KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team is prepared to pop the cork on their 2019 schedule with a visit to Conroe, Texas for the Arkansas Tech Winter Invitational, which will take place from Feb. 1st – 3rd.
TAMUK's schedule of five games in three days begins Friday afternoon with a 1 p.m. matchup against Pittsburg State followed by a clash with Southeastern Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. The Javelinas will play Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 1 p.m. before matching up against Colorado Mines at 9 a.m. and Augustana at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
This is the third straight season the Javelinas will begin the year with a tournament that will include five games. In each of the last two seasons, the Javs have completed that opening event with a winning record, including a year ago when they went 3-2 at the Texas A&M International Tournament. TAMUK will also be attempting to win its season opening contest for the third straight year.
Three All-Lone Star Conference performers are back in the fold for the Blue and Gold including the program's all-time leader in homers, senior Roxy Chapa. The McAllen, Texas native's total of 31 home runs include the 13 she hit last year, which set another Javelina record.
Last year's pair of breakout freshmen, Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas) and Anastasia Leibas (Del Valle, Texas) are set to resume their roles, with Kelly at the top of the order and Leibas at the heart of the lineup. Kelly's numbers as a rookie included 30 steals, the second-highest single-season total in school history, while Leibas led the squad with a .347 average.
Junior Breanna Smith (San Antonio, Texas) is prepared to anchor the pitching staff after tossing 183 2/3 innings during her sophomore campaign. Her numbers also included 16 wins and 140 strikeouts in 2018, both among the LSC's top five in those categories. Smith began her sophomore season with seven innings of one-run ball against Central Oklahoma in a 5-1 TAMUK win.
Four of the five teams on the docket for Nicholson's Javelinas compiled winning record in 2018, but the Blue and Gold begin the year against a Pittsburg State team attempting to bounce back from a 22-33 campaign and a ninth-place finish in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
The MIAA's preseason poll picked the Gorillas to finish 2019 in the exact same place they ended the previous season, but the good news for Ashley Balazs is the return of catcher Kala Holder. The junior from Olathe, Kansas capped her sophomore year by earning a spot on the All-MIAA first team, as well as the all-region second team. Her 15 home runs tied for the conference's highest total and she slugged .740, second in the MIAA, to go with a .357 batting average.
Pittsburg State will be attempting to make a leap in 2019 similar to the one Southeastern Oklahoma State made in 2018, when the Savage Storm improved from by 16 victories going from 18 the year before to 34 and going 27-14 in the Great American Conference.
Six members of the 2018 squad landed on the GAC's all-conference roster and four of those student-athletes are back in uniform for coach Ron Faubion. Included in that group is All-American Elexis Watson, who also took home the honor of GAC Freshman of Year in 2018 after crafting a .391 average with 14 long balls. Two-time all-GAC first-team choice Symphoni Shomo is slated to be back at second base after hitting .349 as a sophomore and leading the conference with 42 steals.
The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are one of two squads on TAMUK's season-opening slate coming off an appearance in the NCAA postseason, making a run all the way to NCAA Super Regionals before falling to Southern Arkansas. Despite that success, the Bulldogs were only picked for a fourth-place finish in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Pitcher Breanna Swint is looking to follow-up on a 21-win sophomore campaign that tied her for the conference lead in victories while sophomore Jessica Bren continues to provide the Bulldogs with a menacing presence in the batter's box. It took her just one season to shatter the program record for home runs in a season, piling up 16 round-trippers.
For Colorado School of Mines, the fate of their season figures to be very much tied to the fortunes of shortstop Clara Larson, who began the junior season by being named Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year. Two different publications named Larson an All-American in 2018 after she posted a stat line that included a .425 average, an .839 slugging percentage, 15 homers and 64 RBIs.
The Orediggers, who were picked sixth in the RMAC's preseason coaches' poll, will be looking to return to the form that garnered them 32 wins in 2017. They posted a 28-26 record in 2018. Sunday's date will mark the first ever meeting between these two programs.
The Augustana Vikings won 42 games in 2018 and earned a spot at NCAA Regionals, the 25th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. Last year's team rose as high as No. 13 in the national rankings NSIC Freshman of the Year Ashley Mickschl, who was named an All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. This year's edition of the Vikings landed in second place in the NSIC's preseason poll and they will also be seeing the Javelinas for the first time when the programs meet on the invitational's final day.
Javelina fans can keep with Blue and Gold softball by following @TAMUKSB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaSports on Instagram, liking Javelina Sports on Facebook and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
