Ladyjacks Continue Non-Conference Tournament Play in Alabama at Mardi Gras Invitational

MOBILE, Ala. – Through 12 games of the 2019 season, the SFA softball team is off to its best start since 2008 and the Ladyjacks (9-3) look to continue their strong start this weekend when they head southeast to South Alabama's Mardi Gras Invitational. SFA will face host South Alabama out of the Sun Belt Conference twice, in addition to 25th-ranked Illinois and Hofstra, at the the three-day tournament held at Jaguar Field in Mobile, Alabama, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 22-24.

For the third consecutive weekend, the Ladyjacks will compete in a tournament featuring a nationally-ranked opponent as SFA has posted a winning record in each of its first two non-conference tournaments this season.

The Ladyjacks will take on the host Jaguars first in a 2:30 p.m. tilt Friday, before going up against the Big Ten Conference's No. 25 Illinois Saturday at 3:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon's game with the Fighting Illini will serve as SFA's fourth top-25 matchup of the year. A second game against South Alabama at 6 p.m. will conclude the Ladyjacks' Saturday schedule as SFA will wrap up Mardi Gras Invitational play Sunday at 11:15 a.m. against Colonial Athletic Association member Hofstra.

Both of the Ladyjacks' games with South Alabama will be streamed live on JagNationTV, while all of SFA's contests in Mobile can be followed via live stats at USAJaguars.com.

Playing perhaps the toughest non-conference schedule among Southland Conference members, the Ladyjacks have made back-to-back tournament title game appearances at two of the nation's top programs. SFA began its 2019 slate by capturing the Bulldog Kickoff Classic in Starkville, Mississippi by knocking off then 24th-ranked Mississippi State in shut out fashion, 1-0. Last weekend, SFA reached the 33rd Annual Louisiana Classic championship game after defeating the Ohio Valley Conference's Austin Peay (5-1) and claiming a pair of victories over Jackson State.

In fact, all three of the Ladyjacks' losses thus far in 2019 have come in true road games at nationally-ranked institutions. SFA battled now 10th-ranked Louisiana-Lafayette twice this past weekend and split games with then No. 24 Mississippi State over the opening weekend. The win over the Bulldogs on Feb. 10 was the Ladyjacks' first top-25 victory since 2014 and marked the first time since March 4, 2017, SFA had defeated a Power Five opponent.

South Alabama will serve as the Ladyjacks' third Sun Belt opponent of the season with SFA having faced Louisiana-Monroe and then 13th-ranked Louisiana from the league. The Ladyakcs shut out ULM 4-0 in Nacogdoches on Wednesday, Feb. 13 before suffering a pair of setbacks at the nationally-ranked Ragin' Cajuns last weekend.

SFA has not faced a Big Ten foe since March 4, 2017, when the Ladyjacks scored a 5-4 win over Maryland.

Most recently, SFA picked up its second-straight Wednesday non-conference home victory with an 8-0, run-rule rout of Texas Southern earlier this week. The Ladyjacks got a two-run homer from senior first baseman Margarita Corona in the bottom of the opening inning and used a five-run sixth inning to finalize the affair. SFA lined 10 hits in the contest, including six in the sixth inning alone, and got strong pitching performances once again from right-handed junior start Jordan Llinas and junior Galveston College transfer righty reliever Ashley Kriesel.

Through 12 games, the Ladyjacks' pitching has been quite impressive. With a trio of pitchers owning an earned run average below 2.00, SFA ranks 24th nationally with a team ERA of 1.63 and is 34th in the nation with a strikeout-to-walk ration of 3.00. Freshman right-hander Kassidy Wilbur owns a 1.29 ERA and has accumulated 45 strikeouts in 38 innings or work, while Kriesel has posted a 1.42 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 24 and 2/3 innings pitched. Kriesel ranks 18th nationally and leads the Southland in strikeouts per seven innings (10.8) as Wilbur (8.3) is among the nation's top 65 in that category. Llinas owns a 1.95 ERA and a perfect 2-0 record with 10 strikeouts in 14 and 1/3 innings.

Offensively, SFA is hitting at a clip of .311 as a team with three .400 batters. Freshman Cassidy Tucker, who worked her way into the lineup last weekend in Louisiana, has collected a hit seven times in 16 at bats for a team-best .438 batting average as Corona and redshirt sophomore Brittany Crawford are batting right at .400. Crawford's .633 slugging mark with three extra-base hits and six RBI lead the squad, while Corona has tallied a team-high nine RBI and owns a .600 slugging percentage with a Ladyjack-best three home runs and 14 total hits.

Speed has been present for SFA this season as well as the Ladyjacks are a perfect 19-for-19 on stolen base attempts after stealing 20 total bases all of last season.

After a one-year hiatus, SFA returns to Mobile for the Mardi Gras Invitational where the Ladyjacks went 2-2 in 2017. SFA split games the OVC's Tennessee Tech during its first Mardi Gras Invitational appearance and notched a 3-0 victory over Conference USA's Middle Tennessee prior to dropping a 3-0 decision at South Alabama.

This year marks the eighth Mardi Gras Invitational since 2010 as South Alabama has hosted the non-conference tournament in 2010, 2012-17 and now 2019.

