Final Home Series Highlights Seniors
4/28/2016 8:23:00 AM | Softball
The Sam Houston softball team closes out its 2016 home schedule Friday and Saturday in an important Southland Conference series with the University of the Incarnate Word.
Action begins Friday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader. The series concludes Saturday with a 3 p.m. single game. Saturday is “Senior Day” at the Softball Complex with a special pregame ceremony honoring the four players who will be making their final appearances before the home crowd.
All four are starters this year and three have been part of each of the Sam Houston softball squads the past four seasons. The seniors are second baseman Dani Allen, shortstop Tiffany Castillo, catcher Katie Doerre and outfielder Jennie Kieval.
Allen brings a .356 career batting average into the weekend having played in 139 games as a Bearkat. Her batting mean ranks as the third career mark in school history. The Houston Lamar product leads the 2016 team with a .390 average. She also was the Bearkats' leading hitter as a junior, earning All-Southland Conference honorable mention honors last year.
Castillo is a two-time All-Southland performer who has started at four positions as a Bearkat. She has played in 199 games, starting 105 contests at catcher and 62 at shortstop, her position this season. The Port Lavaca Calhoun product enters the weekend with a .311 career batting average. He 26 career home runs rank her fourth all-time at Sam Houston.
Doerre joined the Bearkats as a transfer from Texas State this spring. She has stated 40 games at catcher, posting the team's third highest batting average with a .333 mark. With nine doubles, a triple and five home runs, she boasts a .568 slugging percentage. She has produced eight multiple hit games including a 4-for-4 performance at the plate in a game against the University of Houston.
Kieval has played in 219 games as a Bearkat, starting 86 times as an outfielder. With 215 plate appearances, she owns career totals of 47 hits, 12 doubles, a triple and five home runs. She has started 37 contests as a senior this year. The Houston Memorial product has been a Southland Conference Commissioner's Academic honor roll member four years and holds a 3.56 overall grade point average as an accounting major.
Sam Houston will close out the 2016 regular season schedule next weekend, May 6-7, with a three game series at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. If the Bearkats can finish among the top six teams in the final league standings, they will qualify for a berth in the Southland Softball Tournament to be held in Lake Charles, La., May 11-14.
