BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University Cardinals look to move closer to securing a berth in next month's Southland Conference Softball Tournament as they travel down I-10 to San Antonio for a three-game conference series against the Incarnate Word Cardinals this weekend. The teams play a doubleheader at 4 p.m. Friday and a single game at noon Saturday.
 
LU (23-24 overall, 13-8 Southland) currently sits in third place in the conference tournament chase, five games behind conference-leading McNeese, but just one game behind Nicholls for the No. 2 seed with six games remaining. LU, which can clinch a tournament berth with a sweep this weekend, wraps up conference play next weekend with Nicholls, in what could be a crucial series, as the top two seeds receive first-round byes.
 
Incarnate Word (9-36, 4-17), which is in its fourth, and final season of making the transition to Division I from Division II, is ineligible for the tournament.
 
"We can't look ahead to next week," LU coach Holly Bruder said. "We have to come out with the same focus and intensity we had against McNeese and Baylor. We can't just go out there and think that because we have a better record, we're going to win. UIW is scrappy. They won't give up. It's their senior weekend. They would love to win and spoil someone else's season."
 
Bruder is upbeat about her team's play even after dropping two of three to conference-leading McNeese and falling to 13^th-ranked Baylor by a 4-1 score on Tuesday.
 
"We hit .300 against McNeese and that third game could have gone either way," Bruder said. "We got runners on base against Baylor, but stranded 10. If we could have found a way to drive some of those runners home, it may have been a different game. We faced two very good teams and some of the best pitching we'll see all year, and we held our own."
 
Center fielder Brittany Rodriguez leads the Cardinals with a .396 batting average, .470 on-base percentage and .479 slugging percentage. Catcher Brynn Baca (.318) and left fielder Ashley McDowell (.307) are also hitting better than .300 for LU, which is batting .269 as a team.  Third baseman Sable Hankins is hitting a team-best .377 in conference play.
 
Senior right-hander Ciara Luna (10-14, 2.44) will likely get two starts for LU this weekend. Luna has struck out 222 batters in her LU career, four shy of the school record 226 set by Shannon Millman. Luna is 7-5 with a 1.75 ERA in Southland games. Junior right-hander Laura Napoli (9-9, 3.76) is expected to start one game for LU this weekend. Napoli is 5-2 with a 2.09 ERA vs. Southland opponents.
 
UIW, which is hitting .232 as a team, is led by Danielle Ramirez, who has a .321 batting average. Mikaela Flores has team-leading figures of three home runs and 21 RBIs.
 
Freshman left-hander Joanna Valencia (5-7, 4.31), senior right-hander Bridget Stein (0-7, 5.94) and junior right-hander Sarah Leal (1-6, 5.30) have handled the bulk of the pitching duties for UIW this season.
 
UIW, which snapped a six-game skid with a 3-2 win at Stephen F. Austin on Saturday, is just 1-10 at home this season.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES: LU is 9-0 all-time vs. UIW, including a 7-0 mark since reviving the program in 2013. LU and UIW met twice in 1984, with the Cardinals winning 20-1 and 18-3. This is LU's second trip to UIW. LU swept a three-game series at UIW in 2015.