Coming off a three-game series sweep against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Marshall softball team will take to the road again to face the Akron Zips in a Thursday doubleheader.  

Marshall head coach, Megan Smith Lyon, said that the sweep was a good result that the team was looking for after dropping three straight games.  

“What a great way to end the weekend,” Smith-Lyon said to Herdzone.com after its sweep of Chattanooga. “I felt like we had a strong weekend as a team.”  

The three-game sweep improved the Herd’s record to 9-3 overall, while the Zips’ (3-13) got two of its three wins over the weekend in a four-game series with Buffalo.

Two of the Zips losses came to the Herd earlier in the season when the Marshall game swept a two-game series against the Zips in the Herd’s season opener at Dot Hicks Field.  

The Herd’s roster is full of talented players, but there is one player in particular that coach Smith Lyon said has been coming into her own – freshman catcher Kat Sackett.  

“Kat Sackett continues to be a monster in the box,” Smith Lyon said. “She got her first career home run (against Chattanooga), and it was awesome to witness her and her progress.”  

Sackett is coming off a career game, in which she went 3-4 at the plate while recording five RBIs in game one. Shew drove in seven runners in the three-game series.  

Sackett’s presence adds to an already talented Herd lineup. Junior designated hitter Mya Stevenson, who broke the Marshall home run record with 20 in the 2019 season, has gotten off to a slow start to the season, batting .200 through 12 games.   

Graduate student shortstop Sierra Huerta, who finished second on the team last season in home runs, got going in the series against Chattanooga with two homers.   

Senior infielder Saige Pye, who hit eight home runs last year –— her first year at Marshall — has also not been as hot at the plate so far this year compared to a year ago.  

Senior first baseman Aly Harrell, who missed the series with Chattanooga, has been better statistically than her fellow preseason all-conference players, first on the team in batting average (.444).    

The two games against Akron will be the end of the Herd’s seven-game road swing.  

Marshall will return to Huntington to take on the Bellarmine Knights for a three-game series on Saturday and Sunday.   

The two games against the Zips will take place at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday.  

Noah Hickman can be contacted at [email protected].