>Opponent: 
Salem vs. Methodist | April 26 | Winston-Salem, N.C. | Senior Day | Blixt Field | 12 / 2 p.m.

>SENIOR DAY SET FOR SATURDAY VERSUS MONARCHS
Salem softball will conclude the 2025 season on Saturday, April 26th at Blixt Field when the Spirits host Methodist. The doubleheader will mark the final games in the collegiate career of Cree Bass, Lauryn Fisher and Kat Price. 

>ATTENTION, ATTENTION, TIME CHANGE
Salem fans who are looking to catch the Senior Day festivities on Saturday should note that the game time has been moved from 1 p.m. to 12 p.m. The Senior Day festivities themselves will begin at approximately 11:30 a.m. prior to the start of the game. 

>HONORING THE 2025 SENIORS
Saturday's game with Methodist will give fans their last opportunity to see the Salem trio of Cree Bass, Lauryn Fisher and Kat Price. These three women have led the Spirits to 27 wins, including 21 at Blixt Field.  

CREE BASS CAPSULE: Bass is a two-sport athlete at Salem who earned her degree in exercise science along with a minor in coaching last May. Along with playing both basketball and softball, Bass has been active in Rotaract, Morgan's Message and served as a Resident Life Assistant. On the field, Bass connected on 30 hits, including five doubles, and scored 18 runs while driving in 14 RBI. She has a career .251 on-base percentage as a Salem hitter. In the field, Bass as recorded 198 put outs, garnered 15 assists and been a part of three double plays.

LAURYN FISHER CAPSULE: Fisher is completing her degree in health sciences and a minor in chemistry. Her future plans are to become an EMT and allow herself to continue her education in a Physician's Assistant program. Along with playing softball, Fisher is active on the Salem campus in working with Athletic Communications on Gameday, as a Salem Admissions Ambassador and as a representative of the Junior Class as Vice President. A four-year member of the Dean's List, Fisher also served as the American Chemical Society Vice President, was a member of the Mortar Board and served as secretary for the Judicial Council. Fisher has appeared in 49 games during her Salem career, connecting on five hits, tallied six RBI and scored four runs along the way. 

KAT PRICE CAPSULE: Price is completing her degree in public health, while minoring in psychology, maintaining a 3.60 GPA along the way. After graduation she plans to continue her education to become a therapist. Along with playing softball, Kat has been active on the Salem campus in working with Athletic Communications on Gameday, the Student Government President as well as President of Morgan's Message. Kat has also been active on the Salem Campus throughout her time, serving as the secretary for Students for Reproductive Freedom, Vice President of the ECO club and has been a member of Morgan's Message since her sophomore year. On the field, Kat has made 54 appearances in the pitching circle, tossed 169 innings, amassing 23 strikeouts. At the plate, she has delivered 31 hits, scored 10 runs and accounted for nine RBI.

>TATE SETS SIGHTS ON USA SOUTH ALL-TIME STOLEN BASE RECORD
Every time that Salem junior speedster Maleah Tate steals a base from this point forward, she sets a new Salem single-season program record. Tate, who currently leads the Spirits with 31 stolen bases, has her sights set on the USA South's all-time mark. 

Tate swiped a program single-season record 28 bases in 2024, topping the previous mark of 22 that was held by Karson Chapman in 2013. 

Tate has surpassed her previous single-season record of 28 by three steals in 2025. Tate not only leads the Spirits in stolen bases in 2025, but she tops the USA South Conference stolen base leaders as well. She has three more than Ivy Ray (Greensboro) and four more than both Pfeiffer's Landry Stewart and Skyler Walker (N.C. Wesleyan), who have 27 apiece. 

Tate would need five steals in a game to tie both TK Sauls (Piedmont) and Sandy Miller (Christopher Newport) for the league mark. The top stolen base artist in the league in a season belongs to Vada Blue Sherrill, who swiped 52 in 2019 for Pfeiffer. 

Samantha Hall (Averett) owns the career record in steals for the USA South, swiping 131 in her career for the Cougars between 2014 and 2017. Through the first 99 games of her Salem career, Tate has swiped 71 bases in her career. 

>ON THING CERTAIN…THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
Base runners from the 18 teams that played against Salem this season would come to a consensus on one fact—thou shalt not steal on Kayla Dick. 

Dick has stopped seven base runners in their track from swiping a base on the Spirits' defense. That is three shy of Madison Burch's single-season program record (10), which came in the 2018 campaign. 

Dick, a first-year catcher, has been successful on getting seven caught steals this season, the fifth-most in a single season in program history. While Burch has the most with 10, Allie Watkins notched nine in 2013 for the second-most. Both Sydney Davidson and Kayla Kennedy finished with eight each in 2013 and 2014, respectively. 

>DENNIS AMONG TOP-10 IN SINGLE-SEASON STRIKEOUTS
Another first-year player making their impression on the Salem record books is pitcher Riley Dennis. 

