PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico softball program recently announced their 2020 regular season schedule.
The Greyhounds will look to build off of a 12-30 regular season record a season ago in head coach Kira Zeiter’s first year as a head coach. Zeiter’s squad will take part in the first season of the recently expanded Lone Star Conference that will feature 17 teams competing for 10 spots in the Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament at season’s end.
“The LSC was already the premier conference in Division II for softball, but now it will be even tougher to win conference.” Coach Zeiter said, “Any of the 17 programs can surprise anybody on any given day, and it will be a long and grueling conference season with extended travel, but we all picked Eastern New Mexico softball to accept that challenge.”
Eastern New Mexico will have a total of 18 non-conference games starting with a trip to Las Vegas, N.M. on Feb. 1 for a doubleheader against New Mexico Highlands before kicking off the LSC schedule in Portales on Mar. 6 against UT Permian Basin. The Hounds will make two trips to Lubbock, Texas on Feb. 7-9 and Feb. 22-23 for separate tournaments to help prepare for that opener against the Falcons in Portales.
The Greyhounds will also make a trip out to Tuscon, Ariz. to take part in the annual Cactus Classic from Feb. 14-16 to compete against six opponents ranging from Simon Fraser (B.C) to the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Eastern will get a first-hand glimpse of their future LSC opponents in their second trip to Lubbock on Feb. 22-23 during which time they will take on Tarleton State, Lubbock Christian, West Texas A&M and UT Permian Basin.
The LSC schedule will feature a consistent format throughout the season with teams playing doubleheaders on either Thursdays and Saturday or Fridays and Sundays for a weekend series. Eastern New Mexico will play UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico on Friday and Saturday in their LSC series opener in Portales, N.M. on Mar. 6 and Mar. 8.
“We need to start off conference play strong and gain momentum going into league play for our home opener that weekend against UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico.” Coach Zeiter said.
The Hounds will then compete on their home field for the third straight doubleheader the following weekend on Mar. 11 against arch-rival West Texas A&M. Eastern New Mexico will have the home field advantage in their first six conference games to kick off the 2019 conference slate before making the long trek out to Tyler, Texas to take on LSC newcomer UT Tyler on Mar. 13-14, with the single game on the 14th counting as non-conference competition.
Eastern will then return home for another key weekend as they welcome two teams that went a combined 77-34 last season and each advanced in the NCAA South Central Region Tournament in Cameron and Oklahoma Christian. That Friday-Sunday weekend will take place on Mar. 20 and Mar. 22 and will allow the Hounds to hopefully make some noise in the conference standings against two powers from a season ago.
“We really want to flip the series against Cameron from last season and look forward to hosting a new quality opponent in Oklahoma Christian as well,” Coach Zeiter said, “Oklahoma Christian was a regional finalist last season at Kingsville and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
The Greyhounds will welcome the defending National Runner-ups in Texas A&M-Kingsville on Apr. 3 during a stretch of three days of softball at the Greyhound Softball Field on Apr. 2-4. The Hounds will take on Texas A&M-International on Apr. 2 in doubleheader action before squaring off with the Dustdevils in a single game on Apr. 3 in non-conference action.
“We return the runner-ups from the Division II National Championship to Portales to kick off our final third of our season.” Coach Zeiter said, “All three teams will be playing their best softball by this point and wins that weekend could really change the conference standings.”
Eastern will be on the road for two out of the last three weekend series of the season with trips to Lubbock Christian and Angelo State and Tarleton State and Midwestern State with a home weekend against Texas Woman’s and Texas A&M-Commerce wedged in-between on Apr. 16-18.
“With 19 new players to the program our primary focus has been cohesion.” Coach Zeiter said, “The goal has been just getting to know each other as people off of the field and to have that translate to game day success.”
