Wednesday, May 16
Conway, Ark.
3 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin
vs
Texas Tech
Softball Set to Take on Big 12’s Texas Tech in First Round of NISC Regional
5/15/2018 5:11:00 PM | Softball
Ladyjacks make second national postseason appearance in their NCAA Division I history, face Red Raiders in Conway, Arkansas, Wednesday
Stephen F. Austin (31-22) vs. Texas Tech (29-26)
Wednesday, May 16 | 3 p.m. | Farris Field | Conway, Ark.
Watch (Southland Digital Network) | Live Stats
Region 4 Bracket | Game Notes
2018 Postseason NISC Tournament Central | Complete NISC Bracket | About the NISC
Wednesday, May 16 | 3 p.m. | Farris Field | Conway, Ark.
Watch (Southland Digital Network) | Live Stats
Region 4 Bracket | Game Notes
2018 Postseason NISC Tournament Central | Complete NISC Bracket | About the NISC
CONWAY, Ark. – Continuing its most successful season since 2010 the Stephen F. Austin softball team returns to the diamond Wednesday as the Ladyjacks begin play at the 2018 Postseason National Invitational Softball Championships (NISC). Making just its second national postseason appearance in the program's NCAA Division I era and first since 2008, SFA will take on Big 12 Conference stalwart Texas Tech at 3 p.m. CST Wednesday, May 16 in the opening round of the NISC Region 4. Hosted by fellow Southland Conference member Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, the regional game will be played at Farris Field.
Wednesday afternoon's contest will be streamed live on the Southland Digital Network and through the Southland Conference app, available on Roku, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire. Live statistics of the game can be followed via UCASports.com.
The Ladyjacks (31-22) are one of four teams in the double-elimination NISC Region 4, which includes the Red Raiders (29-26), the Sun Belt Conference's UT Arlington (27-26) and regional host UCA (27-25). With seeding and matchups of the regional based on the NCAA's RPI rankings, Texas Tech boasts the highest RPI at 66, followed UT Arlington (83), SFA (133) and UCA (136). The Bears are the lone team in the regional not an automatic qualifier for the 2018 NISC as UCA claimed an at-large bid. The Ladyjacks, Red Raiders and Mavericks each earned their conference's automatic berth into the national postseason tournament. UT Arlington and UCA face each other Wednesday, May 16 at 6 p.m. following SFA's tilt with Texas Tech.
The four-team regional is one of four nationwide as the 2018 NISC is comprised of a 17-team field with Region 1 hosted by Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, Region 2 hosted by UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Region 3 hosted by Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Kentucky. Each regional winner will advance to next week's championship round, to be hosted by one of the four regional champions Wednesday-Saturday, May 23-26.
Achieving one of the most notable turnarounds in all of Division I softball, the Ladyjacks are enjoying one of their best seasons of the decade. After going 17-33 just one year ago and finishing ninth in the final 2017 Southland standings with an 9-15 league record, SFA has nearly doubled its win total this season. Finishing the regular season in a three-way tie for second place in the 12-team conference with an 18-9 Southland mark, the Ladyjacks are 31-22 overall and well exceeded the league's preseason poll where SFA was picked tied for eighth place. Throughout conference play, the Ladyjacks earned seven Southland series wins out of nine league series, dropping series only to regular season champion Nicholls and Abilene Christian. The 31 victories represent the most in a single season for SFA in 10 years while the seven Southland series wins and 18 conference triumphs are the most for the Ladyjacks since 2010, when SFA captured its lone regular season title.
The Ladyjacks closed out the regular season by clinching the No. 2 seed for last week's Southland Tournament by defeating visiting Abilene Christian 3-1 on senior day (May 6) at SFA Softball Field. Despite finishing the regular season in a three-way tie with McNeese and Southeastern Louisiana, all with an identical 18-9 Southland record, SFA earned the No. 2 seed based on the league office's tiebreaker procedures. The Ladyjacks were the Southland West Division champions, boasting a 12-3 record against western division opponents, while the Cowgirls and the Lady Lions each posted 9-6 records in the Southland East Division.
Last week, SFA made its ninth Southland Tournament appearance in program history, first since 2016 and just the third since the 2010 season. The Ladyjacks were upended by eventual 2018 Southland Tournament champion, tournament host and third-seeded McNeese 8-2, before falling 6-0 in the first round of the back draw to No. 8 seed Sam Houston State.
With a 9-0 rout of Texas Southern in six innings on Tuesday, May 1, SFA earned its 30th win of the season, marking the Ladyjacks' first 30-win campaign in the last decade and just the sixth in Division I program history.
SFA has played in just one national postseason tournament since moving up to the Division I level prior to the 1988 season. The Ladyjacks went 36-25 during their 2008 campaign en route to capturing SFA's second Southland Tournament title and earning the league's automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. In the Ladyjacks' lone appearance in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship, SFA traveled to College Station, Texas, for the Texas A&M Regional, where they went 0-2 at Aggie Softball Complex against stiff competition from host Texas A&M and Auburn.
This week will be SFA's second trip to Conway this season as the Ladyjacks played a trio of games at Farris Field as part of the UCA Softball Invitational back on Feb. 23-25. The Ladyjacks took on Kansas, Coppin State and South Dakota State during the three-game trip and posted a 1-2 record. SFA was defeated 11-1 in five innings by the Jayhawks, before claiming a 3-2 victory over Coppin State and suffering a 7-2 setback against the Jackrabbits.
