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26 - Chloe Foster (orange)
Juan DeLeon

SB: HCU faces ETAMU in weekend series to complete second half of tough road stretch

Huskies still battling for final spot in Southland postseason field



🆚 East Texas A&M University
🏟️ John Cain Family Softball Complex – Commerce, Texas
🗒️GAME NOTES 
 
🥎 Friday – April 17 (DH – 5 pm / 7 pm)
📈 GM 1 LIVE STATS        
📺 GM 1 ESPN+  
 
📈 GM 2 LIVE STATS     
📺 GM 2 ESPN+     
 
🥎 Saturday – April 18 (12 pm)
📈 GM 3 LIVE STATS                   
📺 GM 3 ESPN+  
 
Houston Christian University battles East Texas A&M University in the final road series of the regular season when the two teams face off this weekend in Commerce at the John Cain Family Softball Complex. The two schools are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 5 pm with the series finale on the docket for Saturday at noon. The series also represents the second half of a rugged six-games in five days stretch on the road for the Huskies as well as the penultimate regular season series of the 2026 campaign.
 
The Huskies will be playing their third series since Head Coach Mary-Ellen Hall announced her retirement from coaching on April 7, signaling the end of her 35-year tenure at the helm of her alma mater. With the program since its inception in 1989, Hall took the reins in 1992 after three years as an assistant and has amassed 927 wins to date, which is 29th amongst active coaches across all NCAA ranks. She will step out of the dugout at season's end, but will continue on at HCU in her current role of Senior Woman Administrator, which she has served as since 2009. 
 
HCU hits the back half of a brutal stretch of the schedule, as the Southland had its lone mid-week series of the slate on Tuesday and Wednesday, leading into the weekend's action. The Huskies captured the middle game of the three-game set in Lake Charles, Louisiana as it defeated McNeese State University 6-4 behind a gutsy 134-pitch complete game outing from Cara Pitman, who picked up her second win of the season.
 
Houston Christian currently sits at 7-34 overall and 4-17 in the Southland, one game behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for the eighth and final postseason spot. The top two teams in the SLC will host four-team brackets, with the winner's of those brackets facing off in a best-of-three series for the league crown. Southeastern Louisiana, the two-time defending tournament champions, currently sits atop the SLC standings at 20-1 after having their 25-game winning streak snapped in Nacogdoches on Wednesday. The Lions hadn't lost a game since a 9-1 defeat to #1 ranked Oklahoma on March 1.
 
Maddy Bailey raised her batting average nearly 100 points after returning to the lineup after missing the six-game week of the UTSA game and the Bearkat Invitational in February. She posted her fourth career three-hit game vs. UTEP (2/27) and then went 5-10 with three RBI in the three-game set against Northwestern State. She has gone 6-18 over the last two conference series and now leads the team in batting average (.289), multi-hit games (8) hits, doubles, triples, and runs.
 
Chloe Foster is the lone Husky to have played in every game thus far in 2026. She hit her first career homer in game two against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and had her second three-hit outing of the season as she went 3-4 with two RBI to help aid the 6-4 win over McNeese on Wednesday. She leads the team with 16 RBI. 
 
Jocelyn Briseno had her first career four-hit game in the 8-6 victory over Prairie View A&M at the Bearkat Invitational (2/21). She posted back-to-back 2-3 outings in the first two games of the series with Nicholls and is 6-16 over her last six games, raising her average to .271 on the year, second on the club.
 
Madison Dominguez had a 12-game hitting streak and 13-game stretch of safely reaching the bags earlier in the season, snapped at SLU. She is third on the team in hits with 22 and is tied for the team-high with 14 free passes as well as a team-best 11 stolen bases.
 
Addy Prasifka has 27 strikeouts over her last 29.2 innings of work. She has tied her personal best with six K's against both Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (3/21) and Stephen F. Austin (3/28). She earned her first win of the season with three innings of relief in game two against Nicholls.
 
Jade Moreno drove in three runs in the Wednesday twin-bill at McNeese, extending her career-high in RBI to 11. She also has a personal best four homers to lead the club.
 
HCU and East Texas A&M have met just nine times, all coming in Southland action over the past three seasons. Houston Christian holds a 7-2 lead in the series as the Huskies took two of three in Houston last season, winning 2-1 and 3-2 before the Lions captured the regular-season finale 15-1. HCU took two of three in their only ever trip to Commerce, winning 7-4 and 8-7 after dropping the opener of the series 3-1. The come-from-behind victory in the series finale represented Head Coach Mary-Ellen Hall's 900th career victory.
 
East Texas A&M is led by Brittany Miller, now in her fourth season in Commerce. The Lions are 6-40 overall and 1-20 in the Southland after dropping all three games of their mid-week series at Incarnate Word in San Antonio. ETAMU dropped the double-header by 6-3 and 5-3 scores before a 12-3 loss in the finale on Wednesday.
 
The Lions are led offensively by senior first baseman Tatum Wright. She ranks second in the league in homers (13), OPS (1.181) and slugging (.790) while leading the team with a .350 batting average and 28 RBI. Sophomore utility player Aaliyah Wilcox bats .281 with two homers and 16 RBI. Madison Kloepper, a junior right-hander, has made 28 appearances with 16 starts and six games, sporting a 4-13 record to lead the Lions in the circle.
 
All three games of the ETAMU series can be streamed on ESPN+.
 
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