Dennis, who has logged 89 innings in the circle in 2025, has made 20 appearances and 16 starts for the Spirits. Along the way, Dennis has fanned 79 opposing hitters, which places her first on the Spirits in strikeouts. She is followed on her team in strikeouts by Isabella Morales (27) and Carmen Duffey (22). 
Dennis ranks fourth in the USA South Conference in strikeouts this season behind the combination of Kimberly Bordeaux (William Peace), who has 95, Lillie Davis (Meredith) with 94, and Emma Bullin (Pfeiffer), who has fanned 89 opposing hitters. 

Dennis recently passed Kayla Ogle for seventh-most single-season K's, a mark Ogle established in 2018. Both Lauryn Smith and Kayla Ogle struck out 85 batters in a single season, which is fifth-most in Salem history. Smith set the mark in 2015 and Ogle equaled it in 2019. 

In 2025, Dennis has notched at least four strikeouts on eight occasions. Her Top-3 strikeout performances this season have come against Johnson & Wales (12), Carolina University (9) and both St. Andrews and Oberlin, where she fanned eight batters each. 

Dennis can also claim that she etched her name in Salem softball history by recording the fifth no hitter in program history in game one of the series with Johnson & Wales on March 22nd. She became the fifth different Salem pitcher to toss a complete game no hitter and recorded the second-most strikeouts (12) in a no hitter in program history.

>INSIDE THE SALEM NUMBERS
-Two Salem hitters, Maleah Tate (.370) and NeVaeha George (.333), boast better than a .300 batting average heading into the clash with Methodist. Tate leads all Salem sluggers with 34 hits, including the first triple of her collegiate career which came against William Peace on April 12th. 
Meanwhile, George is second with 28 hits and Kayla Dick, who is hitting .291 on the season, is third with 25 hits. Reese Upton ranks fourth on the team in hits with 20.  
-Maleah Tate not only leads the Spirits in hits and stolen bases (31), but she is also tops in runs scored with 21. The Salem speedster has a .426 on-base percentage and a .391 slugging percentage. 
-Entering this weekend, Salem has 38 doubles on the season, highlighted by Reese Upton's six. Upton is one of five Spirits with at least four doubles on the season, including NeVaeha George and Carmen Duffey, who have five apiece. Olivia Porter and Kayla Dick are tied for fourth-most doubles with four apiece. 
-The Spirits have surpassed the number of triples as a team (eight) that they had combined in the last two seasons, which included five in 2024. The last time that Salem had at least six triples in a season was 2016.
-Salem has managed double-digit triples on only two occasions. The most was by the 2014 unit, which tallied 21. One year earlier, in 2013, Salem tallied 11 triples. 
-Seven players have entered the circle for the Spirits this season, combining for 135 strikeouts. The 2025 pitching staff is the eighth to post at least 100 K's in program history and has amassed the fifth-most single-season K's in Salem lure with 135. The 2025 team needs 21 to equal the 2014 squad for fourth-most K's with 156. The most single-season K's came in 2018, when Salem fanned 196 batters, a feat that was replicated in 2019. 
-While Riley Dennis has the most strikeouts of any individual with 79, Salem has also gotten 27 strikeouts from Isabella Morales and 22 from Carmen Duffey. 
-The most single-game strikeouts for Morales is seven this season, which came against Johnson & Wales (March 22). Duffey's single-game strikeout mark in 2025 is four, which she set versus Brevard (March 26) and later equaled in a clash with William Peace (April 12). 

>SCOUTING REPORT: METHODIST MONARCHS 
All-Time Series Record vs. Methodist: Salem leads series 11-8.

The two teams split their most recent series on April 27, 2024 with Methodist winning the first game by a 9-1 margin. Salem bounced back to take game two of the series 5-2.  

Methodist is sixth in the USA South Conference standings with a 5-9 record against league opposition. The Monarchs are behind Mary Baldwin, who is 8-8, and ahead of William Peace and Southern Virginia, who are 5-11 entering the weekend. 

After splitting a series with Southern Virginia on April 12th, with the Monarchs winning game two by a 4-0 margin, Methodist has dropped back-to-back series with Pfeiffer and N.C. Wesleyan. After taking on Salem, the Monarchs will head to Brevard, N.C., to clash with the Tornados. 

Methodist is led in batting average by the combination of Alyssa Rivas and Rachel Blanchard, who are hitting .380 apiece. Blanchard shares the team-high in hits with Hannah Lovick, who have 36 apiece. Meanwhile, Rivas is third with 35 hits with a team-best 24 RBI for the Monarchs. 

Blanchard tops the Monarch lineup with 24 runs and a .670 slugging percentage. However, Haley Downes balances out Methodist's lineup with a .420 on-base percentage. 

Kiersten Margroupis leads the way for the Monarchs in wins (eight) among pitchers, four more than Emma Neeley. Margroupis has tossed a team-high 116.2 innings, resulting in 57 K's, also a team-high.