The Opponents

South Alabama
2019 Record | 4-5, 0-0 Sun Belt Conference
• The Jaguars have gone 3-1 at home this season after hosting the Jaguar Challenge last weekend. South Alabama defeated the likes of Lipscomb (8-5), North Dakota (8-0) in six innings and Mercer (12-8) with their lone loss in Mobile coming against Tulsa (8-3).
• Opening up their season at the Sand Dollar Classic in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the Jaguars went 1-3 with losses to Missouri State (4-0), Louisiana Tech (2-0) and Western Kentucky (7-3), while picking up a win over Tennessee State (9-1) in six innings. Most recently, South Alabama dropped a 4-1 decision at top-ranked Florida State Wednesday evening.
• The Jaguars went 29-27 overall in 2018 and posted a 13-13 mark in Sun Belt play, finishing sixth in conference.
• South Alabama features five different players hitting at a clip over .300 as the Jaguar pitching staff owns a 3.27 ERA.
• Head coach Becky Clark has been at the helm of the program since its inception in 2006 and has accumulated 415 during her 13 seasons. She led the Jaguars to four-straight 40-win campaigns and four consecutive NCAA Regional appearances from 2012-15, owning eight 30-win seasons.
• SFA is 0-1 all-time against South Alabama with the Ladyjacks' lone meeting with the Jaguars coming in 2017.

No. 25 Illinois
2019 Record | 7-2, 0-0 Big Ten Conference
• Ranked 25th nationally according to this week's USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) top 25 poll and No. 24 in the latest ESPN/USA Softball rankings. The Fighting Illini are also ranked 18th in the nation according to Softball America.
• Illinois has already picked up a pair of top-25 wins this season, opening up its 2019 schedule with neutral-site victories in Houston over then 22nd-ranked Oklahoma State (7-4) and then 13th-ranked Kentucky (6-5). The Fighting Illini have also defeated Atlantic Coast Conference opponents Boston College (12-3 and 7-3) and Georgia Tech (15-10 and 7-3) each twice as part of the ACC/Big Ten challenge in Atlanta. Illinois topped tournament host Houston (4-2) over the opening weekend, but endured losses against then No. 22 Oklahoma State (10-6) and fellow Southland member Sam Houston State (10-6).
• The Fighting Illini finished sixth in the Big Ten a year ago after notching a 13-8 league record and going 37-18 overall.
• Offensively, Illinois is one of the top teams in the nation with a .337 batting average as four Illinois batters are hitting at a .400 clip or better. The Fighting Illini have notched 15 home runs already in 2019 and rank eighth in the country in home runs per game (1.67). The Illinois offense has also connected on 18 doubles to rank 17th nationally in doubles per contest (2.00), while ranking 19th in slugging (.576) as a team. Owning the 29th-highest batting average in the nation, the Fighting Illini have produced 70 total runs to average the 15th-most runs per game (7.78) nationally.
• Head coach Tyra Perry is in her fourth season and has claimed at least 36 wins in each of her first three years at the helm, leading Illinois to NCAA Regional appearances in her first two seasons.
• Saturday afternoon will mark the first-ever meeting between the Ladyjacks and the Fighting Illini on the softball diamond.

Hofstra
2019 Record | 0-4, 0-0 Colonial Athletic Conference
• The Pride opened up their 2019 campaign by facing three nationally-ranked opponents, dropping an 8-0 decision in five innings to then 13th-ranked Kentucky at the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational and suffering setbacks to then third-ranked Oklahoma (17-3) in five innings and then 20th-ranked Oklahoma State (13-2) in six innings. Hofstra was also defeated by Utah (11-3) in six innings at the tournament.
• Capturing the 2018 CAA title, the Pride went an impressive 41-14 overall a year ago and finished 17-4 in CAA play before reaching the Columbia, South Carolina, NCAA Regional where they claimed a 6-0 win over UNC Greensboro.
• Hofstra has made the NCAA Regionals 17 times since 1993 and 14 times since 2000. Making NCAA postseason play five times since 2012, the Pride won the NCAA UCLA Regional in 2012 before taking a game from South Florida in the NCAA Tampa Super Regional.
• Only three seasons since 2002 has Hofstra not claimed 30 wins with the Pride reaching the 40-win plateau eight times since 2005 and five times since 2010.
• Head coach Jay Miller is in his first season leading Hofstra after serving in the same role at three other Division I institutions. Miller led Purdue between 1980-81, Missouri from 1987-2002 and Mississippi State from 2002-11. In all, Miller has 26 years of Division I head coaching experience and most recently served as the associate head coach at the Big Ten's Rutgers before guiding the Pride.
• Sunday's matchup with the Pride will mark the first-ever meeting between SFA and Hofstra.

Up Next…
The Ladyjacks return to Texas' oldest town for their third midweek matchup of 2019 Tuesday, Feb. 26 when the Lady Panthers of Prairie View A&M visit the friendly confines of the SFA Softball Field for a 3 p.m. first pitch.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Ladyjack softball throughout the 2019 season.

-SFA-

Schedule

Ladyjacks Continue Non-Conference Tournament Play in Alabama at Mardi Gras Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Margarita Corona

Brittany Crawford

Ashley Kriesel

Jordan Llinas

Cassidy Tucker

Kassidy Wilbur

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Stephen F Austin

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Softball versus Murray State College on Sep. 27, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Softball versus Weatherford College on Oct. 4, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Softball versus University of Louisiana at Monroe on Oct. 4, 2025 at 5:00 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Softball versus Galveston College on Oct. 10, 2025 at 1:00 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Softball versus Galveston College on Oct. 10, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Ladyjacks Continue Non-Conference Tournament Play in Alabama at Mardi Gras Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Margarita Corona

Brittany Crawford

Ashley Kriesel

Jordan Llinas

Cassidy Tucker

Kassidy Wilbur

Related Videos

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