No. 15 West Texas A&M up Next for Softball

SILVER CITY, N.M. – The home stand continues this week when the Western New Mexico University softball team will host No. 15 West Texas A&M with doubleheaders both Friday and Saturday starting at noon.

WNMU (1-20, 0-9 LSC) just wrapped-up a four-game series against Texas Woman's, as the Lady Mustangs fought back in the final two games of the series before falling short. The offense enters with a .267 batting average, 149 hits, 77 runs scored, 33 doubles, seven home runs and 68 RBI. Redshirt freshman Alicia Habitzreuther (Sierra Vista, AZ/Buena) continues to lead the way with a .370 batting average. She also leads the team in home runs with three and RBI with 15. Senior Mariangela Garcia (Tucson, AZ/Desert View) (.339) and junior Carolyn Castillo (Silver City, NM/Silver City) (.300) are also hitting over .300 on the year. Garcia adds three doubles and eight RBI, while Castilo has 12 hits, a double and an RBI. Redshirt sophomore Clarissa Moreno (Tucson, AZ/Desert View) is second on the team in RBI with 12 and freshman Grisdey Paredes-Alvarez (Tucson, AZ/Sunnyside) is tied with Garcia with eight RBI. Junior Ariana Maldonado (Albuquerque, NM/Cibola) leads the team in doubles with nine.

Sophomores Lyana Waddell (Winkelman, AZ/San Manuel) and Thalia O'Neill (Bloomfield, NM/Bloomfield), along with Habitzreuther have all seen at least 10 innings of work in the circle. O'Neill has logged the most time with 63.2 innings in 17 appearances, starting 10. She has two complete games. Waddell has accumulated 50.1 innings in 17 appearances, starting seven and two complete games. She also picked up the win this season against CSU-Pueblo. Habitzreuther has tossed 10.1 innings in five appearances, with three being starts. She has one complete game.

Maldonado leads the team in multi-hit games with seven, Habitzreuther has six. Habitzreuther has the only four-hit game on the team this year. Moreno leads in multi-RBI games with three, while Habitzreuther drove in the most runs in a game with seven against New Mexico Highlands. Maldonado put together the longest hit streak so far this season at 11 games.

WNMU as a team in first in the Lone Star Conference and 15^th in the nation in double plays turned per game (0.62), fifth in the conference and 61^st nationally in doubles per game (1.57). Individually, Maldonado is first in the conference in both doubles (9) and doubles per game (0.43), Habitzreuther is first in hit-by-pitch per game (0.48), 16^th nationally and both Habitzreuther and Garcia are tied for second in the conference in sacrifice flies (2).

West Texas A&M (15-3, 2-1 LSC) remains one of the top teams in the country and are coming off of a pair of wins over NAIA No. 1 ranked Oklahoma City this past Tuesday. They took two of three from Tarleton State to open the conference slate last weekend, as their previous series against Texas Woman's was cancelled due to weather.

The Lady Buffs hit .349 as a team as Suka Van Gurp (.429), Shayne Starkey (.426) and Allie Smith (.400) are all hitting over .400. They have eight players that are hitting at least .304 in their regular lineup. Kylee Moore leads the team in home runs (10) and RBI (25), while four others have at least three home runs. Five others have at least 12 RBI on the year.

In the circle, WT has a 2.39 staff ERA and have two pitchers that have tossed at least 37.2 innings. Kilee Halbert has pitched 60 innings and is 8-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Shaynee Starkey adds a 6-0 record with a 1.67 ERA in 37.2 innings worked.

Last year, WT took all four meetings with the games being played in Canyon. The first three games of the series will be Lone Star Conference contests, while the final game of the series will be a non-conference, regional contest.

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Players Mentioned

#17 Carolyn Castillo: 3B/1B; 5' 5"; Junior; R/R

#14 Mariangela Garcia: SS; 5' 5"; Senior; R/R

#5 Alicia Habitzreuther: 2B/SS; 5' 6"; Redshirt Freshman; R/R

#9 Ariana Maldonado: OF; 5' 3"; Junior; R/R

#7 Clarissa Moreno: C; 5' 4"; Redshirt Sophomore; R/R

#11 Lyana Waddell: P; 5' 4"; Sophomore; R/R

#4 Grisdey Paredes-Alvarez: 3B; 5' 5"; Freshman; R/R

Players Mentioned

#17 Carolyn Castillo
: 5' 5"; Junior; R/R
: 3B/1B

#14 Mariangela Garcia
: 5' 5"; Senior; R/R
: SS

#5 Alicia Habitzreuther
: 5' 6"; Redshirt Freshman; R/R
: 2B/SS

#9 Ariana Maldonado
: 5' 3"; Junior; R/R
: OF

#7 Clarissa Moreno
: 5' 4"; Redshirt Sophomore; R/R
: C

#11 Lyana Waddell
: 5' 4"; Sophomore; R/R
: P

#4 Grisdey Paredes-Alvarez
: 5' 5"; Freshman; R/R
: 3B