The conclusion of the regular season for Texas State softball (31-18, 13-8 SBC) is arriving and arriving fast. Since the start of conference play, they have been one of the biggest threats in the Sun Belt Conference, carrying on last year’s momentum of winning the conference tournament as the second seed.
This year, however, the Bobcats want the prize of the Regular Season title and the top overall seed in the conference tournament en route to returning to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. They will have their chance this upcoming weekend when they travel to Monroe, Louisiana, to take on the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (34-18, 14-7 SBC).
The Bobcats currently rank second overall in the Sun Belt Conference, just one game behind the Warhawks for the top spot. What’s in store for Texas State as they prepare for the regular season finale?
Analyzing The Warhawks
ULM is coming off a weekend-series loss to South Alabama (19-29, 8-12 SBC), dropping their last two games and opening the door for Texas State to snatch the regular season title away from the Warhawks. However, it could be chalked up to just the offense cooling off a wee bit.
The Warhawks are by far statistically one of the best offenses in the conference. They lead the Sun Belt in batting average (.335), hits (459), doubles (77), RBIs (278) and on-base percentage (.411). Six qualified batters for Louisiana-Monroe are batting with an average above .300, three of them with OPS’s above .950.
By far their biggest threat on offense is Utility player Brooklin Lippert. The sophomore is batting .434/.492/.465 with an OPS of .957. This includes stealing 30 bases (18th in the nation) while batting leadoff.
Lippert is, without a doubt, the best hitter in the conference and the biggest threat not just with the bat but also on the basepath.
Pitching-wise, the Warhawks are a bottom-four team in the conference, sustaining a team ERA of 4.66. The pitcher with the lowest ERA on the team is Dakota Lake, who currently is tossing a 4.09. While pitching is not Louisiana-Monroe’s strong suit, they usually win ball games with their powerful offense.
Looking Ahead
In this instance, this upcoming series between Texas State and ULM is as if an unstoppable object met an immovable force. One side specializes in a strong offense whilst the other is strong pitching wise. However, all it takes is a cold streak.
While Texas State were seen as preseason favorites to run the conference, a middle-of-the-pack offense combined with the strong pitching duo of Maddy Azua and Emma Strood seemingly cooling off more into the season has immensely slowed down the Bobcats from dominating the conference.
It doesn’t necessarily help that the Bobcats’ best bat, Aiyana Coleman, is so feared by opponents that they keep intentionally walking her.
In Texas State’s last series versus Louisiana, Coleman was walked 10 times, eight of them being intentional. Teams have been successfully utilizing a Walk-a-Coleman strategy to keep the Bobcats at bay—and it’s been somewhat successful in neutralizing the offense.
It makes sense why though: the power hitter has been on a war path, batting .421/.588/.860 with an astonishing OPS of 1.418. Coleman has also smacked 15 home runs for the Bobcats, currently tied for most in a regular season for Texas State. To put it bluntly: she is the driving force behind the Bobcat’s offense.
The Bobcats will need to capitalize on every chance possible when the opponent gives Coleman a chance to bat. Even so, they will need their other bats to pick up the slack against a bottom-four pitching staff.
The pitching staff will also have to get things back on track if they want to shut down the Warhawk offense. More recently, they have been showing some cracks, resulting in some losses that very well could’ve been wins. While the Warhawks only scored three combined runs in their two previous games, they will have the advantage of playing this final series at home, where they are undefeated in 22 games played.
This final series will be a heavyweight fight for the ages that will determine the regular season title for the Sun Belt Conference. The final weekend series is set to begin Thursday night at 6 p.m., followed by the same start time on Friday before the regular season finale will open at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The series will be available to stream on ESPN+.
