KINGSVILLE, Texas – The last home series of the regular season will give the No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team a chance to honor the four seniors on their 2019 roster as they take on the Midwestern State Mustangs in a three-game set that will be held on Thursday and Friday at Hubert Field in Kingsville, Texas. The series will begin with a doubleheader on Thursday starting at 5 p.m. and conclude with Senior Day following Friday's contest, which is scheduled for a 12 p.m. first pitch.
After the final pitch on Friday, the Javelinas will hold their Senior Day ceremonies for the quartet of Victoria Schoonard-Saborio (Elk, Grove, Calif.), Roxy Chapa (McAllen, Texas), Arabella Acosta-Cantu (Corpus Christi, Texas) and Lindsey Angelico (San Antonio, Texas).
Each player is a four-year member of the program and they've contributed to 111 wins during their time in Kingsville. These four student-athletes have combined for 71 home runs, more than 300 runs scored and a .320 batting average. They've also seen the team grow from 33 losses in 2016, fourth-most in school history, to the current total of 33 wins in 2019, fifth-best all-time, with six regular season contests to go.
These players' names can also be found throughout the program record book. Chapa's 13 home runs in 2018 and 55 RBIs in 2016 are both single-season program records and she sits atop the career leaderboard in both categories as well, totaling 31 long balls and 137 RBIs.
Schoonard-Saborio almost rewrote the record book single-handedly in 2017 when she set Javelina records for batting average (.447), on-base percentage (.539), walks (38) and tied the program record for runs scored (46). Angelico's 2016 season included a game against Eastern New Mexico in March where she scored four times, which is still tied for the most in a game by a Javelina. Acosta-Cantu has established herself as one of her team's best contact hitters, striking out only 28 times in 242 career at-bats.
These four seniors have helped lead the Blue and Gold to an 18-6 mark in the Lone Star Conference in 2019. That record puts them in a tie with West Texas A&M in second place and just a one-and-a-half games behind the A&M-Commerce Lions for first. Both the Javs and Buffs have six games remaining in conference play compared to three for Commerce and the Javelinas own the head-to-head tiebreaker over both squads, having taken series against each team. The school that finished atop the LSC will serve as the host of the conference tournament, in which the first and second seeds get a bye in the initial round.
The Mustangs arrive in Kingsville not simply trying to ruin TAMUK's shot at a conference title, but also attempting to stay alive in the hunt for a spot in the conference tourney. MSU Texas is currently in seventh place, three-and-half games behind Angelo State, which owns sixth place and the final LSC postseason spot. They are also on a three-game win streak after sweeping UT Permian Basin in their most recent series.
With six games remaining on their schedule, MSU has already collected more wins than they did in 2018, both overall and in conference. That step forward has coincided with an improvement from their pitching staff, which has dropped its ERA more than a full run from 5.22 a season ago to 4.03 in the current campaign.
Senior Abbie Lancaster is in the midst of her best season for the Mustangs. She's improved from a 3.95 ERA as a junior to a mark of 2.95 this season and is in the conference's top 10 in wins, ERA and opponent's batting average. Only twice in 20 appearances has she allowed more than three runs.
For wall-to-wall coverage of every game between TAMUK and MSU Texas, including live video, live stats and postgame recaps, visit Javelinaathletics.com. To stay up-to-date with Javelina softball all season long, follow @TAMUKSB and @JavelinaSports on Twitter, @JavelinaSports on Instagram, like Javelina Sports on Facebook and visit Javelinaathletics.com.
