Kingsville - Riding the second seven-game winning streak of its season, the Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team will be opening up its April schedule with a pair of road Lone Star Conference matchups, as it takes on the Western New Mexico Mustangs (Wednesday, 1:00 & 3:30 p.m.) and the Sul Ross St. Lobos (Friday, 1:00 & 3:00 p.m.).

The current winning streak is the second this season that has stretched across at least seven games for the Javelinas, who have moved up to fifth in a still very tight LSC race. The team is getting hot at the right time, with the final full month of the season beginning this weekend with the longest road trip of Kingsville's season.

"Our goal for this week is to continue to play high-level catch and put all phases together and continue to grow as a team," Head Coach Orlando Salinas said.

The two most recent wins on TAMUK's streak helped the team make history. They came on a sweep of No.10 Angelo St., the Javelinas' first sweep of a top-10-ranked team since 2022. Along the way, senior RHP Andrea Martinez continued on her tear, pitching a complete-game win in game one of the DH, before returning to pitch the final three innings, and pick up a save, in game two. 

Scouting the Competition: The Western New Mexico Mustangs (15-17, 11-11 LSC)

Though the Mustangs have lost three of their last five games, one of their two recent wins came against top-15-ranked Oklahoma Christian. Six players hit over .300 for WNM, led by junior INF Hannah Martinez, who hits .390 on the year. Junior OF Marleigh Manns paces the squid in RBI with 29.

Kingsville has dominated the head-to-head matchup with the Mustangs as of late. It has won 18 straight games over WNM, with its last loss to Western coming in Silver City back in 2018.

"Western New Mexico is a very well-coached team with a ton of talent on their roster," Salinas said. "I have been in the Lone Star Conference coaching for three years now and every year, Western New Mexico continues to improve and they are a team on the rise in the Lone Star Conference. They have beaten some really good teams in our conference and so we know we're going to have to come into their house and play sound softball in order to win the series."

Scouting the Competition: The Sul Ross St. Lobos (4-25, 2-20 LSC)

The Lobos have struggled this season, and enter the weekend having lost seven of their last eight games. That lone win, however, came on Sunday in SRS' doubleheader against UT-Dallas, as they took down the Comets 9-0 in game one.

The Javelinas have faced off with the LSC-newcomer Lobos just once before, in a doubleheader at Hubert Field last year, which saw Kingsville sweep SRS in a pair of run-rule contests.

"We will be travelling up to Sul Ross for the first time since they joined our conference," Salinas said. "We are going into uncharted waters and home-field advantage is definitely a real thing. We don't take any team in our conference lightly."

Javelina Quick Hitters:

• Senior RHP Andrea Martinez has stepped into a starting role for Kingsville and has been excellent, striking out 79 batters, the seventh-most in the LSC
• The last two weeks have seen Martinez have perhaps the best stretch of her career: she threw a complete-game win in game one, before entering game two as a relief pitcher and picking up a save… two weekends in a row.
• She is one of two pitchers in the LSC to post a CG win and a save in the same DH, and the only one to have done it twice
• Last weekend, TAMUK upset No.10 Angelo St. with a sweep at home (5-3, 8-2), the team's first sweep of a top-10-ranked opponent since 2022 - the team has now won seven straight games (and counting), all of them in conference play
• 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
• While they're on another one right now, the Javelinas went on a tear early in the year, winning nine straight games, including the first four LSC games of their season - the streak is their longest since 2022
• Against Cameron and Oklahoma Christian, junior first baseman Dakota Martinez had 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
• 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 .412 (10th in the LSC), scoring 27 runs (20th in the LSC), and walking 18 times (T-17th in the LSC). So far this year, she boasts a .505 on-base percentage (10th in the LSC)
• Kingsville's offense has been cooking - as a squad, its .418 on-base percentage is the 25th-best in the nation. It also ranks third in the conference in walks, having drawn 133 on the season, and has stolen the sixth-most bases (43)
• In conference play, the team's .329 batting average, .423 on-base percentage, and .481 slugging percentage are all third in the LSC
• The longball has been there for Kingsville as well: the Javelinas rank eighth in the conference with 22 jacks on the season
• Defensively, the pitching staff allowed just 12 home runs this year, the second-fewest in the LSC