HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team will open the road portion of its Southland Conference schedule this week, traveling to Houston Baptist for a three-game league series.
The series between the Lady Lions (13-10, 2-1 Southland) and the host Huskies (11-7, 2-1 Southland) opens with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and closes with Saturday's noon series finale. Links to live video and stats, provided by HBU, are accessible on the softball schedule page at
www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern opened league play last weekend by taking two of three from Stephen F. Austin.
Mima Doucet hit .625 (5-for-8) to pace the SLU offense in the series, while pitchers
Alley McDonald and
Sophie Hannabas each had excellent outings in the circle to help the Lady Lions take the series from SFA.
The Lady Lions are second in the Southland with a .305 team batting average.
Ella Manzer (.393, 3
rd) and
Lindsey Rizzo (.355, 9
th) each rank in the Southland top 10, while Doucet (.346),
Rebecca Skains (.338) and
Ali McCoy (.333) round out the team's top five.
Jaquelyn Ramon follows with a .328 batting average and a league-best 22 runs scored.
Manzer leads the team with two home runs, while Skains' 18 RBI are good for third in the Southland. Skains also sits in second in the league with a team-high nine doubles, while
Bobbi Smith shares the Southland lead with her three triples.
Southeastern is second in the Southland with 117 runs scored, thanks in large part to its aggressiveness on the base paths. The Lady Lions are leading the nation by a wide margin with 111 stolen bases as a team.
Ramon leads the nation with 35 stolen bases through the first 23 games of the season. She, Smith (17, 2
nd), Rizzo (16, 4
th), Doucet (10, 9
th) and
Pryscilla Prince (10, 9
th) occupy half of the league's top 10.
Ramon, the Southland and SLU career leader in stolen bases, makes history with every theft. The Channelview, Texas native is the current Division I active career leader and 19
th on the all-time Division I leaderboard with 156 career stolen bases.
SLU is currently third in the conference with a 2.80 team earned run average, as eight different pitchers have seen time in the circle. McDonald (3-3, 2.09 ERA, 1 save), Hannabas (3-2, 3.39 ERA, 1 save),
Tanner Wright (3-3, 2.24 ERA) and
Karlee Kraft (3-0, 1.59 ERA) have split the majority of the work, while McCoy (0-0, 10.50 ERA),
Briahna Bennett (1-2, 5.09 ERA),
Shelby Sitzman (0-0, 6.46 ERA) and
Caitlyn VanHemelryck (0-0, 8.40 ERA) have also contributed.
The deep Lady Lion staff will be facing a Houston Baptist team that is hitting .295 as a team and has won six of its last seven contests. The Huskies opened league play by taking two of three at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last week.
Brooke Bushman (.386) and Sierra Humphrey (.380) are the top hitters for average for HBU. Caitlyn Brockway paces the team with four home runs, while Autumn Sydlik has a team-high 11 RBI.
The Huskies carry a team ERA of 3.17 into this weekend's series. Jessica Patak (2-6, 4.04 ERA, 1 save), Emma Guindon (5-0, 2.73 ERA, 1 save) and Elliot Estes (4-1, 2.39 ERA, 2 saves) have split time in the circle for Houston Baptist.
Following this week's action, Southeastern will conclude its four-game road swing with a 1 p.m. game at Alcorn State on Tuesday. Fans can get in-game updates on Tuesday via Twitter at
www.twitter.com/sluathletics.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events (softball, baseball, football and basketball), effective with the start of the 2018 football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
HOME RUN CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the softball program are encouraged to join the Home Run Club. Lady Lion softball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
All membership fees and donations to both the Home Run Club and S Club (softball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern softball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Softball, follow @SLUlionsoftball on Twitter and Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
