last season] on defense doesn’t mean anything. The way in which we do things [on the field] is why we win. What we are trying to implement in our program is that the way you watch film, the way you run, just everything you do every single day. Our ways is what makes us win.”
Buchanan on what he has seen in practice from the defensive unit and what he expects from them:
“I’m just ready for fall camp, because based off our 7-on-7s, workouts and everything we’ve been doing, the competition level is neck-and-neck. Right now, I feel we are two-deep at the corner. I feel like the battle at the corner position is going to be so steep that if you stub your toe, you may lose your starting job. It hasn’t always been that way for us. At linebacker, Demarius Rancifer had an extremely good spring and he’s still learning. On the defensive line, I really expect Tyree [Turner] and Roy [Albritton] to come in and make a splash. They’ve shown the will to learn the defense, the will to get better every single day. They came in this spring with the right attitude and I love it. As a whole though, I feel that we’ve taken what we did last year and shown that we believe we can be even better than that.”
Buchanan on how important he feels his role on the team will be this season:
“What Maleki [Harris] was last year and what Romelle [Jones] was the year before, I feel that that’s me now. Those guys helped me so much to get to where I am right now. I can’t remember exactly when it was last season, but Maleki came to me during a practice and told me that it was my turn. He told me that this was my defense now, that I had to take ownership of it and that I had to hold guys accountable. I think I’ve done that. I wasn’t a very vocal guy when I got here, but I’ve gotten better.”
Buchanan on how his versatility in high school has helped him at this level:
“I feel like from that experience that I understand the game so much better and deeper than your average defensive player. There are very few things that an offense can throw at me that confuses me or causes me to play slower. I think the triple-option offense, which you rarely see in college, is the only thing that I’ve had to get used to. Because of those experiences, I feel like I know what the offense is trying to do and I know what I would do if I was an offensive player, so there is very little that you can do to get me off my game. What I love about playing safety is that I have total control over the defense. I can make calls at all three levels. Because I know what the offense is trying to do, [assistant] coach [Travis] Pearson has a lot of confidence in me and gives me freedom back there. It’s kind of like being a quarterback back there.”
A School-Record Receive SBC Academic Honors
In addition to earning the Vic Bubas Cup in May for being the Sun Belt Conference’s top member in competition, which included four programs that won league championships (Soccer, Men’s Cross Country, Baseball and Women’s Tennis) the Jaguars capped off the previous academic and sports year with success in the classroom.
The Sun Belt Conference office announced on Wednesday that the University of South Alabama had a school record-breaking total of 162 student-athletes receive Conference academic recognition for the 2014-2015 academic year.
Those 162 were part of the 2014-2015 SBC Commissioner’s List and Academic Honor Roll, which put USA sixth in the conference. This is an increase of seven from the previous academic record of 155.
USA tied for second in the conference with 88 student-athletes on the Commissioner’s List which goes to those with a GPA of 3.5 or higher during the previous two semesters. Another 74 Jags were recognized in the Academic Honor Roll which honors students with a 3.0-3.49 GPA over the previous two semesters.
Football, Women’s Cross Country/Track and Field and Men’s Cross Country/Track and Field each featured more than 20 student-athletes on the list with 28, 25, 21 respectively. Baseball had 15, soccer had 13 and softball had 12 individuals on the list as well with other programs contributing the remainder of the individuals.
Sunanon Named To Second Preseason Watch List
South Alabama’s Aleem Sunanon attempts a 22-yard field goal from the right hashmark against Troy.
The Award watch lists announcements keep coming and Jaguars student-athletes continue to placed on them. On Wednesday it was Aleem Sunanon who picked up his second preseason watch list honor.
It was announced that junior placekicker Sunanon was among a group of student-athletes in consideration for the Wuerffel Trophy, which is also known as “College Football’s Premier Award for Community Service”. It is presented annually by the All Sports Association and is named after 1996 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel from the University of Florida. The award is given to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision player that best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.
Voting for the award is performed by a national selection committee that includes college football television and print media, industry notables, former head coaches and prior Wuerffel Trophy recipients.
