UTSA Roadrunners (5-8, 1-2) vs. McNeese State Cowgirls (7-13, 2-1)
Saturday, March 1 ? 1 p.m. (DH) | Sunday, March 2 ? Noon
Roadrunner Field (300) ? San Antonio, Texas
Series Record: UTSA leads, 33-20
Last Meeting: McNeese State, 10-4 (May 5, 2007)
SAN ANTONIO ? UTSA (5-8, 1-2 SLC) hosts its second Southland Conferenceseries of the week on Saturday-Sunday, March 1-2, when McNeese State(7-13, 2-1 SLC) comes to town for the first time in three years.
Tuning In: Live stats will be provided at goUTSA.com. Live audio will be available to Rowdy Zone subscribers at goUTSA.com.
Base Hits
? UTSA leads the all-time series against McNeese State, 33-20
? The Roadrunners are 16-9 all-time against the Cowgirls at home and have won five of the past six meetings at Roadrunner Field
? With 484 career strikeouts, senior right-hander Amanda Nikolenko has moved past Paige Whitley for second place on UTSA’s all-time list ... she needs 36 Ks to break Ursula Mares’ school record of 519
? Nikolenko also has pitched 600 innings during her career and is on pace to move past career leader Jennifer Drake (601) this weekend
? Sophomore Rudi Cantu is batting .545 (12-for-22) over the last six games
Scouting The Cowgirls: McNeese State took two of three games from Northwestern State earlier this week to move to 7-13 overall and 2-1 in SLC play. Senior Jenny Clay leads the offense with a .370 batting average, five doubles, two home runs and six RBIs, while junior Michelle LaVoie is hitting .318 with 16 RBIs. LaVoie also is the top pitcher with a 5-5 record, 4.33 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 54.0 innings pitched. Head coach Chris Malveaux is 92-110 in his fourth season at the helm.
Last Meeting: McNeese State won two of three games from UTSA last May in Lake Charles, La. The Roadrunners blasted the Cowboys, 15-2, in the opener behind six home runs ?including two from Krista Sitka ? but McNeese won the final two contests, 3-2 and 10-4, to win a season series from the Roadrunners for the second straight year.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Series Recap: Freshman Dany? Holmes struck out six in a complete-game eight-hitter and sophomore Krista Sitka slugged a three-run home run, as UTSA downed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 6-1, to take game three of the series. The Islanders won game one, 8-4, in eight innings, scoring four runs in the top of the first extra frame, and took game two, 3-1. Sitka hit a homer in each game and drove in six runs, while junior Leanne Risberg and sophomore Rudi Cantu both went 5-for-11 (.455) at the plate.
Preseason Prognostications: UTSA has been picked to finish fourth by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors in the 2008 Southland Conference Preseason Polls. Junior Leanne Risberg and sophomore Rudi Cantu have been selected to the SLC Preseason First and Second Team, respectively, in the outfield.
SLC Supremacy: UTSA is the winningest program in Southland Conference history, owning a 251-159 (.612) all-time record in conference games. Dating back to 2004, the Roadrunners are 82-30 (.732) in league play. UTSA won three consecutive SLC regular season crowns from 2004-06 and captured SLC Tournament titles in 2004 and 2006.
Tough Slate: UTSA is facing a tough schedule this year, including five teams that made the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Three teams are ranked in last week’s USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll ? No. 13 Baylor, No. 14 Houston and No. 22 Texas ? while Colorado State is receiving votes. In the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Poll, Baylor is ranked No. 13, Houston is No. 16 and Texas is No. 25. Missouri and Colorado State are receiving votes.
Career Record Watch: Senior right-hander Amanda Nikolenko is on pace to break UTSA career records for wins, starts, complete games, innings pitched and strikeouts. She enters this series with 56 wins (record is 61), 88 starts (93), 59 complete games (72), 600 innings pitched (601) and 484 strikeouts (519).
Going, Going, Gone: UTSA has made a name nationally with the success it has enjoyed hitting the long ball. Dating back to 2003, the Roadrunners have slugged 472 home runs in 291 games, an average of 1.62 per game. The Roadrunners have led the NCAA in home runs in four of the past five seasons and have hit more long balls during that span than any other program. In 2006, UTSA shattered its own NCAA record, hitting 105 round-trippers in 51 contests for a 2.06 average, eclipsing the 1.87 mark set in 2004 (101/54). The Roadrunners own three of the top six home run seasons in NCAA history ? 105 (2006), 103 (2005), 101 (2004) ? and set a conference record with 14 home runs in four games at the 2006 SLC Tournament.
A New Era: Lori Cook is in her third year as head coach with a career 69-53 record (.566). In her first season in 2006, UTSA went 37-14, won its third consecutive SLC regular season title with a 22-5 mark, won the SLC Tournament for the second time in three years and made its second NCAA Tournament appearance.
Up Next: UTSA hosts nationally-ranked Baylor on Tuesday, March 4, at 6:30 p.m.
