KINGSVILLE, Texas – After three weeks of traveling to play 15 total games at three different sites, the No. 15 Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team is finally preparing to open up Hubert Field for the first time in 2020 and the Javelinas will host a doubleheader on Saturday against the Texas A&M International Dustdevils with the first pitch at 1 p.m. in Kingsville, Texas. These will be the team's first two home games since their NCAA Super Regional victory over Cameron in 2019.
It's been an up-and-down start to the season for the Javs, who began the year by posting a 6-0 record at the Arkansas Tech Winter Invitational, defeating four ranked teams in the process. They next traveled to Arkadelphia, Ark. and picked up three wins in four tries, but had a difficult time at the Cactus Classic in Arizona, dropping three of their first four games before rebounding with a 12-4 triumph over Fort Lewis on Sunday. Nicholson and his team now return to a park in which they went 25-3 a year ago.
These two home contests will give junior Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas) a chance to break a program record in front of the home crowd. With her next stolen base, Kelly will reach 91 steals in her TAMUK career, putting her in sole possession of first place on the school leaderboard in that statistic. Kelly has moved within reach of that milestone partly by swiping 19 bases in 2020, the most in the nation.
"Two things about her," said coach Craig Nicholson. "No. 1, when she is on base a lot, obviously it increases our chances to score. She's done a pretty good this year of getting on and she puts a lot of pressure on the defense. It's not only her stealing second, it's her ability to steal third. People have to cheat to get places to beat her. When she's going well, our chances of scoring definitely go up."
Two of TAMUK's hottest bats are being swung by sophomore Matisen Onofrei (Mesa, Ariz.) and junior Claire Chernosky (Sugar Land, Texas). In 145 at-bats in 2019, Onofrei and Chernosky combined to hit .186 with three homers and 16 runs batted in. In 81 trips to the plate in 2020, TAMUK's catcher and third baseman are batting .333 with six long balls and 28 RBIs. Both players have surpassed their totals from a year ago as far as run production and Onofrei's five round-trippers are tied for the most in the country.
"With Matisen, it's being healthy," said Nicholson. "That's a big thing for her. With Claire, she's confident right now in what she's doing. For a hitter, that's a hard skill to master at a high level. With hitters, if they're confident in what they're doing, chances are they're going to perform better. Both of them are swinging the bat really well right now and feeling good about what they're doing and its leading to some very good results."
The Dustdevils were one of the few teams to deal a defeat to Javs on their home field in 2019, handing TAMUK a 6-5 loss in the second game of a doubleheader on April 9th. The Dustdevils started 2020 with six straight losses before winning four of their next six games, but their most recent weekend of play ended with three consecutive defeats.
The TAMIU pitching staff is still trying to find its footing and has pitched to a 5.89 ERA, but their lineup is led by sophomore Briana Arredondo. One year after batting .189 for the Dustdevils, Arredondo has collected 20 hits in 40 at-bats for the LSC's third-best average and she's in the conference's top five in homers and RBIs. In a win over Texas Woman's on Feb. 7th, the sophomore catcher accumulated 12 total bases, including two home runs and drove in eight as her team won, 15-2.
Live video and stats for both games will be available through links on Javelinaathletics.com and a recap of all 14 innings will be published at the end of the day. You can keep up with everything related to Javelina softball all season long by following @TAMUKSB on Twitter, @JavelinaSports on Twitter and Instagram, like Javelina Sports on Facebook and subscribe to the Javelina Athletics YouTube Channel. Watch your Javelinas live today on the Javelina Sports Network sponsored by Mendoza's Pharmacy.
