Georgia Southern University’s softball team (24-25) will return back home for its second-to-last weekend series against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (33-14, 10-7 SoCon).

Although UNCG has a better overall season record, these two teams are very close opponents. GSU is ranked fourth in the Southern Conference while UNCG is ranked third, but they both have a conference record of 10-7. This season both teams have winning records against Samford University and Elon University, and both teams have losing records against Furman University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Both teams will be coming off of weekend series losses against conference teams and have one more conference weekend series after this matchup. This series is crucial for both teams because it could determine which team will be ranked higher for the SoCon tournament. GSU still has an opportunity to get ahead of UNCG.

UNCG has shown to be slightly stronger up at bat compared to the Eagles lineup, but GSU’s defense is what sets it apart from the Spartans. The Eagles’ pitchers allow fewer runs, commit less errors and post more strikeouts. This weekend series will come down to who is strongest up at bat, along with being strong and errorless in the circle.

This past weekend GSU struggled with fighting back from large deficits, so the Eagles need to limit the amount of runs the Spartans post when they are up at bat. Junior pitcher Sarah Purvis pitched her second straight shutout at the beginning of last weekend’s series. She digressed in performance towards the end of the weekend, but if she can keep up this pitching strength, UNCG might fall to the Eagles’ defense.

The Eagles will three games against the Spartans on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m.