Abilene Christian visits Friday & Saturday
4/17/2014 10:02:00 AM | Softball
In a tight, three-team race for softball supremacy in the Southland Conference, Sam Houston returns to league action Friday and Saturday as the Bearkats play host to Abilene Christian at the Softball Complex.
Sam Houston and the Wildcats will play a doubleheader Friday at 4 p.m. The series will conclude with a 12 noon single game Saturday.
The Bearkats will be out to end a two-game losing streak that started with a 3-2 loss at Houston Baptist last Sunday. The narrow defeat at the hands of the Huskies ended a seven-game SHSU winning streak, the team's longest this season.
No. 21 Texas A&M handed Sam Houston an 11-2 non-conference loss Tuesday night.
With three weeks to go in the regular season, McNeese State (13-4) stands atop the league standings. Lamar (12-5) is in second place and Sam Houston (11-6) is in third. McNeese hosts ninth-place Nicholls (6-10) and Lamar is playing at home against tenth place A&M-Corpus Christi (5-12) Friday and Saturday.
The Kats are led at the plate by the Castillo sisters from Port Lavaca and a pair of Huntsville products.
Senior right fielder Cecilia Castillo is hitting .358 with nine doubles and three home runs. Sophomore catcher Tiffany Castillo owns a .311 average with eight doubles and eight home runs.
Junior shortstop Tayler Gray boasts a .331 average and hit her seventh home run of the season Wednesday night in College Station. Freshman third baseman Tori Koerselman owns a .311 batting mean.
Senior right-hander Shelby Lancaster is 7-6 for the year in the circle but sports a 6-1 record and 1.49 earned run average in Southland play. Haley Baros (9-9), Meme Quinn (4-3) and Tayler Atkinson (2-1) also sport strong arms for the Bearkats.
The long ball has been a big weapon for Sam Houston this season. The Bearkats' 35 home runs stand as the third highest season total by an SHSU team. The school record is 59 home runs in 61 games set by the 2012 Sam Houston squad.
Abilene Christian brings a 17-22 overall record to Huntsville Friday. The Wildcats, in their first season of Southland competition, are not eligible for a berth in the post-season tournament in Hammond, La., in May. ACU stands 6-5 in Southland regular season play.
Outfielder Taylor Brown leads Abilene Christian with a .382 batting average. Catcher Lyndi Smith is hitting .333 and leads the Wildcats with nine home runs. ACU sports a .309 team batting average.
Sam Houston and Abilene Christian met in February in tournament action in Denton and Lubbock. The Bearkats won all three games despite ACU hitting .337 in the three contests.
Following the ACU series, the SHSU women will play their final mid-week non-conference doubleheader at Texas Southern Wednesday, April 23, then complete conference action with weekend series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi April 26-27 and in Huntsville against Stephen F. Austin May 3-4.
