PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico softball team will complete the second leg of their home-and-away series with Lubbock Christian tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. MST in Lubbock, Texas.

Tomorrow afternoon will mark the final non-conference games of the season for Eastern New Mexico before finishing out the 2019 regular season with four straight Lone Star Conference series beginning the following weekend at home against arch-rival West Texas A&M. The Hounds fell in both games last Tuesday against Lubbock Christian at the Greyhound Softball Field by final scores of 10-2 and 13-2 to push their overall record for the season to 10-18.

Eastern is 4-6 against non-conference opposition for the year and will be coming off of their scheduled off weekend in conference play on Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Chaps on the other hand continued Heartland Conference play over the weekend with two wins and a loss at home against St. Edward's.

LAST TIME OUT
Eastern New Mexico struggled to find an answer for a balanced Lubbock Christian lineup last Tuesday, surrendering 25 hits over the course of the doubleheader match-up against the Lady Chaps. Freshman Iliana Mendoza went 5-for-6 between the two games and served as one of just two Greyhounds to finish the day with double-digit hits.

Sophomore Jennifer McElroy hit her third homerun of the season in the bottom half of the fourth inning while senior Lauren Likes went 2-for-2 in game number one with two singles. The Hounds are now 0-30 all-time against Lubbock Christian including 12 losses on the Lady Chaps home turf.

FRESHMAN PHENOM
Freshman Iliana Mendoza has continued to produce throughout her 24 appearances so far this season and currently ranks fourth in the LSC with a batting average of .418. The Tuscon, Ariz. product has recorded a hit in 28 of her 67 at bats for the season and has registered 10 RBI's.

Mendoza is currently tied for second on the team with five RBI's and leads the team with 28 hits on the season.

A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS
The Greyhounds will need to have a solid finish to the season in order to qualify for the LSC Postseason Tournament at season's end. Eastern New Mexico currently sits in ninth place in the standings with a record of 6-12 in LSC play, with the top six teams qualifying for the tournament.

The Hounds are five games back of Angelo State, who currently sits in sixth place with a record of 11-10. Two out of the final four regular season series remaining on the Hound's schedule will come against teams with losing records in conference play in MSU Texas and Western New Mexico, but the other two will come against two teams ranked third and fourth in the LSC standings in West Texas A&M and Tarleton State.

HISTORY IS WITH THE HOUNDS
The LSC has simply been brutal this season as far as strength of schedule is concerned as five of the 11 teams currently rank in the top 20 of the Massey Ratings system that compares teams from all across the country. Eastern New Mexico has already faced four out of the top six teams in the conference standings this season and picked up key 3-0 sweeps over Texas Woman's University and UT-Permian Basin earlier this spring.

The Hounds swept both Western New Mexico and MSU Texas last season and will need to find a way to pick up a few wins against two very talented teams in Tarleton State and West Texas A&M as the season begins to wind down to get themselves back in playoff contention. The Hounds have won five out of the last eight meetings against MSU Texas and have won eight straight against Western New Mexico dating back to 2009, setting the stage for at least two more positive series for the Hounds.