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SB: Savage fielding
Rita Willhite

SB: Huskies host Tarleton to kick off four-game homestand

HCU welcomes SLC leading McNeese this weekend to close regular season



HCU Huskies (20-27, 9-12 SLC) vs Tarleton State Texans (28-24, 12-9 WAC) Houston Christian University returns to Husky Field to begin a regular-season closing four-game homestand as it hosts Tarleton State University on Tuesday evening. 

The Huskies are coming off a tough weekend in Thibodaux, Louisiana that saw them drop two heart-breaking walk-off defeats in a three-game conference sweep at the hands of Nicholls. 

The Colonels got a 6-0 win in the opener, then captured 3-2 and 2-1 victories in the final two games of the series, both of which went eight innings.

AB Garcia will return to the HCU lineup this week after missing the last seven games. Garcia leads the Huskies with a .431 batting average and a .456 on-base percentage. She is second in the Southland Conference in hits with 56, and leads the team and league in runs scored with 35.

She is currently 18-22 in the stolen base department, fifth best in the league and tied for eighth on the HCU single-season charts. Garcia is the second-toughest to strikeout amongst conference players, fanning just eight times in 130 at-bats this season.

This past weekend, Garcia was chosen to the TUCCI/NFCA National Top 25 Freshman watchlist. 

Haylie Savage is hitting at a .361 clip with a .956 OPS. She has seven homers and leads the team with 56 hits and 41 RBI, all career-bests.

Now batting .344 on the season, Avery Drake leads the team in runs scored with 27, and her 55 hits are second only to Savage and AB Garcia. She is now 17-19 in the stolen base department, giving her 39 for her career, fifth best all-time.

Autumn Sydlik hit her fifth homer of the season on Friday, giving her 20 for her career to become just the eighth player in school history to hit that plateau. She has 19 RBI on the season, pushing her career total to 86, just five shy of the top ten in career runs driven in.

Ronni Grofman lowered her ERA to an even three this weekend, and is now 5-3 on the season. Lyndie Swanson, now 9-8, has 10 complete games and a 3.19 ERA. Katy Janes leads the team with 11 complete games and a team-high 56 strikeouts.

Tarleton comes to Husky Field on the heels of a three-game sweep of UTA in Arlington over the weekend. The Texans are now 28-24 overall and 12-9 in the WAC.

Junior infielder Katy Schaefer leads the Texans in most categories, including batting average (.368), homers (10), RBI (45) and OPS (1.071). 

Just behind Schaefer in batting is Kelsi Hill, a junior outfielder hitting .361 on the season with 34 RBI. Sophomore infielder Austin Germain is batting .345 with four homers and 20 RBI. Tarleton scores 4.6 runs per game, and has five players with over 20 RBI on the season.

The Texans rely on two seniors in the circle, one from each side. Righty Grace Garcia is 11-8 with a 3.84 ERA and 90 K's in 122 innings, while southpaw Tristan Bridges is 11-11 with a 5.53 ERA, fanning 79 in 119 innings. 

HCU and Tarleton have met just twice, with both of those games coming last season. The Huskies took a doubleheader in Stephenville, winning 9-7 and 6-3 in eight innings. 

After the non-conference tilt with the Texans, the Huskies will welcome league-leading McNeese for a three-game weekend set. Saturday will represent "Senior Day", as the team will recognize its lone senior, Avery Drake, with a short ceremony after the game. 

The Huskies currently sit in a three-way jumble for fifth place with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar. McNeese and Southeastern go into the final weekend vying for the top seed, while seeds three thru seven are still in limbo for the remining seven teams.

The entire conference will be in action this weekend with the exception of Nicholls, which finished its regular season against HCU last Friday and Saturday. 

Follow Tuesday's action via LIVE STATS or inning-by-inning updates on @HCUSoftball twitter. 

#DawgsUp
 
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