LAKE CHARLES—McNeese softball will return to Southland Conference play this weekend following its 4-0 loss at Texas on Wednesday when the Cowgirls travel to San Antonio, Texas for its first SLC road series of the season at Incarnate Word. The series will begin with a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and will conclude with a single game at noon Saturday.
 
Live stats will be available for all three games while streaming will be available for Saturday's game only. All links can be found on mcneesesports.com.
 
McNeese (19-11, 6-0 SLC) will look to pick up its third Southland Conference series sweep after beginning the conference race with home series sweeps over Central Arkansas and Sam Houston State.
 
The Cowgirls, winners of 14 of their last 16 games will look to get back into the win column against an Incarnate Word team that is 5-23, 1-5 in the SLC and have lost 16 of their last 17 games. The Cardinals' lone conference win came in a 5-4 game two win at Central Arkansas last weekend.
 
Erika Piancastelli will lead the Cowgirls into the series with a .356 average, 31 hits, 27 walks and 10 stolen bases. She is second on the team with five homeruns and is tied for the team lead with 27 runs scored.
 
Morgan Catron who returned to the lineup against Texas after missing the last few games with an injury, is batting .350 with 28 hits including a team high six homeruns and 29 RBI and is tied for a team high with seven doubles. Taylor Schmidt is hitting at a .323 clip with 20 hits and is tied with Catron with seven doubles. Hailey Drew has been having a good conference season and leads the league with a .600 batting average, nine hits and nine runs scored in conference play.
 
The Cowgirl pitching staff has put together two solid conference series, having given up only five runs and only two of those were earned.
 
Seniors Rachel Smith (6-5) and Baylee Corbello (4-2) have yet to give up an earned run in conference play heading into the weekend. Both lead the league with a 0.00 ERA in SLC games. Freshman Alexsandra Flores (6-2) has a 0.58 ERA and has given up only two runs and one earned in conference games.