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2 - Tabitha Burnett (Nicholls)
Juan DeLeon

SB: HCU hits Lake Charles to take on league-leading Cowgirls

Stretch run of regular season begins against three-time defending SLC champs



HCU (17-21, 4-11 SLC) at McNEESE (30-15, 14-1 SLC)  
  • 📆 Friday - April 19, 2024 (6 pm)
  • 📆 Saturday - April 20, 2024 (DH at 1 pm)
  • 🏟️ Joe Miller Field at Cowgirl Diamond – Lake Charles, Louisiana
  • 📈 LIVE STATS    
  • ➡️ GAME NOTES   
Houston Christian University returns to Southland Conference action when it travels over on I-10 to Louisiana to face three-time defending SLC champion McNeese at Joe Miller Field at Cowgirl Diamond in a three-game series. The Huskies and league-leading Cowgirls will play under the lights in Lake Charles on Friday night at 6 pm, with a 1 pm doubleheader scheduled for.
 
HCU dropped its final non-conference tilt in a midweek game on Tuesday against former Southland foe Sam Houston State. The Huskies and Bearkats locked up in a solid pitcher's duel with Sam coming out on top 5-0.
 
After giving up two runs in the first, Katy Janes powered through the SHSU order for six innings before a seventh inning tally closed the scoring. She went the distance and scattered five hits in falling to 4-3 on the season. Tabitha Burnett matched a career-high with three hits to lead HCU's offense.
 
The Huskies will come into the weekend set with McNeese coming off its first SLC series win last weekend when it took two of three from Nicholls at Husky Field. The Huskies got a 4-0 win in the opener of Friday's twin-bill before falling 7-1 in the nightcap. The Huskies then won the series finale in dramatic fashion as Haylie Savage's grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning capped off a thrilling 5-1 victory.
  Lyndie Swanson won both games of the series, and in doing so captured the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week honors for the first time in her career. She tossed a shutout in the opener, striking out eight, then came back on Saturday to go all 10 innings on 121 pitches for the victory. All told, she gave up just 13 hits in the two contests, with only a single extra-base knock in the bunch. She struck out 11 and walked just three while tossing 206 pitches over the 17 innings.
 
The senior from Katy is now 6-6 and continues to hit new marks on the career leaderboards at HCU. She is just the ninth hurler in school history to eclipse 400 total innings, and needs just three more to move in sixth place. Her two times in the circle against Nicholls pushed her to 110 for her career, just five shy of the top spot all-time, and her 4-0 shutout win on Friday was the 14th of her career, seventh best all-time. She is now also just 11 strikeouts short of the Top 10.
 
It was the first 10-inning complete game victory since 2021 when Jessica Patak went all 11 in a 3-1 victory at SFA, and it was the fourth 10-inning contest in the past two seasons for HCU. The Huskies are now 10-5 over the last five years in extra inning games, and Swanson improved to 5-0 all-time when going more than seven.
 
Speaking of leaderboards, Jasie Roberts has also been climbing the HCU career charts all season as well, hitting top 10's in at-bats, hits and doubles, whle placing as just the ninth player in school history to reach 100 career RBI. She needs to play three more games to become the ninth player in school history to reach 200 for a career, and during the Nicholls series, became only the fourth Husky ever to accumulate 600 career at-bats.
 
The senior from Deer Park continues to pace the offense, hitting .355 on the season with 39 total hits, second on the club. She is also second on the club in runs scored, doubles and RBI. She is ninth in the Southland in batting average, ninth in slugging (.536), 10th in OPS (.454) and leads the conference in getting hit by pitch with seven.
 
Haylie Savage's grand slam against Nicholls was her team-best sixth dinger of the season, third-most in the league and one shy of her career high set last year. She now has 16 homers for her career, three shy of ninth place all-time. The junior from Angleton is currently sixth in the SLC in runs scored with a team-best 30, sixth in the league in doubles with a team-high 10 and seventh in walks with 19.
 
AB Garcia has continued a strong stretch in the batter's box, raising her average to .315 by hitting .367 over the last 20 games (25-68). She has hit safely in 18 of those games, which included a 11-game hitting streak that was snapped in the finale of the TAMUCC series and leads the team with 12 multi-hit games. She stole her 12th bag of the season over the weekend, and has taken over sixth place in career stolen bases with 35. She needs just four for fifth place, and just 10 to move into second place all-time.
 
Swanson took the team lead in victories with six with her two over the weekend against Nicholls, moving just ahead of Ronni Grofman. Swanson leads the hurlers with a 2.92 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 84 innings pitched. Grofman is 5-8 on the year with a 3.21 ERA and 58 K's in 72 innings while completing seven of her 12 starts.
 
McNeese comes into the weekend sitting in first place in the Southland by a game over rival Southeastern Louisiana. The Cowgirls won their 30th game of the season on Wednesday with a 4-2 home victory over Sam Houston. It marks the seventh time in the last eight years for a 30-win campaign, with only the 19-7 record of the COVID 2020 season breaking that stretch.
 
The Pokes are led offensively by Corinne Poncho, who places at the top of several of the leagues hitting categories. She ranks second in OPS at 1.179 and second in slugging at .750, much because of her league-leading 15 home runs, one of just two in the conference in double-figures. She is tied for fifth in the league in RBI with 33 and is third in runs scored with 39.
 
Samantha Mundine paces the team with a .353 batting average, good for 10th in the league. Rylie Bouvier and Crislyne Moreno each have 24 RBI on the season, and Moreno is tops at 14-14 in steals to lead a 94-stolen base effort by the Pokes thus far.
 
Shaelyn Sanders is second in the Southland in victories, sitting at 14-7 overall with a 2.05 ERA and 105 K's, third-most in the SLC. Lindsay Davis and Ryan Schexnayder each have six wins.
 
Following this trio of games in Lake Charles, the Huskies will have just two weekend SLC series remaining on the regular season schedule. The final stretch continues next weekend as HCU hosts its final home series of the season against Northwestern State. A doubleheader on Friday will be followed by "Senior Day" on Saturday, with recognition and festivities following the series finale.
 
HCU ends the regular season slate the following week with its final road games of the campaign to take on Texas A&M-Commerce. That series has already been adjusted from the original Friday/Saturday scheduling, and has been pushed up a day to Thursday and Friday to accommodate HCU softball's participation in Spring Commencement on May 4.
 
The Southland Conference Tournament is from May 7-10 hosted by Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.
 
 
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