BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University has unveiled its 2024 softball schedule featuring 47 games with 23 coming in non-conference play, announced head coach Amy Hooks Tuesday morning. LU Softball Complex will host 21 of these contests including 12 conference affairs.
 
"We break our season up in three phases - preseason, conference and postseason," Hooks said. "Our preseason will be very challenging, and I expect us to grow and be prepared for conference. The SLC continues to get stronger every year which prepares us for postseason."
 
Big Red will have to wait thirteen games before their home opener Sunday, Feb. 25 against Niagara in a doubleheader. This continues the trend of the Cardinals starting out on the road as they have every season since 2013 when softball was reintroduced at Lamar.
 
The Cardinals start the season with back-to-back tournaments in Lake Charles, La. with their first action coming against Tarleton State on Friday, Feb. 9 at 4 p.m. The Cardinals match up with the Texans twice to open their slate with two against Tennessee State rounding out the Cowgirl Classic opening weekend.
 
The highlight of the non-conference slate comes in the Cowgirl Challenge the following weekend as the Cardinals will face off against Oklahoma, the three-time defending national champions, on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 1:30 p.m. This tournament also features two matchups with former SLC opponent Central Arkansas and a Sunday finale against current SLC rival McNeese.
 
The Cardinals will then travel to Houston for a midweek doubleheader against Texas Southern (Feb. 20). This is one of eight midweek contests during the season. The home matchups will come against Stephen F. Austin (Mar. 5), Sam Houston (Mar. 19), UTSA (Apr. 2) and Tarleton (May 1) while they travel to face Baylor (Mar. 12), UTSA (Mar. 26) and Houston (Apr. 16).
 
The aforementioned home opener will be followed by four home games including a three-game series against Penn starting Saturday, Mar. 2. This is followed by a midweek matchup with Stephen F. Austin on Tuesday, March 5.
 
Big Red begins Southland Conference play Friday, Mar. 8 with a three-game series at Houston Christian. The Cardinals then head to Waco to square off with Baylor on Tuesday, Mar. 12.
 
The SLC series home opener for the Cardinals will be Friday, Mar. 15 against Northwestern State. Lamar will also play home series against Nicholls (Mar. 28-29), Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (Apr. 12-13) and Incarnate Word (Apr. 19-20). Home conference series will feature Friday doubleheaders beginning at 3 p.m. along with Saturday finales at noon with Easter weekend against Nicholls serving as the exception.
 
After improving their win total over the last three seasons, the Cardinals hope to build on their performance from last season which ended in a fourth-place SLC finish.
 
"We have depth in every position which helps with the number of games we play," Hooks said. "This team has a lot of love for one another, and we will rely on that throughout this tough schedule."
 
All home games will take place at the LU Softball Complex. Other game times are listed accordingly.