Our Lady of the Lake University News

OLLU News

OLLU Saints softball team to begin conference play on April 30

Thu, Apr 29, 2010 - [Softball] - by Patricia Constantin

The Our Lady of the Lake University Saints softball team was picked to finish fifth out of eight teams in pre-season polls conducted by the Red River Athletic Conference. As the inaugural regular season closes out this week, the team is one game behind top-ranked Texas Wesleyan University with an overall record of 28-14 and a conference record of 22-6.

The Saints will head out to Farmers Branch, Texas, Thursday morning to participate in their first post-season games ever. The tournament will take place at Oran Good Park, 13401 Tom Field Rd.

The second-seeded Saints have a bye in the first round of the tournament. They are scheduled to play at noon on April 30 against the winner of the game between No. 3 Northwood University and No. 6 Huston-Tillotson University. The tournament will culminate with the championship game on Saturday afternoon.

As they begin post-season play, the Saints have several advantages over other qualifying teams. OLLU leads the conference in batting average with .374 and RBIs with 5.91 per game. In addition, the Saints have the highest slugging percentage in the conference with .533 and the most runs scored per game with 8.50. The team leads the conference in hits per game with an 11.18 average and the most home runs with a total of 25 (.89 per game).

Several Saints sit on top in individual categories, as well. Freshman Corina Noel out of Kingsville, Texas, leads the conference in batting with an average of .433. Freshman Dawn Villegas is a close second with an average of .422. In addition, Noel leads the conference in runs batted in (RBI) with 42 (1.02 per game). Junior Brooke Hernandez is second with 32 RBIs (.82 per game).

In fielding, Hernandez is fourth in the conference with 228 catches, 216 putouts, eight assists and four errors in 39 games for a .982 pct.

Pitcher Tiffany Stritz is ranked fourth in earned run average (ERA) with 1.93, closely followed by Kailyn Miller who has an ERA of 1.95. Stritz and Villegas are team leaders with records of 16-9 and 21-9 respectfully and are tied for seventh in the conference. Villegas is tied for second in the conference in saves with three.

In NAIA Division I rankings, the Saints are at No. 3 in at bats per game (29.000), No. 7 in hits per game (10.071), No. 8 in runs scored per game (6.952), No. 12 in home runs per game (0.881), No. 14 in runs batted in per game (5.905), No. 15 in total runs scored (292), No. 19 in batting average (0.347) and in slugging percentage (0.494).

Saints ranked Individually in NAIA Division I are Villegas at No. 4 in saves (4); Noel at No. 10 in at bats per game (4.659), No. 12 in hits per game (1.585) and No. 18 in runs scored per game (1.122); and Melanie Gonzalez at No. 12 in saves (3).

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