Much of the Ladyjacks' success this spring has been due to SFA's all-conference performers. Last Monday, senior third baseman Amber Landry highlighted the Ladyjacks' five total All-Southland selections as she was named to the first team, while senior catcher Taylor Fraccastoro and senior right-handed pitcher Makayla Sikes both claimed a spot on the All-Southland Second Team. Freshman second baseman Bryana Novegil and junior first baseman Margarita Corona each earned All-Southland honorable mention. For Landry, it marked the second-strait year of earning All-Southland accolades after being named to the second team in 2017. Fraccastoro was named All-Southland honorable mention as both a freshman and sophomore in 2015 and 2016 but was selected to a team for the first time in her career, along with Sikes. In her inaugural collegiate season, Novegil has been sensational at the leadoff spot for SFA, while Corona, a transfer from Pima Community College, has been just as impressive as the Ladyjacks' most clutch hitter.
Texas Tech went 5-13 in the highly-competitive Big 12 this season, finishing fifth in the final standings among the seven-team league. Earning the No. 5 seed in the 2018 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, the Red Raiders knocked off third-seeded Baylor 6-5 in the first round before being edged 7-6 by second-seeded Oklahoma State and then eliminated by No. 4 seed Texas (9-2). Prior to its pair of losses at the Big 12 Championship, Texas Tech held an eight-game win streak. However, the Red Raiders had lost 14 out of 15 contests before going on its longest winning streak of the spring. Texas Tech has faced just one Southland team in 2018, splitting games with Abilene Christian in a home-and-away series. The Wildcats used a six-run seventh inning to top the visiting Red Raiders 11-10 in Abilene on April 10, before Texas Tech routed ACU 10-2 in just five innings on May 1 in Lubbock.
This season the Red Raiders have led the Big 12 in both double plays per game (0.4) and triples per game (0.3), while ranking second in the league in stolen bases per contest (1.18) and doubles per game (1.4). With a team slugging percentage of .465, Texas Tech is 37th nationally in that category and third in the Big 12. The Red Raiders' 0.9 home runs per game is third-best in the seven-team conference and ranks 51st in the nation.
Texas Tech has been led by junior first baseman Jessica Hartwell, who is one of the top hitters in the Big 12 and ranks among the nation's best in several offensive statistical categories. Leading the Red Raiders with a .400 batting average, Hartwell ranks seventh in the league in that category while her 20 home runs on the season are tied for sixth-most nationally. Knocking out home runs at a rate of 0.4 per game, Hartwell ranks ninth nationally and is second in the Big 12 in that category. Her impressive .910 slugging percentage is 10th-best in the nation and second-best in the conference, while Hartwell's 141 total bases leads the Big 12 and is eighth-most nationally. Leading the Red Raiders with 59 runs scored this spring, Hartwell ranks fifth in the nation in runs per game (1.09). Lastly, Hartwell's 59 RBI are 14th-most nationally while her 1.09 RBI per game ranks 18th among all Division I softball players.
UT Arlington finished fourth in the Sun Belt after going 14-12 in league play, earning the No. 4 seed at the 2018 Sun Belt Championship. The Mavericks went 1-2 at the league tournament, dropping a 2-1 decision to fifth-seeded Troy before topping No. 3 seed Georgia State 2-0 in 11 innings. Troy then eliminated UT Arlington from the championship with a 9-4 defeat. The Mavericks have gone 3-7 in their last 10 contests and have lost six of their last eight games. Facing four Southland opponents this year, UT Arlington posted a 3-1 record in those contests. The Mavericks' lone loss to a Southland team came at home to Sam Houston State (5-1) on Feb. 25, while UT Arlington defeated the likes of Nicholls (4-1) in Denton, Texas, Incarnate Word (9-0, five innings) at home and Houston Baptist (2-0) on the road.
SFA is 45-62 against the Mavericks all-time as UT Arlington is a former member of the Southland. The Ladyjacks were defeated 6-0 in the two teams' last meeting on March 15, 2017, with SFA's last win over the Mavericks coming during the 2012 season when the Ladyjacks edged UT Arlington 2-1 in walk-off fashion at SFA Softball Field.
UCA enters this week's NISC regional after finishing fifth in the Southland with a 16-11 conference record and earning the No. 5 seed to last week's Southland Tournament in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Bears were quickly ousted from the league's postseason tournament, playing just one single-elimination game and falling 9-1 to eighth-seeded Sam Houston State. SFA took two out of three from UCA earlier this season when the Ladyjacks hosted the Bears for a three-game Southland series in Nacogdoches (April 6-8). After splitting Friday's doubleheader, winning the opener 5-4 and dropping a 5-0 decision in game two, SFA claimed the rubber contest 6-0 with one of its best performances of the season in all facets of the game. The conference series win over UCA marked the Ladyjacks' first series victory against the Bears since 2009.
SFA is 13-20 against UCA dating back to the 2008 season and went 1-2 versus the Bears in Conway last year.
Up Next…
A Ladyjacks victory Wednesday afternoon would advance SFA to play the winner of UT Arlington and UCA's opening round affair Thursday, May 17 at 3 p.m. Should the Ladyjacks suffer a not so favorable outcome against the Red Raiders Wednesday, SFA would drop into the first elimination game of the regional and take on the loser of UT Arlington and UCA Thursday, May 17 at 12 p.m.
For all weather-related schedule changes affecting SFA softball throughout the 2018 Postseason NISC, be sure to keep an eye on SFAJacks.com and follow SFA softball on Facebook (SFA Softball) and Twitter (@SFA_Softball).
Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Ladyjack softball throughout the season.
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