HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team will return home this week, hosting Southland Conference foe Lamar for a three-game league series at North Oak Park.
The series between the Lady Lions (14-18, 3-6 Southland) and the visiting Cardinals (17-15, 8-1 Southland) opens with a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and concludes with a 12 p.m. contest that is part of the department-wide Super Lion Saturday. LionVision subscribers will be able to access a live video stream (no audio) of the series at
www.LionSports.net/watch.
Southeastern will be looking to bounce back from being swept at Nicholls last week. The Lady Lions had leads late in the final two games of the series, but the Colonels ultimately prevailed. Junior outfielder Kayln Watts led SLU at the plate with two home runs and four runs batted in in the series.
SLU is hitting .252 as a team through the season's first 32 games. Junior outfielder
Kinsey Nichols leads the team with a .375 batting average, followed by junior catcher
Carlie Whittington (.310), freshman designated player
Mattie Ort (.299), freshman infielder
Ali McCoy (.282) and Watts (.280).
Watts also leads the team with four home runs, followed by junior infielder
Mahalia Gibson's two home runs. The two power hitters also rank 1-2 among the team's RBI leaders, as Gibson (18) tops the team with Watts (16) closely following.
Sophomore shortstop
Jaquelyn Ramon and junior outfielder
Maddie Edmonston rank atop the Southland Conference with 28 and 22 steals, respectively. The two SLU speedsters share the team lead with 21 runs scored apiece.
In the circle, juniors
Lacey Hill (6-6, 2.82 ERA) and
Rachel Hayes (5-6, 3.05 ERA) share the majority of the workload for a SLU staff that has a 3.57 team ERA. SLU second-year head coach
Rick Fremin has made liberal use of his bullpen in 2017, as freshman
Alley McDonald (0-2, 6.52 ERA, 1 save), sophomore
Caitlyn VanHemelryck (0-2, 4.20 ERA), freshman
Tanner Wright (2-1, 4.40 ERA), senior
Kasey Nielson (0-1, 1.80 ERA, 1 save) and McCoy (1-0, 6.00 ERA) have all seen plenty of work.
Lamar comes to Hammond having won 11 of its last 13 games. The Cardinals are hitting .291 as a team, paced by Brittany Rodriguez's team-high .429 batting average. Sable Hankins leads the team with two home runs, while Brynn Baca has a team-high 20 RBI.
In the circle, six different LU pitchers have combined for a 3.51 team earned run average. Ciara Luna (5-9, 3.22 ERA, 2 saves), Laura Napoli (8-6, 3.45 ERA) and Anissa Rodriguez (3-0, 3.21 ERA) are the primary arms for the visitors.
Following this week's series, Southeastern will head back on the road, traveling to Houston for a three-game Southland set at Houston Baptist. On Friday, the series opens with a 1 p.m. doubleheader, followed by Saturday's 12 p.m. series finale.
