The Eastern New Mexico softball team will travel to San Antonio, Texas to compete in the St. Mary’s College Classic on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

The Hounds will take on New Mexico Highlands, Drury, St. Edward’s, St. Mary’s and Regis over the weekend before returning home to take on New Mexico Highlands on Monday afternoon in Portales in double header action to complete a stretch of seven games over the course of four days. Eastern New Mexico opened up their 2019 season last weekend at the U.S. Bank ENMU Softball Kickoff Classic in Rio Rancho, N.M. by going 2-2 for the weekend with wins over Fort Lewis and Adams State.

LAST TIME OUT
The Greyhounds started off the year with a wealth of positives after the opening weekend across the nation for Division II softball including a solid overall performance from the two pitchers that saw action for the Hounds in Kimberly Herron and Hanna Gary. Both pitchers were effective on the mound and each picked up a win in 4-1 fashion, with Gary taking down Adams State on Friday night and Herron taking down Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday morning.

Both pitchers kept a Fort Lewis lineup relatively in check in the other two games, but each had brief stretches where the offensive firepower was too much for the Skyhawks, leading to a loss for the Hounds in both games against Fort Lewis. Eastern New Mexico recorded 11 hits against Oklahoma Baptist and 10 hits against Adams State, but managed just seven combined hits against Fort Lewis in the two losses.

A BUSY STRETCH
Eastern New Mexico hasn’t had much time to settle into a rhythm before being thrust into a brutal stretch of softball over the next week and moving into next weekend. The Hounds will take on New Mexico Highlands at 10 a.m. local time and Drury at 2:30 p.m. local time on Friday in San Antonio, and then will turn around and take on St. Edward’s and St. Mary’s at 11:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time on Saturday. Eastern will wrap up play in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. against Regis before heading back to Portales and squaring off with New Mexico Highlands in their home opener on Monday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The Hounds will then have just a few days to prepare for their Lone Star Conference opener against preseason favorite and no. 6 nationally-ranked Angelo State the following weekend. With all this action on the horizon, head coach Kira Zeiter’s team must be dialed in and ready to go if they hope to continue their quality start to the 2019 season.

SOPHOMORE SENSATION
It was no secret entering the 2019 season that sophomore Jennifer McElroy was going to be the heart and soul of the Eastern offense after being selected as a Third Team All-LSC performer a season ago, and her play in the Hound’s first four games of the season just reaffirmed that assumption. McElroy went 6-of-14 for the weekend, finishing with an average of .429, and drove in a team-high two runs while also scoring twice herself.

She led the team with two doubles and eight total bases and had two multi-hit games over the weekend. The Forney, Texas finished opening weekend with the 13th best batting average of qualified hitters in the conference and will look to ride a three-game hitting streak into this weekend’s string of games.

GET ON BASE AT ALL COSTS
The Hounds plate discipline and ability to get on base by any means necessary were on full display this weekend throughout their four games. Sophomore Kayla Marshall and catcher Samantha Brockman each reached based at least once in all four games while nine Hounds reach based in two or more of the games. The Hounds drew 15 walks over the four games as a team and were also hit by three pitches, illustrating a fundamental approach to the plate that will be crucial against the LSC’s top pitchers.

TRIPLE THREAT
Marshall, rightfielder Parker Smith and McElroy all hit 1-2-3 in the lineup this weekend and proved to be efficient options to get the lineup going for the Hounds. The three sophomores combined to score five of the 10 runs for Eastern over the weekend and got on base 19 times in the four games.

MIRROR IMAGES
After the dust settled and the four games came to a close last weekend, the final stats for the two pitchers that saw time for the Hounds totaled up pretty similarly. Herron and Gary each finished the weekend with: three appearances, a 3.00 ERA, a record of 1-1, 14.0 innings pitched and six earned runs allowed.

Gary finished with a few more strikeouts (6) than Herron (3), but Herron conceded just one homerun compared to Gary, who gave up three. Opponents batted .345 against Herron, while Gary allowed an average of just .278.
No matter how you interpret the stats one thing is for sure, coach Zeiter has two capable pitchers that can work together to work through any lineup.