KINGSVILLE, Texas – The 2022 regular season is officially in the books for the No. 2 Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team and the Javelinas' first destination for postseason play is Tyler, Texas, the site of the 2022 Lone Star Conference Softball Tournament, which, for TAMUK, begins with a conference quarterfinal game on Thursday that will start at 4 p.m.
The Javelinas will arrive in Tyler seeking the program's third conference tournament title and second in the last four years after taking home the trophy in 2019. Coach Craig Nicholson's team crafted a 23-7 mark in the LSC and 43-8 overall record, good enough to earn the Blue and Gold a No. 2 seed in the tournament bracket. This means the Javs will play the winner of an opening round matchup between St. Edward's and St. Mary's, who will face off at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
TAMUK's 43 wins are the most they've ever achieved in the regular season and the club Nicholson has put together is possibly the most well-rounded team in program history. At the plate, the Javs are almost certain to finish with the program's best batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, while their 1.86 ERA is tops in the LSC and ranks 14th in Division II. Nicholson's pitching staff has twirled 15 shutouts in 2022, while his lineup has yet to be kept off the scoreboard and has scored at least 10 runs 20 times.
Three different Javelinas, senior Loren Kelly (Rockport, Texas), junior Jory Cervantes (Pflugerville, Texas) and sophomore Kayla Gonzales (San Antonio, Texas) own spots in the LSC's top 10 in runs scored and Cervantes' 73 hits are easily the most in the conference and put her 11th in the nation. Gonzales is fourth in the LSC in both homers and RBIs, while Kelly's 45 steals are tied for the league's highest total. Cervantes' 73 hits, Gonzales' 13 homers and junior Matisen Onofrei's (Mesa, Ariz.) 53 RBIs are all within striking distance of the Javelina record in each statistic.
On the Blue and Gold pitching staff, four hurlers have thrown more than 50 innings and all four reside inside the top 11 in the conference in ERA. Freshman Carissa De Los Santos (Kingsville, Texas) mark of 1.53 puts her second in the league, while sophomore Beth Montes (San Antonio, Texas) has pitched to a 1.68 ERA and a 14-2 record. TAMUK's innings leader, junior Saidi Castillo (Kingsville, Texas) is ninth in the LSC at 2.02, while sophomore Lizette Del Angel (Robstown, Texas) ranks 11th and has allowed only one earned run in her last 19 innings.
The Rattlers and the Hilltoppers are two teams the Javs have played a combined total of seven times in 2022, posting a 6-1 record in those matchups. Both squads won their first round game in the LSC Tournament in 2021, but were knocked out in the second round.
The tournament's top seed is also the nation's No. 1 team, the UT Tyler Patriots, who are the only LSC squad to enter the postseason on a longer win streak from TAMUK, having won their last 13 games. The Patriots ended the regular season by capturing their second straight LSC Championship and are second behind TAMUK in both ERA and batting average.
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