KINGSVILLE, Texas – Five days after seeing their program-record-tying 19-game win streak snapped, the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball will attempt to start another run during their first home weekend of Lone Star Conference action, which will begin with a Friday doubleheader against Cameron starting at 4 p.m. at Hubert Field in Kingsville, Texas, followed by another twin bill on Sunday against Oklahoma Christian, with a first pitch time of 6 p.m.
The Javelinas' 19-2 mark matches the best 21 game start to a season in program history and a pitching staff sporting the best ERA in the Lone Star Conference has been of one the main reasons TAMUK has achieved that record.
Four pitchers have spent time in the circle for the Javs in 2022 and all of them possess ERAs under two. Freshman Carissa De Los Santos (Kingsville, Texas) and sophomore Beth Montes (San Antonio, Texas) are 1-2 in the LSC in ERA and not far behind is junior Saidi Castillo (Kingsville, Texas) in fourth at 1.09. Montes still has not allowed more than a single earned run in any outing as a sophomore and she twirled her second shutout of the year on Friday in a 2-0 win over St. Edward's.
At the plate, the Javs continue to trail only UT Tyler among LSC teams in batting average, hitting .368 and averaging nearly eight runs per game. Junior Matisen Onofrei (Mesa, Ariz.) leads the Javs with a .500 batting average, one of five Javelinas hitting above .500 and sophomore Kayla Gonzales' (San Antonio, Texas) 26 RBIs put her in the top five in the LSC. Senior Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas) continues to wreak havoc on the basepaths, as her 20 steals and fourth-most in Division II and she has yet to be caught.
Recent history for the Aggies and Eagles includes trips to the NCAA Tournament, with OC earning the No. 1 seed in the 2021 South Central Regional and Cameron making it as far as super regionals in 2019. Each team is attempting to return to that form after a start to conference play that good and bad for each team.
The Aggies started their conference schedule with a sweep of sixth-ranked Angelo State, but that dropped a pair of contests to Lubbock Christian. CU allowed only one run over two games against ASU, but their pitching staff then allowed LCU to cross home 24 times on Saturday.
Few players in the LSC are playing as prominent a role for their team as CU's Breley Webb, who has thrown the second-most innings on the Aggies' staff while also leading the team in hitting with a .500 average. Webb has at least one hit in 17 straight games and had only been struck out once in 68 at-bats. In the circle she's tossed two shutouts on held ASU to just one run in a complete game on Friday.
The Eagles rose as high as No. 4 in the 2021 rankings, but they started the conference schedule by losing three of four, though the one win was a combined shutout thrown by Lindsey Stoeckel and Kali Crandall, both of whom have ERAs under two. OC's 2.14 team ERA stands as the fourth-best in the LSC.
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