On November 3 semifinalists will be announced then three weeks later the finalists will be announced and the winner will be announced on December 8 at the National Football Foundation’s press conference in New York City. The presentation of the 2015 Wuerffel Trophy will be held at the 47th Annual All Sports Association Awards Banquet on February 12, 2016 in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Sunanon holds a school record with 33 field goals in his career so far with an 80.5 percent conversion rate. He has accounted for 160 points over the previous two seasons, included 69 points last season after making 15-of-18 attempts. He was selected as honorable mention All-Sun Belt Conference in 2013 after posting 91 points while going 18-of-23 on field goals as a redshirt-freshman. He finished the season with a program-record 12 consecutive field goal and tied a Jaguar single-game record with four field goals at South Carolina last season.
Scelfo Named To Another Watch List; Track and Field and Cross Country Earn Team GPA Award
More preseason football watch list action and academic honors for the track and field and cross country teams.
Football
The preseason watch lists are being announced one-by-one as the college football season is quickly approaching and one Jaguar offensive lineman just picked up his second watch list announcement on Tuesday.
Joseph Scelfo, a junior, was selected to the Rimington Trophy Fall Watch List last week and has been selected for the Watch List for the 2015 Rotary Lombardi Award.
The Rotary Lombardi Award is eligible for linemen only, both of offense and defense, who set up no farther than 10 yards to the left or right of the ball or linebackers who set up no farther than five yards deel from the line of scrimmage.
Scelfo was one of only two Jaguar offensive linemen who started all 13 games last season and earn the coaches’ weekly award on more than one occasion. In 2014, his first season as a starter for USA, he had a season-high grading of 88 percent in the Jags win over Troy as well as an 87 percent grade against Bowling Green in USA’s firt-ever bowl game. He also graded better than 80 percent agaisnt both South Carolina and Mississippi State with grades of 83 and 81 respectively.
He helped the Jaguars become the fastest NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision school to play in a postseason bowl game after receiving their first invite to the inaugural Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in only their second season of full FBS membership.
The Rimington Award honors the most oustanding center in NCAA Division I-A college football at the end of the year. In addition to the two watch lists, Scelfo was selected to the First-Team All-Sun Belt Conference by Phil Steele Publications and preseason Second-Team All-League by Athlon Sports.
Track and Field/Cross Country
The Sun Belt Conference released the 2014-15 Team GPA award winners on Tuesday with USA men’s and women’s track and field and cross country teams claiming honors in both the fall and spring semesters.
The men posted a combined cumulative GPA of 3.19 to earn honors in cross country in addition to winning the league title at the Sun Belt Championships in Mobile on November 2 at Battleship Memorial Park.
The women’s cross country team posted a 3.67 GPA during the last year to be honored as well.
Both programs received the Team GPA award in track and field as the men had a 3.17 GPA over the last two semesters. This made USA the only male track team in the conference to finish with a group average over 3.00. The women posted a GPA of 3.41.
This marks the second year in a row that USA has earned the Team GPA award in men’s and women’s cross country as well as the second consecutive season that USA also earned the honor in track.
Individually 26 women and 22 men from the two programs had a 3.0 GPA or higher last semester with a combined 28 team members earning spots on the Dean’s List.
Three Former Jaguars To Be Inducted In USA Hall of Fame
The 2015 South Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame class will include three former Jaguars as announced on Monday. The class includes the school’s All-Time winningest Men’s Basketball coach Ronnie Arrow and a pair of track and field members who competed at the NCAA Championships in Olga Mencnarowska and Tonny Okello.
Arrow guided the Jag basketball program the first time from 1988-1995 and then again from 2008-2012 for a total of 12 full seasons plus two partial seasons. He led the Jaguars to a 211-161 record overall and 126-48 in Sun Belt play. In addition to holding the most total and conference wins in school history, he also held the conference record for wins at the time of his retirement.
He was selected SBC Coach of the Year on three occasions. He led the Jaguars to a 23-9 record in 1988-89 following the only NCAA Tournament win in program history, an 86-84 win over Alabama. He led the Jaguars to the tournament again in 2007-2008 when USA received it first-ever at-large berth the NCAA Tournament after winning a school record 26 games which included a 16-2 record in conference play.
Arrow led the program to two SBC regular-season championships, two conference tournament titles and a regular season division title. He had 13 players earn All-Sun Belt honors on 18 occasions.
