LAKE CHARLES—McNeese softball will conclude its 11 game road trip in Madeira Beach, Florida this weekend at the Eastern Michigan Madeira Beach Spring Invitational that begins Friday and will run through Sunday.
McNeese (8-3) has had a good start to its stint in Florida so far this week by opening the week with a 6-1 win over 9
th ranked Florida State. The Cowgirls picked up its second shutout of the season Wednesday with a 6-0 win over North Florida.
The Cowgirls will open tournament play against Villanova at 12:30 p.m. Friday then will face Middle Tennessee at 5:30 p.m. later in the day. Two more games are on tap Saturday for the Cowgirls as they will face Manhattan at 10 a.m. and Delaware at 12:30 p.m. The final game of the tournament for the Cowgirls will be at 8 a.m. Sunday against Arkansas. All game time listed are central time.
Villanova and Manhattan will be opening their season this weekend. Middle Tennessee enters the weekend with a 7-4 record, Delaware (0-4) will be looking for its firs win and Arkansas is undefeated at 5-0 heading into the weekend.
Junior
Justyce McClain will head into the weekend with a .500 batting average with 18 hits, nine stolen bases and has scored nine runs. Sophomore
Brenique Wright is batting .385 with 10 hits, three home runs, seven RBI and six stolen bases while senior
Morgan Catron is batting .379 with 11 hits and a team high nine RBI. Senior
Erika Piancastelli is tied with Wright for a team high three home runs, all three coming in the last week. Piancastelli leads the team with 12 RBI and is closing in on the McNeese and Southland Conference career record for runs scored. She enters the weekend with 175 career runs scored and the record of 177 is held by former Cowgirl standout Alanna DiVittorio.
In the circle, freshman hurler
Caroline Settle leads the staff with a 4-1 record with a 2.97 ERA and 11 strike outs in 30 1/3 innings. Sophomore
Alexsandra Flores is 3-2 with a 4.91 ERA and leads the staff with 15 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings with one shutout. Freshman Amber Coons is 1-0 with a 4.96 ERA and nine strikeouts.
