HAMMOND, La. – The two-time reigning Southland Conference Tournament champion Southeastern Louisiana University softball team will close out an eight-game road swing with its final nonconference road game of the regular season Wednesday, traveling to Southern Miss for a 5 p.m. contest.
Debuting at No. 25 in Monday's Softball America Top 25, SLU (33-9) enters Wednesday's contest on a school-record 19-game winning streak. Southern Miss (27-15) is fresh off taking two of three from James Madison this past weekend.
Southeastern earned its first-ever three-game series sweep of four-time reigning SLC regular season champion McNeese last week. A pair of 4-0 shutout victories bookended the three-game sweep of the Cowgirls – the first by a Southland road team in Lake Charles since 2010.
SLU is hitting .337 as a team, led by
Shelby Morris, who tops the team with a .408 batting average, 43 runs scored, 60 hits and six triples.
Cydnee Schneider, who leads the SLC with 14 doubles, is next with a .383 batting average and is joined in the team's top five by
Brilee Ford (.360),
Chloe Magee (.352) and
Colleen Kulivan (.341). Magee paces the roster with 21 walks, 17 steals and seven sacrifice hits.
The school's career leader in runs, RBI, extra-base hits, sacrifice flies and total bases,
Maria Detillier leads the team with seven home runs and 36 RBI this spring. Ford and
Ka'Lyn Watson each have five home runs for the Lions.
The Southeastern pitching staff comes into Wednesday's game with a nation-best 16 shutouts and is third nationally with a 1.65 team earned run average.
Cera Blanchard (11-1, 0.99 ERA, 2 saves),
Hallie Burns (12-3, 1.69 ERA, 1 save),
Haley Crawford (4-1, 0.97 ERA, 2 saves) and
Macie LaRue (3-2, 2.90 ERA, 1 save) are the primary arms for SLU, while
Tyler Oubre (0-1, 5.12 ERA),
Bre Clark (1-0, 0.53 ERA),
Katherine Thiessen (2-1, 1.75 ERA) and
Celia Lamkin (0-0, 3.50 ERA) have all played a role in the staff's success.
Southeastern will be facing a tough USM lineup that is hitting .309 as a team. Hannah Christian leads the team with a .424 batting average, four home runs and 37 RBI. The 1-2 punch of Kayla Giardina (12-6, 2.67 ERA, 2 saves) and Madilyn Graham (10-4, 3.16 ERA) lead a Golden Eagle pitching staff that has a 4.28 team ERA.
Wednesday's game will be the second meeting of 2026 between the two teams, as SLU earned an 11-3 victory in six innings March 11 in Hammond. Kulivan led the Lions with three hits and three runs scored, as she and
Shenita Tucker drove in two runs apiece. Burns, Blanchard and Crawford combined to hold USM to six hits.
Southeastern will return home this weekend to host Lamar for a three-game Southland Conference series, starting with a 4 p.m. doubleheader Friday and concluding with Saturday's noon series finale. Friday's games will be televised on ESPN+. Prior to Saturday's game,
Kailey Dixon, Schneider, Kulivan, Watson, Detillier, Dixon, Tucker, Blanchard, LaRue and Oubre will be recognized in a Senior Day ceremony.
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Softball, follow @LionUpSoftball on X and Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook.
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.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern offers mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has a clear bag policy for all ticketed events. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