Mencnarowska lettered for the Jaguar Women’s Track and Field team from 1996-1999 and helped the Jags to win its first-ever league title at the Sun Belt Indoor and Outdoor Championships as a senior. In addition to becoming the first female in USA history to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, she was selected the Outstanding Meet Performing and earned top-scoring honors at the 1999 SBC Outdoor Championships after winning the heptathlon and long jump, finishing third in javelin and tying for fourth in the 100-meter hurdles before moving on to the national championships in the latter event.
She ended her career with a conference record in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.35 seconds, still a school record in the race, and remains among the top 10 in USA history in the heptathlon, 60-meter hurdles, javelin and long jump.
She earned all-conference honors a total of eight times while being selected to the Sun Belt’s 30th Anniversary All-Time Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Teams. She was also voted third-team CoSIDA All-American in 1998.
Okello was a four-time All-American and collected all-region honors each of his three years running cross country. He would also be voted to the SBC 30th Anniversary All-Time Men’s Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Teams. He earned All-American honors in cross country in 2004 and ’05, he also finished 41st at the national meet as a senior, as well as in the 5,000 meters in 2006 and ’07 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Okello earned seven individual SBC titles while earning all-conference recognition a total of 18 times over three seasons. In cross country he won the conference championship his first time at the meet, finishing as the runner-up each of the next two years. He was chosen the most outstanding track performer and top point scorer at the 2005 Sun Belt Indoor Championships after winning the mile, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs and helping the Jags to the team crown. In addition to receiving the same honor that spring in the SBC Outdoor Championships, he helped USA win a share of the conference indoor title his final season by placing in the top three in the mile, 3,000- and 5,000-meter races.
The induction ceremony for the three inductees is scheduled for September 26 at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on campus. The three will also be recognized that day at halftime of the Jaguars football game against North Carolina State at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Win the induction of these three honorees, it will bring the total number of former student-athletes, coaches and administrators in the USA Athletic Hall of Fame to 71.
Sunanon Named To Groza Watch List; USA Men’s Basketball to Face NCSU and LSU in Legends Classic
Football
More preseason watch list action this week for the South Alabama Jaguars as Aleem Sunanon was selected to be among the 30 student-athletes selected to the Watch List for the 2015 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award.
Sunanon is the only representative from the Sun Belt Conference on the list.
Over the last two seasons Sunanon has led the Jaguars in scoring. Last season the 5’7″ 170-pound junior was a second-team All-Conference selection by Phil Steele Publications after he went 15-of-18 on field goal attempts, including making his final eight attempts. He also went 24-of-26 on extra point attempts. He tied for 12th nationally after converting 83.3 percent of his field-goal attempts and shared the league lead in the category. He also ranked third in the SBC and 55th in the country with 1.15 field goals per game.
Sunanon recorded a season-best 12 points on two occasions by connecting on three field goals and all three extra points in a win over Georgia State. He tied a school record after going 4-for-4 on field goal attempts against South Carolina.
In 2013 as a redshirt freshman he scored a school season-record 91 points by going 18-of-23 on field goals and 37-of-39 on extra-point attempts and was selected as honorable mention all-conference. He led all Sun Belt kickers in points and field goals per game and ranked among the top 20 nationally in the latter category. He finished second among all players in the conference in scoring average. He hit a season-high three field goals on four occasions, including a school-record 12 in a row over the Jaguars final seven games.
After only two seasons as the Jaguars placekicker, Sunanon has already set a program career record with 33 field goals and stands second on the all-time list with 160 total points and an 80.5 percent success rate on field goal attempts.
The award is named for Lou ‘The Toe’ Groza, an NFL Hall of Fame kicker who played 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns and was named NFL Player of the Year in 1954.
On November 5, semifinalists will be announced. On November 23, three finalists will be announced. The Winner will be announced on December 10 as part of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show.
Men’s Basketball
The Jaguar Men’s Basketball team will face North Carolina State and LSU in November as part of the Legends Classic as announced by the Gazelle Group on Thursday.
USA and NC State will face off on November 15 and then LSU on November 19 with times for both games will be announced at a later date.
