Kingsville - The Texas A&M - Kingsville softball team is on its way to Youngsville, Louisiana for the Mardi Gras Invitational, where the team will open up its 2025 season with six games across three days.

The Javelinas will play two games each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, starting with afternoon matchups against Washburn and Miles College on Friday, followed by Alabama Huntsville and Augusta on Saturday and Harding and No.12 Mississippi College on Sunday.

"Our ladies have worked really hard this fall and we are excited to see how it translates into the spring," Head Coach Orlando Salinas said. "This team is built on upperclassmen leadership and they have done a great job."

The team is a mix of veteran upperclassmen bringing in-depth collegiate softball experience to the roster, and a large group of new faces. Salinas has been hard on the recruiting trail building the program, and has brought in 13 freshman to this year's squad. That team has meshed well together throughout its fall-ball slate, and is ready to test its mettle against tough out-of-conference competition in Louisiana. When Kingsville played in the Mardi Gras Invite last year, they had three top-25 ranked teams on the docket - this year, they have another one - the MC Choctaws, who finished 48-9 last year.

To beat teams like MC in the early going, TAMUK will have to lean on their veterans, including two key ones who will be donning the blue and gold for the first time - D1 transfers AJ Jasso and Sophie Campbell. Before transferring to joining the Javelinas, Campbell played three seasons for UTSA, totaling 61 hits and 40 RBI's, and was just as strong on the defensive side, accumulating 438 put-outs on 480 chances for a fielding percentage of 97.5 percent. Jasso spent her last two seasons with TAMUCC - she started all 41 games last year, totalling 47 hits and 15 RBI's and racking up 86 put-outs with a fielding percentage of 95.7%. Graduate student outfielder Lindsey Evans is slated to have a big impact for Kingsville this season as well. She was a stellar two-way player for the Javelinas last season, collecting 49 hits on a .319 batting average, while also totalling 87 put outs with a .967 fielding percentage. 

With some injuries in the bullpen to start the year, TAMUK will lean on, among others, a pair of juniors this weekend - returner Andrea Martinez and transfer Kristina Nash. 

"We believe that our strength is in our pack mentality, we believe that if everybody does their part and we execute our gameplan, we can beat anybody in the country," Salinas said.

The Javelinas were picked to finish eighth in the LSC this year after finishing with a 30-22 overall record last season. They opened their season the same way last season, with four games at the 2024 iteration of the Mardi Gras Invitational (two of the originally slated six were cancelled). Kingsville went 3-1 in those games, including a pair of ranked wins, with the team's only loss of the weekend coming at the hands of Harding, a team they'll have a chance for a rematch against on Sunday. 

First pitch in Kingsville's two games each on Friday and Saturday are set for 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., with Sunday's games set to begin at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.. There will be NO live stream or live stats provided for the tournament - score updates will be posted on social media at tamuksb:
https://x.com/TAMUKSB