St. Edward's (17-9, 5-1 Heartland) at Lubbock Christian (17-6, 7-1 Heartland)
Friday, March 20^th at 1 PM (DH)
Lubbock, Texas (PlainsCapital Park)
 
Live Stats/Video/Online Audio: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/lcu/
 
About the Hilltoppers
St. Edward's (5-1) sits atop the Heartland Conference standings with one loss alongside LCU (7-1) and Texas A&M International (8-1). SEU was defeated by Oklahoma Panhandle State last Saturday by a score of 4-1 to give them their first league blemish. Topper pitcher Katelyn Klug is the reigning Heartland Conference pitcher of the week, an award also won by teammate Sara Debrow the week prior.
 
History between LCU and SEU
The teams first met last season with the Hilltoppers taking a 3-2 victory on March 28, but the Lady Chaps won the series the following day with a pair of wins, 5-1 and 8-3.
 
Last meeting between the Lady Chaps and Hilltoppers
AUSTIN, Texas (March 29, 2014) – Lubbock Christian avenged Friday's loss to St. Edward's by sweeping a doubleheader over the Hilltoppers by scores of 5-1 and 8-5 while piecing together two big fourth innings to solely grab ahold of second place in the Heartland Conference.
 
Morgan Colburn and Ashton Bell began the second game of the series just the way yesterday's 3-2 defeat started off by recording homeruns in the top of the second and third inning. Colburn's ball sailed and hit the scoreboard in left centerfield in frame two while Bell sent one just over the centerfield wall in the next inning, sending SEU's Cydney Ervin crashing into the wall, stalling the game for a brief time while she was attended to and eventually returning.
 
At her next at bat, Bell hit a double to left field and Megan Sullivan brought her around on a sacrifice fly for a 4-0 Lady Chap lead in the fourth. Diana De La Paz and Kirstie Cochran provided back-to-back singles, and a perfectly placed bunt by Katlin Reed loaded the bases for LCU, but a fly out to right field by Mallory Koschany left the Lady Chaps (32-6, 11-4 Heartland) stranded.
 
Similar to Friday's game, the Hilltoppers staged a comeback in the bottom of the sixth.  SEU's Bray Whitten made it to first by way of an illegal pitch called on Heartland Conference Pitcher of the Week Katera Eltsosie before Kaci Olsen singled up the middle and Faith Roberts' RBI single to left field gave St. Edward's (23-16, 8-7) their first score. A strikeout by Eltsosie and a Hilltopper groundout thwarted any further scoring opportunities for SEU and preserved the first win in the series for LCU.
 
Eltsosie (16-3) picked up the win with six hits and three strikeouts while Katelyn Klug (12-7) was tacked with the loss in giving up 10 hits and three strikeouts.
 
In game two, a single by Sullivan scored Koschany in the top of the first and Bell looked to add another but was caught out at home plate, closing the top half of the inning with a 1-0 Lady Chap advantage.
However, the bottom of the inning was overtaken by two more disputable illegal pitches called on Abbi White, but the Lady Chaps were able to accumulate three outs and hold SEU scoreless. With the bases loaded in the third, De La Paz intercepted a throw from the outfield and a Hilltopper runner collided with her, but no interference was called, leading SEU to three scores and a one-run lead.
 
The Lady Chaps took control in the fourth with Shlay Denison first reaching on a Hilltopper error and singles by Cochran and Bell. A walk to Sullivan allowed Denison in and a consecutive singles by Jessica Loiacano, Colburn and Eltsosie each produced an RBI to put LCU in front, 5-3. The Lady Chaps added three insurance runs on a single by Cochran that was miscalculated by SEU's centerfielder, allowing Cochran to run all of the bases and score Rebecca Billings and De La Paz.
 
White (9-1) earned the win with six hits, five walks and four strikeouts, while Caitie Carney (0-2) recorded the loss with 16 hits, four walks and a pair of strikeouts.
 
Lady Chaps drop final game; win series 2-1 over No. 5 St. Mary's
LUBBOCK, Texas (March 14, 2015) – Lubbock Christian failed to complete a three-game sweep of St. Mary's on Saturday afternoon at PlainsCapital Park by falling 11-3 to the fifth-ranked Rattlers in six innings to put the Lady Chaps in second place within the Heartland Conference.
 
LCU (17-6, 7-1 Heartland) suffered their first loss within the league after falling behind 6-0 in the fourth inning before the Rattlers (18-7, 3-2 Heartland) racked up six runs in the top of the sixth to finish the game.
 
The Lady Chaps initially saw a glimpse of scoring in the bottom of the first following a Sydney Beuthien walk and a Jessica Loiacano single up the middle but were unable to convert. St. Mary's was the first to put a score on the board with a Vianna Gutierrez Touchtone with a homer to right center.
 
The Rattlers piled up five runs to gain a 6-0 advantage before LCU totaled a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth from a St. Mary's fielding error for a 6-2 ballgame. StMU padded to their lead in the following frame, taking advantage of two LCU errors and a wild pitch to rack up an additional five runs for an 11-3 edge that would not make it to another inning.