The Marshall University softball team will play Western Kentucky University for its C-USA home opener Friday at Dot Hicks Field.

The Thundering Herd is coming off of a 2-1 series win over Florida International University. The Herd took the first game 13-5 and the second game 13-3, but narrowly missed the sweep, dropping the final game, 9-1.

This is part of an impressive start to the season in which Marshall is 15-6 (2-0) early on.

The Hilltoppers are coming off a 3-0 victory over Dayton University. They have also started off with an 8-3 record but only played 11 games because of weather cancelations.

Temperatures are expected to be between 50 and 60 degrees this weekend in Huntington but scattered showers could have an effect on the games.

Regardless of what the skies present, Thundering Herd coach Shonda Stanton said she is looking forward to getting to play on home turf again.

“It’ll be great to finally be at home,” Stanton said to Herd Zone. “[Last weekend] was our fifth straight weekend on the road. It’s going to be nice to get back to Dot Hicks Field and, we’re still getting better.”

The Herd is paced by sophomore outfielder Morgan Zerkle and sophomore ace Jordan Dixon. Zerkle was recently named C-USA Co-Player of the Week and leads the conference in batting average (0.560), hits (41) and steals (26).

Dixon is starting to gain national recognition with her play this season. She leads C-USA in wins (14) and strikeouts (144), with which she also ranks top 10 in the country.

First pitch for the first game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday.

Games two and three are set to take place 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Adam Polsky can be contacted at [email protected].