HAMMOND – Heading on the road for the first time in Southland Conference play, the Southeastern Louisiana softball team will visit San Marcos, Texas for a two-game series at defending league tournament champion Texas State.
 
The series between the Lady Lions (6-21, 0-2 Southland) and the host Bobcats (17-11, 3-1 Southland) opens with a 6 p.m. contest on Friday and concludes with a 1 p.m. contest on Saturday. Live stats for the series will be available at www.txstatebobcats.com. Southeastern fans can also follow the action on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sluathletics. 
 
Sophomore second baseman Megan McCollum leads Southeastern with a .366 batting average and .459 on-base percentage. Junior outfielder Michelle Duhe is the other Lady Lion hitting above .300, sporting a .302 average and leading the team in hits (29), runs (13) and triples (three). Southeastern is hitting .245 as a team.
 
Seven different players have accounted for Southeastern's 17 home runs this season. Senior catcher Meghan Gomez leads the team with eight home runs, followed by junior first baseman Ariell Van Hook (three) and sophomore shortstop Kayla Elswick (two). McCollum, junior outfielder Kelsey Nichols, senior third baseman Lauren Coniglio and freshman first baseman Tori Sheppard have each homered once this season.
 
Gomez also leads the team with 19 runs batted in, followed by Elswick with 10 RBI. Senior third baseman Trish Bliss leads the teams with six doubles, followed by McCollum with five and the trio of Nichols, Van Hook and senior outfielder Katie Matthews with four apiece. Van Hook has drawn a team-high 15 walks, while Coniglio has been issued 14 free passes.
 
Southeastern has pitched better in recent weeks, lowering its team earned run average to 4.72. Junior Kenna Terry (2-8, 4.33 ERA), sophomore Jessie Browne (1-8, 5.92 ERA), junior Kati Morse (1-3, 4.05 ERA) and senior Vicki Honeycutt (2-2, 5.07 ERA) make up the Lady Lion staff.
 
The Southeastern staff will be facing a Bobcat lineup that is hitting .231 as a team. Junior second baseman Anna Hernandez leads the team with .293 batting average, two home runs and 13 RBI. Freshman shortstop/utility player Selena Hernandez follows with a .280 batting average and 12 RBI.
 
The strength of the Bobcat team is its pitching, as it sports a 2.58 team earned run average heading into the series. The tandem of junior Anne Marie Taylor (8-5, 1.91 ERA) and senior Chandler Hall (9-5, 2.32 ERA) have handled all but nine innings of the work in the circle for Texas State this season.
 
Southeastern is 16-42 all-time versus the Bobcats. Texas State has won the last nine meetings versus the Lady Lions.
 
This weekend's action opens a string of four straight Southland road games for the Lady Lions. On Tuesday, Southeastern faces Nicholls in a 4 p.m. doubleheader in Thibodaux.