NACOGDOCHES, Texas — The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack softball team will start a four-game road trip Tuesday, when SFA heads to College Station to take on Texas A&M. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. The two teams were originally scheduled to meet in a doubleheader on Feb. 23, but those games were called due to rain.
SFA comes into the contest riding a season-long seven-game win streak. The Ladyjacks are 20-8 overall with a league-leading 13-2 mark in Southland Conference play.
During its current win streak, SFA has batted .361 as a team, raising its season average from .255 — sixth in the Southland — to .284 —second in the league. After hitting just 12 home runs as a team through the first 21 games of the season, the Ladyjacks have belted 16 in the last seven contests, outscoring the opposition, 53-15, in that stretch.
Five SFA players are batting .380 or better during the Ladyjacks' seven-game win streak. Senior Briana Bishop leads the team with a .366 season average and 20 RBI. Junior ace Monika Covington leads the Ladyjack pitching staff with a 2.38 ERA. She is 8-5 and has lost just once in her last 10 starts.
Texas A&M comes into Tuesday's game with a 30-9 record. The Aggies were ranked No. 18 in last week's ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 poll. They are coming off an 8-3 loss at Nebraska and have dropped two of their last three games. Texas A&M is 3-3 over its last six contests but had reeled off 11 consecutive victories before that stretch. The Aggies are 17-4 in home games.
Tuesday's game will be the fifth meeting between the Ladyjacks and Aggies over the last three seasons. SFA defeated Texas A&M, 8-4, in the teams' only meeting last season. In 2008 the Aggies knocked off SFA in all three games, scoring a doubleheader sweep in the regular season, then defeating the Ladyjacks, 2-0, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
