CONWAY, Ark. – Staying in the Sunshine State for a pair of midweek games, the Central Arkansas softball team will play a doubleheader against Florida Atlantic on Tuesday. Play against the Owls is set for 4 p.m. CT.
 
The Bears opened their ASUN schedule taking a first game win over Florida Gulf Coast, taking a 7-2 victory over the Eagles before dropping the last two games of the series. After winning 13 of 15, Central Arkansas took a two-game slide for the first time in a month of play.
 
Freshman Kylie Griffin has been swinging a good bat the last couple of weeks, recording a hit in seven of her last eight games, including a triple against Tulsa. Raising her batting average to .392, the third-best on the team and the seventh-best in the ASUN.
 
She helps provide consistency toward the back of a lineup that is second in the ASUN in batting average, hitting .305 on the season. Central Arkansas is one of two teams in the conference hitting .300, trailing only North Alabama at the plate. The Bears also lead the league in stolen bases, with 49 swipes through 25 games, led by Jenna Wildeman's 24 steals, which are the third-most in the country.
 
Florida Atlantic had won five-straight games going into last weekend, including a sweep of Louisiana Tech in its C-USA opening series, before dropping two of three against North Texas. The pitching gave up two home runs in the final two games of the series after not giving up multiple home runs in a game in 10 straight outings.
 
At the plate, Sara Berthiaume leads the team batting .388, the only fulltime batter to clear the .300 mark. She leads the team in virtually every batting category, including runs (17), hits (33), doubles (5) and triples (4), with the fewest strikeouts among full-time starters (8).
 
The Owls have two pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA in Gabby Sacco and Lynn Gardner. Sacco leads the way in the circle with a 2.56 ERA, pitching in 68.1 innings and recording a 7-4 record. Just behind her is Gardner, with a 2.60 ERA. Gardner leads the pitching corps with 80.2 innings pitched, 53 Ks and eight wins.
 
First pitch against the Owls is set for 4 p.m. CT Tuesday afternoon. A video stream of the game is available here, with live stats available here.