HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team will participate in the Southland Conference Tournament, scheduled for Wednesday through Friday at Lady Demon Diamond on the Northwestern State campus in Natchitoches.
 
The Lady Lions (21-28) are the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will face fifth-seed Lamar (24-26) to open the double-elimination tournament. The tournament championship game is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. with the winner earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
 
SLU and Lamar are joined in the Southland Conference Tournament field by Northwestern State, McNeese State, Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Live stats and video, provided by the Southland Conference, for the tournament games will be accessible at LionSports.net.
 
Southeastern is making its sixth Southland Conference Tournament appearance. The Lady Lions previously made trips in 1998, 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2013 and are looking for their first Southland Conference Tournament championship. SLU's seeding matches the highest in school history, as it was also the fourth seed in 2001 and 2002.
 
SLU finished the regular season with a .302 team batting average, ranking second in the Southland. The Lady Lion lineup is highlighted by five All-Southland players – junior outfielder Katie Lacour, senior third baseman Megan Moore, junior designated player Amber Sather, freshman shortstop Sydney Booker and freshman outfielder Kinsey Nichols.
 
Lacour leads the Southland with a .477 batting average – good for sixth in the nation – and a single-season school record 84 hits. Nichols (.366), Booker (.350) and Moore (.322) are the other top hitters for average. Sather leads the league and ranks 12^th nationally with a single-season school record 40 walks.
 
Booker, one of 25 NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year finalists, and Sather share the team lead with seven home runs. Booker also leads the team with a single-season school record eight triples and 46 RBI. She and Moore share the team lead with nine doubles, while Nichols is second on the team and eighth in the country with seven triples.
 
Lacour is the school career record holder with 96 runs scored, while Sather has drawn a program career standard bearer with 106 walks. Lacour needs one run to set a new single-season school record and two hits shy of the school's career record. Booker is three extra-base hits and four RBI shy of setting new single-season school records, while Moore is eight RBI short of the school's career record.
 
Junior Taylor Bishop (14-7, 3.09 ERA), an honorable mention All-Southland Conference choice, is the ace of the SLU pitching staff. The Sugar Land, Texas native has an 11-3 record versus Southland opponents.
 
Bishop and the rest of the Southeastern pitching staff will be facing a Lamar lineup that has a .275 team batting average. All-Southland junior shortstop Stephanie Meeuwsen leads the team with a .366 batting average, while all-league senior Casey Cromwell leads the team with eight home runs. Freshman pitcher Laura Napoli (17-16, 3.91 ERA), a third-team All-Southland choice, is the ace of the Lady Cardinal pitching staff.
 
During the regular season, Southeastern swept three games from Lamar. Nichols was named Southland Conference Hitter of the Week, while Booker was named Louisiana Player of the Week after helping the Lady Lions to the three wins.
 
2015 Southland Conference Softball Tournament – May 6-8 – Lady Demon Diamond – Natchitoches, La.
 
Wednesday, May 6
Game 1 – No. 3 Central Arkansas vs. No. 6 A&M-Corpus Christi, 11 a.m.
Game 2 – No. 4 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 5 Lamar, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3 – No. 2 McNeese State vs. Winner Game 1, 4 p.m.
Game 4 – No. 1 Northwestern State vs. Winner Game 2, 6:30 p.m.
 
Thursday, May 7
Game 5 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 4, 11 a.m.
Game 6 – Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7 – Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 4 p.m.
Game 8 – Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 6:30 p.m.
 
Friday, May 8
Game 9 – Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 10:30 a.m.
Game 10 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 2 p.m.*
 
* - A second game will be played between the teams in Game 10 to determine the champion if it is the first loss for the losing team. The start time for game 11, if necessary, is TBA