The Lady Wildcats Softball team (17-15, 15-9) will be making their final road trip of the regular season this weekend to face off with the #1 ranked UT-Tyler Patriots (31-2, 23-0) in a three game series.  The first game of three is scheduled for 6pm Friday night and the series will conclude with a double-header on Saturday starting at 1pm. 

LC is coming off a series where they lost 2 of 3 games to ETBU, but could have very easily been 2 of 3 wins for the Wildcats, falling in the finale 5-3 to the Tigers.  The team is confident and excited about the opportunity to play the #1 team in the country.  Head Coach Lyn Bankston said, "Anytime you get the chance to play the #1 team in the country it's exciting.  If you have trouble getting ready for those type games then you need to check your pulse."

He went on to talk about this year's Tyler softball team, "The are an established program and they are loaded this year up and down the lineup.  It will be a huge challenge for us but we are ready and its also exciting to see how we measure up with the best team in the country."

Both UT-Tyler and LC rank 1 and 2 in pitching and defense this season in the conference.  The Lady Wildcat have a team ERA of 2.68 while the Patriots behind the pitching of Kelsie Batton and Alaina Kissinger have a team ERA of 0.97 on the year.  LC's Savannah Settle is third in the conference with a 1.96 ERA in 15 appearances for the Wildcat.

Coach Bankston said of the pitching and defense this year, "We definitely pride ourselves on our pitching and defense and they have been consistent for us all season, but the hitting stats don't really show the whole picture on how we stack up there.  We don't have alot of strikeouts and we just seem to hit the ball right at people more often than we'd like."

The Wildcats are batting .285 as a team in ASC play which is 6th overall and third in the conference for the fewest strikeouts with 57 all year.  Mattie Stine continues to lead the Wildcats with a .429 batting average, good enough for 5th in the ASC, and .512 on base percentage.

With only six games remaining in the regular season the Lady Wildcats position in the conference tournament is still not secured.  The top 6 teams earn a spot in the tournament with LC currently sitting in the third spot going into this weekend.  There are 5 team within 5 games of each other battling for the final 4 spots in the tournament.  The Wildcats sit 2 games ahead of next weekends opponent UT-Dallas and just 2.5 games ahead of both Mary Hardin-Baylor and LeTourneau.

Bankston said, "With so many teams bunched together in that 3 to 6 range each game we have left takes on an even greater significance for our position in the tournament.  We'll be fighting and playing as hard as we can to get every win we can, and those other teams are going to be doing the exact same thing."

The Lady Wildcats take on #1 UT-Tyler this weekend in a three game series before returning to Coca-Cola Field in Pineville the following weekend, April 22-23, for the regular season finale against UT-Dallas.  That series is scheduled for a double-header Friday starting at 4pm and a single game Saturday at 12pm.