PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico softball team will take on #18 Texas A&M-Commerce in a three-game series this weekend looking to add to their six game win streak.

That six game win streak is the longest for the program since the 2007 season and has made for the best start to Lone Star Conference play since beginning the conference schedule 8-4 during the 2006 campaign. Eastern New Mexico and Texas A&M-Commerce are currently tied for third place in the Lone Star Conference Standings with records of 6-3 in league play while the Lions are coming off of a 3-0 series defeat on the road against Texas A&M-Kingsville last weekend.

The Hounds currently rank number one in the Lone Star Conference in team batting average with a team average of .348 while the Lions enter the weekend ranked second in the league with a team ERA of 2.55. The weekend's series will pit the league's top hitter by average in Eastern's Iliana Mendoza, who sports an average of .511, against the league's best pitcher by ERA in Texas A&M-Commerce's Emily Otto, who has recorded an ERA of 1.29 so far this season.

LAST WEEKEND
The Eastern New Mexico pitching staff headlined the second straight series sweep in favor of the Greyhounds last weekend, surrendering just four earned runs throughout all three games against UT-Permian Basin. Senior Kimberly Herron picked up her third and fourth wins in as many starts on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, pitching 15.0 innings and giving up just four earned runs to give the Hound offense ample opportunity to get runs on the board.

The Hounds won game one and game two in walk-off fashion by final scores of 5-4 and 4-3, and then left no doubt in the series finale with a 7-0 win thanks to a complete game shutout from starting pitcher Hanna Gary. Gary went all seven innings and surrendered just four hits while junior Samantha Brockman captained a Hound offense that finally drove runners in at an efficient rate with three RBI's for the game.

Sophomore Kayla Marshall did her part as the lead-off batter all weekend, going 6-for-11 at the plate and scoring three runs while Mendoza continued to produce in the heart of the order with an average of .500 for the weekend and three runs scored herself. Brockman and shortstop Elysa Rodriguez each homered in the series while Brockman totaled a team high five RBI's for the three contests.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
Texas A&M-Commerce enters the series reeling after the aforementioned series sweep at the hands of Texas A&M-Kingsville and fell all the way from no. 2 in the NFCA Division II National Poll to no. 18 this week. The Lions started off the season going 5-1 at the Arkansas Tech Tournament and then picked up two wins at the St. Mary's College Classic, a tournament in which the Greyhounds also competed in earlier this season.

The Lions swept both MSU Texas and UT-Permian Basin before suffering the 3-0 series defeat at the hands of Texas A&M-Kingsville to fall back into a tie for third with Eastern New Mexico in the conference standings. Sophomore Emily Otto enters the weekend with the previously mentioned ERA of 1.29 and a record a 10-3 on the year while senior Katie Dean has spotted Otto in the circle and currently has a season record of 6-1 to form one of the league's top pitching duos.

Senior Bri Sims currently ranks second in the LSC with 29 RBI's on the year and is one of four prominent starters with a batting average of .300 or higher. The Lion offense was held in check all series against Texas A&M-Kingsville, totaling five or less hits in all three games.

HISTORY WITH THE LIONS
The first game in this weekend's series will be the 15^th meeting all time between the two programs, a series in which the Lions hold a firm advantage at 11-3. Two out of the three Hound victories in the series have come on the road, the most recent of which came on Mar. 31, 2007 by a 5-4 final.

Eastern dropped all three games in last year's series, surrendering 10 or more runs in all three games along the way. Texas A&M-Commerce has come away victorious in each of the last five meetings between the teams.

HERRON DOING IT THE HARD WAY
Senior Kimberly Herron currently ranks seventh in the Lone Star Conference with six wins on the season and has found a way to get out of innings despite recording just 13 strikeouts in 58.2 innings of work. Herron has relied on a rock-solid defense behind her as well as getting timely outs to keep the opposition off of the board.

The Shawnee, Okla. native is allowing a batting average of just .250 for opposing hitters with runners on base, and has been even better when teams advance those runners into scoring position, conceding an average of just .212 on the year. For comparison sake, batters are hitting .446 against Herron when the bases are empty, but have recorded just 17 hits in 98 at bats when runners are on base with two outs, painting a picture that despite allowing ample amount of base runners, Herron has risen to the occasion time and time again to work herself out of jams.

PLATE WARRIORS
With the sheer amount of offensive talent littered across all rosters in the Lone Star Conference, the fact that the Eastern New Mexico softball team has cemented themselves as the top offensive unit by batting average has been no easy feat. The Hounds have recorded 10 or more hits 10 different times this season and will enter this weekend with a streak of eight consecutive games with at least one double as a team.

Eight prominent starters for the Greyhound offense have batting averages that are over .300 for the season and four different Hounds have recorded 10 or more RBI's. The production at the plate has been especially impressive seeing as how the Hounds have hit just nine homeruns on the year, which ranks ninth in the league. Head coach Kira Zeiter has made immediate impact on the fundamentals of the Greyhounds, which has in turn allowed them to stay consistent at the plate and produce hits even when behind in the count.

MENDOZA IS STILL MONEY
Freshman Iliana Mendoza has exploded onto the scene this year for the Greyhounds and enters the weekend riding a 13 game hitting streak, matching Cameron Conrad's 13-game streak back in the 2017 season for the longest streak in the last 10 years of the program. A hit in the first game of the series against Commerce would give her the longest hit streak since the 2006 season during which time Kristina Goodman hit in 23 consecutive games for the Greyhounds.

JUMPING ON THEM EARLY
A big formula for the recent success of the Greyhounds has been their ability to score runs and put pressure on the starting pitchers early on in games. The Hounds are hitting .373 and .380 as a team in the first two innings of the game this season and have totaled 34 of their 103 runs scored on the year in either the first or second innings.

Sophomore Jennifer McElroy has been particularly potent in the first two frames, recording batting averages of .600 and .857 in the first two innings throughout the season. For comparison sake, the only inning that the Hounds aren't hitting above .300 as a team has been the fifth inning, a frame in which the club sports an average of just .274.