DURHAM, N.C. – After playing its first 22 games away from the Triangle, the North Carolina Central University softball team will make its home season debut with a three-game Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference series against Howard University at Thomas Brooks Park (Cary, N.C.). The Eagles and Bison will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and will conclude play with Sunday's finale at 3 p.m. (time moved due to the Tobacco Road Marathon having street closures near the facility that morning).
 
GAME INFO

Howard at NC Central
Saturday, March 16 at 1 p.m. (DH)
Sunday, March 17 at 3 p.m. (Single Game)
Cary, N.C. (Thomas Brooks Park)
LIVE STATS
 
NC CENTRAL DUGOUT
 
The defending MEAC champions will look to end a 13-game losing streak in their home and league opener. NC Central (4-18 Overall, 0-0 MEAC) went 12-7 in conference play last season before winning four of its five games in the 2023 MEAC Championship to claim its first MEAC title and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first times since joining the conference in 2011-12.
 
NCCU is just batting .216 on the season as the Eagles have played a difficult non-conference schedule.
 
Senior middle infielder Jaylah Barr leads the maroon and gray with 20 starts, a .333 batting average, three home runs, four doubles and 12 RBI.
 
NC Central led the MEAC in home runs last season and this season's squad has already hit at least 10 more home runs than every other team in the league to sit atop that ranking again. The Eagles have 14 homers entering league play. Barr tops NCCU's individuals with three home runs while freshman Kendall Smith (.288, 8 RBI), senior Hailey Batista (.250, 6 R), junior Jai'lyn Edwards (.268, 6 RBI) and senior Ivory Jones (.194, 4 RBI) all have each hit two homers. Smith is also contributing team-best marks of three stolen bases and seven runs.
 
Junior Jaden Davis (1-9), who has also scored seven times, tops NCCU with a 4.55 ERA, 55.1 innings pitched and 32 strikeouts. Classmate Ashanti Eubanks (2-7, 8.96 ERA, 50.0 IP) has two of NCCU's four wins. Freshman Xenna Tompkins (1-2, 5.25 ERA) has pitched 28 innings to take some of the workload off Davis and Eubanks, who have combined to pitch the majority of NCCU's innings over the past three seasons.
 
The Eagles won the season series against Howard last season in Washington, D.C., with a pair of 11-3 wins that bookended an 11-7 loss. Davis hurled a pair of complete-game victories in that series that favored NCCU. Offensively, sophomore Takia Nichols (.290, 3 2B) went 6-for-9 (.667) with three walks (.750 OB%) and 5 RBI in that three-game set.
 
HOWARD BENCH
 
The Bison enter league play leading the eight MEAC softball programs with 16 non-conference wins. Howard (16-6 Overall, 0-0 MEAC) went 10-9 in conference play last season and was picked one spot behind NCCU in third place in the 2024 MEAC Preseason Predicted Order of Finish poll.
 
The Bison boast a .322 team batting average that leads the MEAC and ranks 32nd nationally out of 296 NCAA Division I program as Howard is scoring a league-best 5.27 runs per game.
 
Outfielders Blanca Worthy (.438) and Maryn Jordan (.434) have the second and third best batting averages in the MEAC, respectively. Worthy is a graduate transfer from Wagner College, where she was an All-NEC honoree, and now leads Howard with nearly one run scored per game (19 runs in 22 games). Jordan is having a breakout second season with the Bison that also includes a team-high five doubles.
 
Sidney Fletcher (.313, 18 R) has a team-high three home runs, two triples and 16 RBI and was named Preseason All-MEAC Second Team. Lealani Ricks (.324, 8 R) Kenna Higa (.321, 13 RBI, 9 R) and Alyssa Vasquez (.284, 13 RBI, 7 R) were all selected to the First Team. Freshman Merci Hart (.333, 14 RBI) has been Howard's most impactful rookie hitter.
 
Sophomore Amelia Weber (7-3, 4.25 ERA, 52.2 IP) leads the Bison with seven wins while topping the conference with three shutouts and 51 strikeouts. Junior Mia Gonzales (6-0, 2.42 ERA, 46.1 IP) and Julia Holt (2-0, 1 SV, 1.34 ERA, 31.1 IP) are both undefeated on the season.
 
In their only win against NCCU last season, Gonzales only gave up one run over five innings of relief work for the pitching win while Fletcher provided the big Bison bat with three hits, including a sac fly and a double, four RBI and two runs. Howard stole 12 bases in that triumph.
 
For more information on NCCU Athletics, visit NCCUEaglePride.com, or download the NCCU Eagles Athletics app.