NC State and LSU are two of four regional hosts for the multi-team event with semifinals and finals set for November 23 and 24 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
This will mark the first meeting between the Jaguars and the NC State Wolfpack on the hardwood, led by former Alabama men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried who took NCSU to the Sweet 16 of the 2015 NCAA Tournament with a 22-14 record.
The USA vs LSU matchup will mark the third time these two teams have faced off since 2010 and the second in the Maravich Center. The last time the two teams faced each other the Jaguars defeated LSU 79-75 in overtime in 2011.
USA will be one of four teams scheduled to participate in the Legends Classic subregional in Kennesaw, GA including IUPUI, Belmont and host Kennesaw State.
Scelfo Named To Watch List; Fico, Campbell Competing for Akron; Three Women Golfers Earn Academic Honors
Football
Jaguar center Joseph Scelfo has been named to the 2015 Rimington Trophy Fall Watch List on Wednesday. The list includes 63 individuals, which included only three from the Sun Belt Conference, who were recognized by the Rimington Trophy Committee.
The award is presented annually to the most outstanding center in NCAA Division I-A college football. It is named after consensus first-team All-America center Dave Riminington at Nebraska in 1981 and ’82.
Scelfo was also named to the preseason all-Sun Belt team by Phil Steele publications and as a preseason second-team All-SBC by Athlon Sports this summer.
He is entering his second season as the starter for the Jaguars at center. He was one of two lineman to start all 13 games as the Jaguars earned their first bowl invitation to the inaugural Raycom Media Camellia Bowl.
Scelfo, a 6’1″ 295-pound junior from Bogart, Georgia graded out at 80 percent or better following six of the teams outings. He also earned the teams highest grade five times. He also earned an 88 percent after the Jags win over Troy, which was one of two games he earned the coaches offensive line award. He earned an 87 against Bowling Green in the Camellia Bowl. He also paced the team against SEC opponents when he earned an 83 against South Carolina and 81 against Mississippi State.
The finalist for the award will be announced on December 7 with the winner being announced at the Rococo Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska on January 16, 2016.
Women’s Golf
Three Jaguar women golfers were named to the 2014-2015 Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholars.
Elisa Axelsen, Ingrid Hagen and Madison Connell each earned their distinction after maintaining a 3.50 GPA and participated in half of the team’s tournaments.
This marks the fourth consecutive season Hagen has earned the honor, while it was the first time for both Axelsen and Connell. It is also the 10th consecutive academic year the Jags placed three or more students-athletes on the WGCA Division I All-American Scholor Team. In all 15 Jaguars have been honored 39 times as WGCA All-American Scholars since the 2005-2006 academic year.
Axelsen had one top-10 and two top-20 finishes this season while Hagen earned three top-20 finishes in her senior season. Connell competed in seven tournaments in her freshman season.
Softball
Jaguar assistant softball coach Rachelle Fico and former Jaguar Hannah Campbell, who is now a graduate assistant at USA, are competing with the Akron Racers of the National Pro Fastpitch this summer.
Currently Akron is third in the NPF standings with a 12-12 record trailing the league leading Chicago Bandits (17-6) and runner up USSSA Pride but the Racers have one eight of their last 12 games.
Fico is 1-0 in the circle in her only appearance this year when she faced Dallas Charge on July 1. She struck out four with only one walk while allowing one earned run on four hits in a complete game effort. The 9-1 win marked the largest margin of victory for the Racers this season.
Campbell is 0-2 with six strikeouts and a 6.24 ERA in four appearances. She has allowed 11 earned runs on 18 hits in 12 1/3 innings pitched. Her first appearance came on May 30 in Akron’s season opener against the Pennsylvania Rebellion when she entered a scoreless game in the fifth inning and allowed five earned runs on three hits in 2/3 of an inning before leaving the game. Akron would lose the game 6-3.
Fico finished the 2014 season with an 11-7 record with a 3.59 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 23 appearances. Campbell was 5-6 with a 5.78 ERA and a team-high three saves in 23 appearances.
The CBS Sports Network is broadcasting an unprecedented amount of coverage for the 2015 NPF season. They will also air the NPF Championship at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, AL on August 14-18. Additionally Jaguar fans can watch the Racers in action against the Rebellion on August 10-11 on CBS Sports Network.