March 24, 2005

SAN MARCOS - Texas State tries to stay at the top of the Southland Conference softball race this weekend as the Bobcats entertain a dangerous Texas-San Antonio squad in a three-game series starting Friday with a 5 p.m. doubleheader at Bobcat Field.

Defending Southland Conference softball champion Texas-San Antonio used a fast start Wednesday to post an 8-2 win over league-leading Northwestern State, giving the Roadrunners the best-of-three series win and creating a five-team cluster atop the SLC standings.

UTSA (22-13, 6-3) joins Texas State (15-17, 9-3), Northwestern (23-15, 9-3), Sam Houston State (14-17, 9-3) and Southeastern Louisiana (12-11, 6-3) as teams with three league losses, with UTSA and SLU not yet to the halfway point of the 27-game conference regular-season schedule.

The Lady Demons snapped UTSA's 19-game homefield winning streak Tuesday with a 6-1 victory to open the series, but the Roadrunners rallied with an 8-6 triumph in the second game Tuesday before Wednesday's series clincher.

This weekend's series is going to be a battle between the Texas State pitching staff, ranked second with a 2.89 ERA, and the offense of the Roadrunners who carry a stout .325 team batting average, first in the SLC, and have three of the top 10 hitters in the conference.

Texas State's starting pitcher Katie Ann Trahan (13-13, 2.38) leads the league in seven major pitching categories. She has 13 wins on the season, two more than UTSA's starting pitcher Ursula Mares. Trahan is averaging 6.22 innings pitched per game and 9.14 strikeouts per game. She has held opponents to a low .202 batting average on the season.

Also on the Bobcat, pitching staff is Sarah Lancour (2-0) who notched her second win in as many appearances last weekend over McNeese State, improving her ERA to 2.55.

The Roadrunners have led the NCAA in home runs each of the past two years and already have 59 this season. UTSA's Jessica Rogers leads the SLC with 15 home runs and 37 RBI and heads a group of five teammates with at least seven home runs.

The Roadrunners have a two-pitcher staff, with Ursula Mares (10-6, 2.99 ERA) and Amanda Nikolenko (10-7, 3.19 ERA) splitting the starting duties in 35 games.

Senior second baseman Ashley Wilson leads the Bobcats offense in conference competition with a .378 batting average. She leads the team with 18 RBI. Amy Krueger a sophomore from Houston has stepped-up her offense in league play, scoring 11 runs off 12 hits with a .316 batting average.

The I-35 Battle between the Bobcats and the Roadrunners will begin with the first pitch of the double header at 5:00 p.m. Friday at Bobcat Field. The series will conclude on Saturday with a single game slated for a 1:00 p.m. start.