March 20, 2008
ARLINGTON - Fresh off a three-game Southland Conference sweep of Northwestern State last weekend the UT Arlington softball team will look to move up in the league standings as it hosts Stephen F. Austin in three games this weekend. The series is scheduled to begin Friday with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. and conclude with a single game Saturday, slated for a 1 p.m. start.
UTA currently sits at fifth in the SLC standings with a 7-5 record in league play. Sophomore pitcher Cara Hulme continued her dominance in the circle and was named SLC Pitcher of the Week for the second consecutive week after recording her third and fourth consecutive games without giving up a run, as she finished the week with a 2-0 record and 0.00 ERA. She held the Lady Demons to a .212 batting average allowing just seven hits in 9.2 innings of work while tallying 15 strikeouts and walking only three.
On the season, Hulme is 5-2 with a SLC best 1.13 ERA and she also leads the Mavs offensively with a .444 batting average.
Brittany Washington joined Hulme in the league weekly honors as the Hitter of the week with a .857 average for the weekend. She racked up three home runs in the double header to drive her season total to a team leading seven. In each game of last weekend's games against the Lady Demons, she scored a pair of runs and tallied seven RBI on the week. Washington is hitting .358 on the season, ranking 11th in the SLC.
The Ladyjacks come into the series second in the SLC standings with a 7-2 league mark. SFA is fresh off a three-game home sweep over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that made the Ladyjacks (20-12) the first team in the SLC to post 20 wins this season and has won five straight league games overall.
The Ladyjacks have won with a balanced effort as well. They are ranked second in the conference in both team batting average (.279) and team earned run average (2.21). UTA is the only other league school to rank in the top three in both statistical categories, with a .275 batting average and 1.88 team ERA.
