The Gamecock Softball team will take the field Friday night for an exhibition against the National Pro Fastpitch team traveling around the country on their Back to School tour promoting softball. There will be a few familiar faces on the field for NPF with three former SEC players on the squad coming to Columbia, Jessica Bachkora (Arkansas), Francesca Enea (Florida), and Megan Wiggins (Georgia).
Junior pitcher Audrey Broyles and senior Evan Childs both said they hope that the team's familiarity with some of the players will help them during the game, since they basically already have a scouting report on those players.
"I'm really excited to play them this year because I was actually out last season so I didn't get throw to NPF," said Broyles. "It's really cool to see girls that we played last year move on to bigger things and it's really exciting because it's the same game, the same girls we've been playing. It's the pro team, it's the all-stars, but we can hang with them. We've played those girls of that caliber."
The team is looking forward to playing the elite level players and seeing how they stack up.
"I think that we're all excited, but I think that the freshman are kind of nervous. I know I was nervous when we first played them, I didn't really know what to expect," said Childs. "We played them last year though so we know we're going to play some really good players. I hope that we compete and play to win."
This NPF game is one of several fall games for the Gamecocks as they prepare for the 2012 regular season in the spring.
"I think we're progressing really well," said Childs. "I think the team is coming together better. I think we're getting more chemistry just because there are a couple new people that have filtered in so I think that we are starting to play more and more like a team every week."
The NPF Back to School Tour comes to Columbia on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Beckham Field for a game against the South Carolina Softball team. Individual tickets are $5 each, $3 for youth 17 and under. Season tickets for 2012 Gamecock Softball will also be available ($25 for adults and $10 for youth) and will include a free ticket for the NPF game.
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