MOBILE, Ala. - The Southeastern Louisiana softball team will close out its non-conference road schedule on Tuesday, facing South Alabama at 6 p.m. at Jaguar Field.

The Lady Lions (27-19) will be attempting to build momentum heading into this weekend\'s final Southland Conference series of the season at Texas-Arlington. Southeastern needs to win one game at UTA or have Texas A&M-Corpus Christi lose one of its remaining six league games to clinch a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament.

Southeastern avoided a series sweep on Sunday, celebrating Senior Day with a 6-1 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Senior Rachel Ray (15-10, 2.17 ERA) hurled a complete-game four hitter and struck out seven for the Lady Lions. Ray ran her career strikeout total to 379, surpassing the previous mark of 376 held by former Lady Lion Sue Hill. Junior Jill Machleit paced the offense with a solo home run, while senior Kaley Christy was 2-for-3 with a double.

The Southeastern offense leads the Southland Conference with a .282 batting average. Junior Heather Sherrill leads the team with a .376 batting average, while freshman Katie Duhe is second on the squad, hitting .357. Both of Southeastern’s top hitters rank in the Southland Conference’s top seven individual batting averages.

Southeastern has hits a school record 42 home runs as a team this season. Sherrill leads the team with nine home runs, followed by junior Allyson McCubbins (eight), senior Brooke Lockhart (seven), Duhe (six) and freshman Kelly Lyman (five). Sherrill also leads the Southland Conference with 38 RBI, while Duhe (33 RBI), Lockhart (28 RBI) and McCubbins (27 RBI) all rank among the SLC leaders.

Sherrill and senior Arica Rodriguez share the team lead and are tied for second in the SLC with 12 doubles. McCubbins and Christy are ranked 1-2 on the team with 33 and 31 runs scored, respectively. McCubbins leads the team with 20 walks, while Christy has stolen a team-high 12 bases.

Ray heads a Southeastern pitching staff that has a team earned run average of 2.76. The Payson, Ariz. native ranks among the SLC leaders in wins, earned run average and strikeouts (155). Already having topped Hill\'s career strikeout record, Ray needs just 19 more strikeouts to break Hill\'s single season record of 173 set in 2002. Ray and sophomore Jenna Yoder (9-7, 2.96 ERA) have handled the majority of the work in the circle for the Lady Lions.

On Tuesday, the Southeastern pitching staff will face a South Alabama team with a team batting average of .248. Evelyn Pare leads the team with a .382 batting average, followed by Tara Donaldson (.310). Autumn Hudson leads the Lady Jaguars with two home runs and 17 runs batted in.

Beth Pilgrim (10-12, 2.56 ERA) is the ace of a South Alabama staff that sports a 2.97 team earned run average. Pilgrim, Amanda Leggett (7-10, 3.80 ERA) and Shannon Smith (3-4, 2.60 ERA) have handled the pitching duties this season for USA.

Southeastern is 1-3 all-time versus South Alabama. Tuesday\'s game will be the second meeting this season between the two teams, as USA handed the Lady Lions their first loss of the season, 5-1, back on Feb. 13 in Hammond. Pilgrim struck out 13 and held Southeastern to five hits in the first meeting, while Kristen Hayes and Katie McGuire each hit home runs for USA.

Following Tuesday\'s game, Southeastern will head to Texas-Arlington for a three-game SLC series, beginning with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday. Sunday\'s series finale is scheduled to begin at noon.