BEAUMONT, Texas - As Southland Conference play nears, Lamar University's softball team will look to gain more momentum before Friday's first conference series. To do so, they will make a quick trip to Huntsville to meet up with former conference foe Sam Houston for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch.


PREVIOUSLY
The Cardinals went 4-1 in the Boerner Invitational with wins over Rider, Missouri-Kansas City, and UT-Arlington.

A NEW QUEEN
In the fourth inning of the first game against Rider, Aaliyah Ruiz struck out her fifth batter of the game meaning that she now has the all-time strikeout record in program history. This breaks the previous mark of 275 by Laura Napoli.

15 STRAIGHT
In LU's 2-0 shutout win over UTA, Cameron Niedenthal gave up three hits in the first two innings. But then, she retired the last 15 hitters she faced from the third inning on to the end of the ballgame. She struck out six batters, which matched her season total against UTSA (2/19).


STATS UPDATE
Sam Bean leads the Cardinals in hits (24), batting average (.375), doubles (seven) and homers (four). Hayley Freudenberg is the current RBI leader with 13 on the season while the Xayaseng sisters of Aleka and Kalyn each lead with three stolen bases. Niedenthal has the lowest ERA amongst the Cardinal pitching staff with 4.74 while Karyana Mitchell posts a team-best 32 strikeouts to go along with three wins in the circle.



SCHEDULE

Wednesday, Mar. 8

6:30 p.m. @ Sam Houston



OPPONENT INFO: Sam Houston
Series Record: SHSU 18-8 (27th Meeting)
Last Meeting: SHSU 6-4 (5/7/22)

LU lost to SHSU in all six meetings last year, marking their overall record now at 8-18. At 8-13 overall, the Bearkats Ellie Grill, who has a team-high .388 batting average, 26 hits, and six stolen bases. Brodie Quinlan drove in 14 RBI in 20 games played, which included a season-leading four homers to lead SHSU. The Bearkats pitching staff are led by Emma Guindon and Daryn Grams. Guindon (2-1, 2.86 ERA) has a team-high 20 strikeouts in 36.2 innings with two complete games and a save while Grams (3.09 ERA) leads with three wins and is second with 19 strikeouts.

 

UP NEXT
The Cardinals get set to kick off their conference season as they will travel to Natchitoches, La., to meet up with Northwestern State University this Friday and Saturday. The Friday doubleheader will start at 4 p.m., while Saturday's finale begins at 12.
 

#WeAreLU