Juan DeLeon

SB: HCU heads to Louisiana for Mardi Gras Mambo

2/27/2025 11:32:00 AM

Five games over three days on tap with four being first-ever meetings

MARDI GRAS MAMBO - Youngsville, Louisiana (Youngsville Sports Complex)
🗒️ GAME PROGRAM / NOTES

Friday – February 28, 2025

2 pm 🆚 Monmouth
4 pm 🆚 Army

Saturday – March 1, 2025

3 pm 🆚 Maine
5 pm 🆚 Iowa State

Sunday – March 2, 2025

10 am 🆚 West Georgia

Houston Christian University hits the highway for the third weekend in a row, traveling to Youngsville, Louisiana to take part in the Mardi Gras Mambo. The three day tournament at the Youngsville Sports Complex is the final tournament of the season for the Huskies, who will play five games in three days.

The Huskies come into the weekend with a 3-9 overall mark after going 1-3 in the ULM Warhawk Invitational. HCU won its opener 6-5 in extra innings over Eastern Illinois University before dropping three straight games, two to host Louisiana-Monroe and then a rematch with EIU on Sunday. The weekend's finale with Southern University was washed out.

AB Garcia has now taken over the team batting lead, hitting a robust .486 to start the season while posting team-bests in OPS (1.143) and OBP (.548). Garcia went 7-11 last weekend, while also picking up her first stolen base of the season. She now has 40 in her career to put her in fifth place alone on the all-time leaderboards. Garcia will move into fourth place with one more, third with three and second all-time with four more swipes. Jennifer Futral (1998-2001) is the school's all-time leader with 88.

Right behind Garcia is Haylie Savage, who continues her assault on the HCU record books. With one swing of the bat in the opener against EIU last weekend, she moved into the top ten in career homers and RBI. Her three-run jack against the Panthers in the come-from-behind victory moved her into ninth in both spots, and she then moved up to eighth in runs knocked in with a pair in the Friday night contest against host ULM. Savage is now second in batting average (.417), OPS (1.075), OBP (.436) and first in SLG (.639). She leads the club with 12 RBI on the year and is now just nine hits away from the top 10 in that category as well.

Two other Huskies are at or above .300 through the first dozen outings; Chloe Foster at .304 and Ella Herrewig at .300. Hanna York is batting .250 and is second on the club with eight RBI. Garcia leads the team with 12 runs scored.

The young pitching staff has three different players with a victory in Leah Hammack, Kynleigh Evans and Cara Pitman. Evans leads the group with eight appearances, five in relief and 25 total innings pitched.

The Huskies are led by Mary-Ellen Hall, who returned for her 34th season in the dugout of her alma mater. HCU returned just nine players off last year's 23-27 club that advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament and also handed Hall her 900^th career victory. HCU welcomed an 11-player recruiting class that features five transfers and six rookies.

This will be HCU's second foray in the Mardi Gras Mambo, having previously participated in 2023 when it went 4-1 over the weekend, securing wins over Florida A&M, Gardner-Webb, Toledo and Manhattan before a loss to St. Thomas (MN). The Huskies will play twice on Friday, twice on Saturday and once in a 10 am finale on Sunday morning.

Four of the five matchups will be first-ever meetings, as the Huskies have never faced Monmouth, Maine, Iowa State or Division 1 newcomer West Georgia. HCU and Army have met four times, with the ladies of West Point holding a 3-1 advantage in the series. The two teams met in a three-game series at HCU in 2011 with Army taking the final two games, and most recently met in 2012 at the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Florida, a 2-1 win for the Black Knights.

Following the weekend in Youngsville, the Huskies will take to the road for the first conference series of the season, heading to Natchitoches, Louisiana for a three-game set with Northwestern State on March 7 and 8.

#DawgsUp

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Five games over three days on tap with four being first-ever meetings

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