SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University will be the host of this year's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball Tournament and the Tigers will play in the first game of the weekend on Friday, May 5.

The Tigers closed out the regular season by sweeping a three-game series on the road against Austin College over the weekend. Trinity won 4-2 and 12-3 in Saturday's doubleheader, then took the regular season finale 5-4. It marked the second consecutive SCAC series sweep for Trinity and the team is riding a six-game winning streak heading into this weekend's SCAC Tournament.

Trinity is 13-26 overall and 10-10 in conference play, earning the fifth seed for this weekend's conference championships. Trinity will host the double-elimination SCAC Tournament, which runs from Friday, May 5, through Sunday, May 7. The winner receives the SCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.

Junior Dawson Dabboussi (Dallas, Texas / Highland Park) leads Trinity with a .402 batting average (35-for-87) this season, driving in 16 RBI and scoring 13 runs. She also holds a .432 on-base percentage and second on the team with six doubles this year. First-year Carsyn Lee (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound) is the second-leading hitter for the Tigers, sporting a .340 batting average (34-of-100) to go along with 14 runs scored and 20 RBI. Sophomore Jessie Lloyd (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) is just behind Lee in batting average (.339 and 40-of-118) and tied with her teammate for the team lead with 20 RBI. Lloyd and junior Marina Delaluna (Concord, Calif. / Concord) are leading the way with eight doubles each this season, while Delaluna has a team-best three home runs. Additionally, she is tied with both Lee and Lloyd with 20 RBI, while also leading the team with 24 runs scored. First-year Hayden Del Toro (Cypress, Texas / Cy Woods) is the team's top runner with 15 stolen bases in 18 attempts, along with 16 runs scored. Junior Jordyn Williams (Clayton, Calif. / Valley Charter) has piled up 13 runs scored and 18 RBI, as well as boosting her batting average to just under.300 for the year.

From the circle, first-year Jordan Arce (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Thousand Oaks) has emerged as the team's top pitcher, improving her record to 5-8 this season and dropping her ERA to a team-bests 4.51 over 77.2 innings pitched. She has recorded a team-leading 66 strikeouts and is holding opponents to a .223 batting average. Senior Emery Boettcher (Fredericksburg, Texas / Fredericksburg) has also piled up 24 strikeouts in 66.0 innings this season, making a team-leading 16 starts on the year.

Honors and Awards
After leading the team to a weekend sweep, junior Diamond Elizondo (San Antonio, Texas / Stevens) was named the SCAC Hitter of the Week for the first time in her career. She was on fire at the plate last weekend, hitting .857 (6-for-7) with three runs scored and three RBI over the three wins. Elizondo had two hits in each game, hitting a double, triple, and just her second career home run last weekend. She is hitting .467 (14-of-30) with six runs scored and seven RBI on the year.

NCAA III Rankings & Trinity Record Book
Trinity is ranked eighth nationally with 17 double plays this season, while also ranking in the top 25 in double plays per game. The Tigers are also in the top 50 in sacrifice bunts as a team, while Lloyd is also 17th in NCAA III in sacrifice flies this year. With her 25 games pitched this year, Arce is also in the top 40 in the country in that category.

Del Toro's 15 steals are the 10th-most in school history for a single season and are the most by a Tiger player in 10 years. Arce is also tied for 10th in school history in total appearances by a pitcher in one season, as well as moving into the top 25 in strikeouts.

Already the Trinity career home run leader, Delaluna is also making her way up the list in career RBI. She has moved up to eighth all-time and is just one more RBI from tying for seventh. Lloyd bumped her career batting average to .346, which puts her in the top 15 in school history. Boettcher's next game would be the 50th appearance of her career.

Preview: SCAC Tournament
Texas Lutheran University is the top seed at this weekend's SCAC Tournament, followed closely by the University of St. Thomas as the No. 2 seed. The Bulldogs finished the year with a 19-2 conference record, while the Celts were 17-3 in SCAC play. Southwestern University (13-8 in SCAC) will be third, followed by Centenary College (12-9), Trinity (10-10), and Schreiner (9-12). Both Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas earned byes and will play the final two games on Friday.

This season, Trinity was swept in three games against both Texas Lutheran and Southwestern. The Tigers also lost twice against St. Thomas and had the third game in the series rained out. Trinity lost the opening game of the series against both Centenary and Schreiner, but bounced back with two straight wins in each series to take two-out-of-three for both weekends.

Texas Lutheran has won eight consecutive SCAC Softball Championships since joining the league in 2013-14. The Bulldogs have won 24 of 25 SCAC Tournament games, with Trinity handing them their only loss in the 2016 Championships – also held at Trinity. Southwestern is the last team other than Texas Lutheran to win the SCAC title, and the Pirates were coached that season by Angela Froboese – now the current Head Coach at St. Thomas. She guided her former team to SCAC Championships in 2010 and 2013. Trinity is the only other team in this year's tournament to have won the SCAC Championship. The Tigers won the first four conference titles from 1999-2002, then won three more consecutive championships from 2005-07.

As the only team in this year's tournament to have been a part of each season since softball was adopted as a sport by the SCAC in 1999, Trinity has piled up the most wins with 48 victories. Southwestern has 28 tournament victories since 2009, while Texas Lutheran is next with 24 wins since 2014. Centenary has an even 13-13 tournament record since joining the league, while Schreiner has won eight games in the event. Last year, St. Thomas went 2-2 in its first tournament since starting up the program.

Looking Ahead: NCAA Playoffs
The winner of this weekend's SCAC Tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs, which begin with the NCAA Regionals that are held at 16 sites from Thursday-Saturday, May 18-20. The Super Regionals will take place at eight sites on May 26-27, while the NCAA III Softball World Series will be hosted by East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas, from Thursday, June 1 through Wednesday, June 7.