April 7, 2006
The UT Arlington softball team will try to keep pace with league-leader Texas State as they host Louisiana-Monroe in a Southland Conference three-game series beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. at Allan Saxe Field.
ABOUT ULM
Louisiana-Monroe (20-22, 5-10) enters the series after losing three games to McNeese State in a mid-week series at Lake Charles, La.
Freshman pitcher Sammie Dillard was named the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week for the week of April 3. She threw three complete games, one against North Texas (W, 6-1) and against Northwestern State, winning 8-0 and 3-2. She gave up only one walk an struck out 13.
Offensively, the Indians have been led by catcher Heather Williams and outfielder Lindsay Taylor. Both have started all 41 games this season and are batting .351 and .337, respecitvely. Williams is ranked fifth in the SLC in runs batted in (25) and is 10th in batting average.
Infielder Heather Hanson is tied for fifth with 23 runs scored.
ULM leads the conference in runs scored (171) and is second to Texas-San Antonio in runs batted in (151).
Picked to finish last in the Southland Conference in the preseason polls, ULM opened the season winning its first 10 games, before losing its next eight. Prior to the McNeese State series, ULM won two of three games against Northwestern State in Monroe, La.
SOUTHPAW MOVES UP RECORDS CHART
Senior lefthander Jill Garro (Bulverde, Texas) is ranked among the top 10 in the conference in wins (2nd/12), earned run average (2nd/1.49), innings pitched (5th/127.00), batters struck out (3rd/119), games started (tied for 5th/18) and opposing batting average (6th/.217) after Tuesday's game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Against the Islanders, Garro allowed just four base runners - two singles and two batters hit by a pitch - in a 4-1 victory.
Garro (12-7) tied former standout Katy Cox for fourth place on the career victories list. Garro is now 50-44 in her career at UTA. She is fifth on the career innings pitched list with 617.2. Garro already moved into fifth place on the career strikeout list and has 472 career Ks heading into Saturday's game. She will move into fourth place with 42 strikeouts and third with 55 more.
Garro, was named the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week for the week of March 7 after allowing one earned run in an 11-inning complete game decision and followed with two innings of relief for the win in a doubleheader sweep against McNeese State on March 4.
Garro shut down Loyola Marymount in the Mavs' 10-0 win in the championship game of the Paradise Classic.
NEARING 1,000
UT Arlington is fast approaching 1,000 wins in program history. To date, UTA has 993 all-time victories since 1973.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES'
UTA boasts not one, but two Jones' on the squad. Sophomore Katie Jones (Cedar Hill, Texas) started seven games at the Paradise Classic Tournament in Hawaii in the field and sophomore pitcher Laura Jones (Rogue River, Ore.) went 2-0 opening weekend with two complete-game performances in Hawaii.
Jones (7-2) is third in SLC in ERA at 1.72. She tossed a one-hitter in an 8-0 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tuesday. In her previous start, Jones scattered four hits and struck out a career-high 10 in a 5-1 win at Sam Houston State Saturday. The sophomore posted a near-perfect game in a 3-0 win over Texas Southern on March 14. Jones allowed a two-out single to left field in the top of the seventh inning to break up the gem.
MORE NAME GAMES
UTA has two Andersons on the squad - Courtni and Courtney. It is easy to separate them with Courtney being the Mavs' regular third baseman and Courtni behind the plate at catcher.
AUTUMN SPRINGS INTO ACTION
Senior outfielder Autumn Petrino (Rowlett, Texas) has hit safely in seven of eight games. She is batting .407 (11 of 27) over the last eight games after batting .200 (12 of 60) since Paradise Hawaii Classic.
Petrino hit two doubles and a solo home run in the Mavs' 6-3 win at Sam Houston State on Saturday. Petrino has cored 10 runs over the last six games and has 25 for the season.
She was named the Hawai'i Paradise Classic Tournament MVP after batting .462 with 12 hits and eight RBI. She was also named to the Southland Conference Player of the Week Honor Roll.
Petrino is ranked third on the career RBI list with 97 and she is the all-time leaders with 43 career doubles.
RECORD WATCHING
Autumn Petrino needs four extra-base hits to move into the single-season top five list... Dee Jay Nelson needs one home run to tie Elizabeth Harsma for the single-season record with seven in 1998.
MORE ACCOLADES
Sophomore April Clougherty (Dallas, Texas) joined Petrino on the all-tournament team in Hawaii after batting .350 in eight games.
EXTRA, EXTRA...
UTA mustered just 45 extra-base hits in 2005. After 33 games, the Mavs have 76 extra base hits. UTA averaged fewer than 3.0 runs per game in 2005 and are averaging 4.5 runs per game this season.
UP NEXT
UTA hosts Texas Tech in a Wednesday doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.
QUICK HITS
* Amanda Swofford is tied for team lead in runs scored (20), is tied for the team lead in doubles (10), and leads in walks (14) and sacrifice flies (2). She has hit safely in 16 of 17 games.
* Four players have started every game so far this season - Amanda Swofford, Dee Jay Nelson, Jenna Fortune and Autumn Petrino.
* UTA is ranked second in the Southland Conference in defense with a .963 fielding percentage.
* Katie Jones has a hit in 10 of her last 11 games. She is batting .486 (18 of37) over the past nine games. Her only home run of career was solo home run off Texas' Cat Osterman earlier this year.
* Dee Jay Nelson had a 16-game shitting stopped during Sunday's 4-3 loss at Sam Houston State. Nelson rasied her batting average by more than 60 points during the streak. She is hitting .472 (26 of 55) over the last 19 games.
THIS SERIES
UT Arlington leads the all-time series, 43-42. Head coach Debbie Hedrick has won 16 of 32 games over the Indians.
