SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University Softball continues its six-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference road stretch with a three-game visit to Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas March 24-25.
 
The Tigers (2-17) dropped last weekend's SCAC-opening visit to Southwestern University despite holding 2-0 leads in both sides of Saturday's doubleheader, including a walk-off for the Pirates (10-12) in the opening game. Trinity has come within two runs of victory eight times in 2023, three times against teams ranked nationally by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association either currently or at the time of competition.
 
Sophomore Jessie Lloyd (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) continues to lead the Trinity bats with a .316 batting average, 18 hits and four doubles, taking on the team's lead-off role as of late. First-year Carsyn Lee (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) provides support in the area as Trinity's RBI leader (eight) along with a team-high seven walks.
 
Relief pitching in last weekend's SCAC trip kept the Tigers within reach as sophomore Lanie Smith (Foxfield, Colo. / Regis Jesuit), first-year Jordan Arce (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Thousand Oaks) and junior Brooke Porter (Carmel, Ind. / Heritage Christian) combined for 7.2 innings without an earned run between them over five hits to six strikeouts.
 
Trinity Softball returns to San Antonio Tuesday, March 28 to open a six-game homestand that features its final two non-conference matchups—Wellesley College (MA) and DePauw University (IN)—along with the SCAC home-opener April 1-2 against Centenary College.
 
Preview: Schreiner
The Mountaineers (6-12; 0-3 SCAC) enter the weekend nearly two weeks removed from their previous competition: their SCAC-opening series at No. 4 Texas Lutheran University March 11-12, a series in which the nationally prominent Bulldogs required just 17 innings for a series sweep.
 
The Schreiner offense is led by outfielder Danielle Pedraza, ranked third in the SCAC with 17 RBI this season to go with a .353 batting average over 51 at-bats. Pedraza was named 2023's first conference Hitter of the Week after a four-for-seven in a doubleheader split against NAIA Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
 
The primary starter in the circle for the Mountaineers, first-year Kylynne Kusak, completed the first week sweep of SCAC weekly honors for Schreiner pinned down the Jaguars for a complete-game victory in her first collegiate start. Kusak ranks 17^th among qualifying pitchers in the SCAC with a 5.66 earned-run average this season and has allowed more home runs than any other arm in the conference (six).
 
Looking Ahead…
Trinity Softball's 2023 non-conference schedule concludes next week between Tuesday's doubleheader against Wellesley and the Thursday one-off with DePauw.
 
The Tigers host their first SCAC contests April 1-2 against Centenary, then host the fourth-ranked Bulldogs (April 14-15) and University of Dallas (April 21-22) on back-to-back weekends after a road weekend to University of St. Thomas (April 7-8).