Kingsville - The Texas A&M-Kingsville softball team is back in the postseason as the No.5 seed in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, and will be facing off with the No.17 Oklahoma Christian Eagles in a Quarterfinals matchup at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday in Canyon.

The team has been on a historic tear this season, and closed out its regular season with 27 in-conference wins, the most in a single season in program history. Last weekend, on the second-to-last day of the regular season, the Javelinas upset No.20 UT-Tyler in Tyler, the fourth ranked win of their season. One other such win came at home against Kingsville's first-round Tournament matchup, the Eagles (12-8 on March 8). 

Like the regular season, every game of TAMUK's Tournament run will be streamed live on FloCollege. Watch Quarterfinals VS OC.

Scouting the Competition: The No.17 Oklahoma Christian Eagles (No.4 Seed)

OC finished its regular season 39-13 overall with a 30-10 record in LSC play. Two of the team's losses, however, came in its last two games, as it lost, 3-2, to Cameron on Saturday, before falling, 4-3, to UT-Dallas in an 11-inning battle. 

The Eagles boast one of the conference's best strikeout artists in senior Jill Dickson. Very likely OC's starter for this matchup, Dickson struck out 165 batters during the regular season, the second-most in the LSC. Her opposing batting average of .218 was the third lowest in the conference during the regular season.

Thursday will not be the first time that these two teams face off, as they battled in Kingsville back in March, with the Javelinas dropping game one before coming back to win game two. At the time, the Eagles were ranked No.13 in the nation in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, and was Kingsville's first win over a ranked opponent in conference play since March of 2024.

Javelina Quick Hitters:

• The Javelinas are back in the postseason as the No.5 seed in the Lone Star Conference Tournament, and will open up their tournament run with a matchup against the No.4-seeded Oklahoma Christian Eagles
• The NCAA's first regional poll of the year put TAMUK at No.6 in the South Central Region, lining the team up for a potential trip to the NCAA Region Tournament in just over a week
• Head Coach Orlando Salinas, who is in his third full season as Kingsville's skipper, made history earlier this season, becoming the fourth Head Coach in program history to reach 100 wins
• Earlier in LSC play, freshman INF Ella Srubar posted a career DH against Sul Ross St., in which she hit three home runs, going 4-for-5 with 6 RBIs and a pair of walks, helping her earn the LSC's Freshman of the Week award - she is the first Javelina in program history to receive the award
• Senior RHP Andrea Martinez has stepped into a starting role for Kingsville and has been excellent, striking out 115 batters, the seventh-most in the LSC
• Earlier in the LSC season, Martinez had 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 three times - She earned an LSC Pitcher of the Week award for one such performance, the first of her career
• In the midst of its historic winning streak, 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 the win streak reached 14 games, all of them in conference play - tied for the fifth-longest in program history
• Kingsville has been posting incredible offensive output this season, including a DH sweep of UT-Dallas in which it put up 30 total runs (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
• 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
• Not long after, she won the second LSC Hitter of the Week award of her career, when she went 3-5 with a homer and a walk in a doubleheader sweep of No.10 Angelo St., becoming the first Javelina ever to win two LSC HotW awards in the same 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
• Two of TAMUK's freshmen, OF Kennia Chong and 2B Victoria Vargas, are having excellent starts to their collegiate careers - Vargas is hitting .377 (17th in the LSC) and Chong is hitting .373 (18th in the LSC). Chong's 19 doubles are the third-most in the conference, while Vargas' 14 stolen bases are tied for the 10th-most in the LSC
• Kingsville's offense has been cooking - as a squad, its .403 on-base percentage is the sixth-best in the conference. It also ranks fifth in the conference in batting average (.310), walks (187), and stolen bases (62)