KINGSVILLE, Texas – The final home series of 2018 for the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team will also be one of the toughest tests of the season for coach Craig Nicholson's squad as they battle the 11th-ranked West Texas A&M Lady Buffs in a three-game series that will begin with a 6 p.m. contest at Hubert Field in Kingsville, Texas on Friday and conclude on Saturday, when the teams will tangle in a doubleheader with a scheduled first pitch time of 1 p.m.
The weekend will also include Senior Day for the five student-athletes in their final season wearing the Blue and Gold. Ileana Aleman (Pharr, Texas), Haley Boyett (Waco, Texas), Sarah Gilbert (Chipley, Fla.) Alexei Gonzalez (Corpus Christi, Texas) and Rachael Longoria (Hutto, Texas) will be at Hubert Field for the final time as their team continues to fight for a postseason spot.
Aleman joined the team prior to the 2017 season as a transfer from the University of Arkansas. After redshirting her first year in Kingsville, she's provided a valuable contribution off the bench in 2018. In 34 at-bats, she's amassed 11 hits for a .324 batting average. Aleman's two-run single in Kingsville's first game of the 2018 season provided what proved to be the winning runs in a 4-2 victory. She also provided a two-run pinch-hit in 6-2 win over St. Mary's on April 6th.
Haley Boyett has not missed a start in four years as a Javelina. Her total of 198 starts puts her fifth in program history. During her time in Kingsville, the Waco native has demonstrated perhaps the best batting eye in team history, drawing 88 walks, the most ever by a Javelina. She's also stolen 58 bases, the second-highest total by a TAMUK student-athlete, and owns spots in the Javelina top 10 in at-bats, runs scored, hits, triples and total bases. She's done this while playing center field well enough to earn a Lone Star Conference Golden Glove Award as a junior to go along with an All-LSC first-team selection.
For Gilbert, she came aboard prior to the 2016 season as a transfer from Alabama Southern College and she's been a reliable presence on the mound ever since. Her 10 wins in 2018 have pushed her career total to 21, currently tied for 10th in school history. She's also totaled 78 appearances and 204 strikeouts as a Javelina, with the former placing her fifth all-time and the latter standing as the program's seventh-highest total. In 2018, only one player in the LSC has thrown more innings than Gilbert's 155 1/3 and her ERA of 2.52 also is among the league's best marks.
Gonzalez also began her collegiate career in a different uniform, but left Houston-Victoria after one season to join the Javelinas and she's occupied the shortstop spot ever since. During her three seasons on the roster, she's played 142 games, scored 49 runs and driven in 49 runs. On March 14th, 2016 against Oklahoma Christian, Gonzalez set a career high with four RBIs while helping the Javs to a 7-1 victory. She added another career-high later that season with a three-hit day against Eastern New Mexico on March 25th.
A two-time All-LSC honoree as well as a Golden Glove winner, Longoria's four years with TAMUK have seen her rack up more RBIs than anyone in team history with the exception of teammate Roxy Chapa (McAllen, Texas). She's driven in 107 runs, including a career-high 34 during her sophomore campaign. Longoria's total of 110 runs scored is also good enough for fifth-place on the program's all-time list. She also owns a share of fifth place in doubles, having accumulated 30 two-baggers to this point in her career.
This quintet will be attempting to lead the Javelinas closer to a spot in the LSC postseason. TAMUK sits a half-game behind the Texas Woman's University Pioneers for the sixth and final berth in the conference tournament. The Javs will be looking for some help from the UT Permian Basin Falcons, who will be hosting TWU for three games while the Lady Buffs visit Kingsville.
The Javelinas will be looking to repulse a WT squad that is 17-4 in conference play and 34-6 overall. The Lady Buffs also own a streak of 11 wins in 12 games, with their only loss in that stretch coming to No. 14 Texas A&M-Commerce. Coach Candace Abrams has constructed a team that averages nearly two homers per game, the highest total in Division II. They've also crafted a .663 slugging percentage, which sits behind only Colorado-Mesa. It will be the job of Gilbert and the rest of the coach Craig Nicholson's pitching staff to cool off the bats of juniors Kylee Moore, who leads the conference with 21 homers, and Suka van Gurp, the owner of the LSC's second-highest batting average at .461.
For complete coverage of each game between the Javelinas and the Lady Buffs, including live stats and recaps, visit Javelinaathletics.com. The opener is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. To keep up with the Javelinas all season long, visit Javelinaathletics.com, follow @TAMUKSB on Twitter, like /JavelinaSports on Facebook and subscribe to the Javelina athletics YouTube channel.
