Kingsville - The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team is looking to deal out a dose of revenge against the No.10 Angelo St. Rambelles, who beat the Javelinas in a pair of close games earlier this season, as the two hot teams test winning streaks against each other at Vernie and Blanche Hubert Field on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Both teams bring hot streaks into Saturday's clash, as the Rambelles have come out of top of six of their last games, while Kingsville has picked up wins in seven of its last eight. The Javelinas have been cruising as of late on the strength of, in particular, their red-hot offense. On the season, the team boasts a .419 on-base percentage, the 22nd-best in the nation. Freshman outfielder Victoria Vargas leads the charge there, boasting the eighth-best batting average in the LSC (.418), and the 11th-highest OBP (.510).

The team's defense has been more than carrying its weight as well, led by senior RHP Andrea Martinez, who enters the weekend fresh off of the first LSC Pitcher of the Week award of her career. She earned it by appearing in both sides of TAMUK's doubleheader sweep of TAMIU last weekend, pitching a one-run, complete-game win in game won, before entering game two in relief and picking up her first career save. She became the first pitcher in the LSC this season to accomplish such a feat.

Scouting the Competition: The No.10 Angelo St. Rambelles (27-6, 16-2 LSC)
Live Stream | Game One Live Stats | Game Two Live Stats

The Rambelles are having another stellar year, and have lost just two LSC games all year entering Saturday's matchup. Sitting at No.2 in the conference standings, the team is four games ahead of TAMUK. Much like the Javelinas, ASU has plenty of momentum entering the weekend, having won three games in a row and six of its last seven matchups.

Kingsville's visitors have been great on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the team holds the 10th-best on-base percentage in the nation (.439), while defensively, the squad is top 32 in the nation in team ERA (31st), WHIP (29th), and K/BB rate (19th). Amazingly, both sides of the ball are led by a freshman. For the bats, infielder Zoey Sifuentes has the fourth-best batting average in the LSC, while Maddison Ruiz leads the pitching staff, holding the fourth-best ERA in the LSC. Not far behind her are junior teammates Addy Ewing and Ashleigh Dendas, who have the sixth- and seventh-lowest ERAs in the conference, respectively. 

"Angelo is a very well-coached team," Head Coach Orlando Salinas said. "They've built a program there that just wins. So, we know we're going to have to play our best game, put all aspects together: hitting, pitching, fielding. But, we want to play the best, we're playing good softball and that's the only way to get better, I always tell the girls that the team that plays catch the best will win, and I still truly believe that."

Javelina Quick Hitters:

• Kingsville enters the weekend fresh off the largest offensive output of their season, dropping 30 total runs across a pair of road LSC wins over UT-Dallas (9, 21) - marking the second time already this year that the team has scored 26-plus runs in one doubleheader
• The 21-run performance in game two of that series set multiple records: the most runs scored in a single since 2005, and the first time in school history that a team has scored 20-plus runs in a single game twice in the same season
• Early in LSC play, the team came up with an upset win over No.13 Oklahoma Christian, the first win over a ranked opponent in LSC play for the Javelinas since 2024
• Early in the year, the Javelinas went on a tear, winning nine straight games, including the first four LSC games of their season - the streak is their longest since 2022
• Junior first baseman Dakota Martinez is fresh off of one of the best hitting weekends a Javelina has had in recent memory. She went 9-for-15 with six extra base hits and seven RBI - she hit for the cycle against Cameron, the first time a Javelina has accomplished such a feat since 2023
• For that stellar weekend, which saw D. Martinez hit post a .647 on-base percentage and slug 1.333, earned her the Lone Star Conference's Hitter of the Week award, the first of her career and second won by a Hog this season
• Senior RHP Andrea Martinez has stepped into a starting role for Kingsville and has been excellent, striking out 69 batters, the seventh-most in the LSC
• Last weekend, Martinez has perhaps the best doubleheader of her career: she threw a one-run complete-game win in game one, before entering game two as a relief pitcher and picking up the first save of her career - that earned her the first LSC Pitcher of the Week award of her career
• Early in the season, sophomore outfielder Lainee Ballin had a stellar weekend at the Southern Colorado Crossover, hitting .588 with three home runs, keying Kingsville to the first five of nine straight wins and earning the Lone Star Conference's Hitter of the Week award
• Freshman OF Victoria Vargas has had a great start to her collegiate career, hitting .418 (8th in the LSC), scoring 25 runs (T-19th in the LSC), and walking 17 times (T-15th in the LSC). So far this year, she boasts a .510 on-base percentage (T-11th in the LSC)
• Kingsville's offense has been cooking - as a squad, it ranks third in the conference in walks, having drawn 126 on the season, and has stolen the sixth-most bases (42)
• Not only that, but its .419 on-base percentage is the 22nd-best in the nation
• Fresh off of a two-homer doubleheader against TAMIU on Sunday, the team ranks sixth in the LSC in jacks with 19. 
• Defensively, the pitching staff allowed just 11 home runs this year, the second-fewest in the LSC