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ULM Softball Travels to Baton Rouge for Clash Against LSU

ULM Softball Travels to Baton Rouge for Clash Against LSU

Softball Mar 30
MONROE, La. – The ULM softball team makes its seventh trip in the last 15 years to LSU on Tuesday, March 30 when the Warhawks square off against their in-state rival in a 6 p.m. contest at Tiger Park.
 
The Warhawks have competed against LSU on nine occasions since joining the Sun Belt Conference, with the Tigers winning all nine contests.
 
LSU (18-11) enters the game with a 12-5 mark at home after winning two of three in a series against Texas A&M on March 20-22. The Tigers enter the week on a three-game losing streak after suffering a sweep at the hands of No. 5 Florida by scores of 5-0, 7-4 and 9-3. LSU has played 16 games against Top 25 opponents this season.
 
Aliyah Andrews tops the LSU lineup with a .340 batting average, leading the Tigers in hits (32) and runs scored (25). She is one of three Tiger sluggers with a .300 batting average, including Taylor Pleasants and Danieca Coffey. The top pitcher on staff is Ali Kilponen, who is 5-4 on the season with a 1.88 ERA and 52 strikeouts. Kilponen is boasting the second-lowest ERA on the staff, behind teammate Morgan Smith's 1.62, and has three more Ks than Shelbi Sunseri and 18 more than teammate Shelby Wickersham.
 
ULM (10-13) has faced 10 Southeastern Conference teams since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2006.
The Warhawks' most recent victory against an SEC school came in 2015 when they downed Ole Miss by a 9-1 margin that was completed in five innings.
 
ULM, which has posted a 7-3 record in its last 10 games, is led individually by Korie Kreps, who ranks ninth in the Sun Belt Conference in batting average at .379. Kreps is responsible for the second-best on-base percentage in the league (.512), trailing Texas State's Sarah Vanderford (.513), and is second in walks (17), six off the pace established by Appalachian State's Baylee Morton (23).
 
Kreps ranks in the Top 2 of 11 statistical categories for Warhawk hitters including on-base plus slugging percentage (first at 1.194), hits (first with 25), slugging percentage (first at .682), on-base percentage (first at .512), total bases (first with 45), doubles (first with 9), home runs (tied for first with 3), walks (first with 17), batting average (first at .379), triples (tied for second with 1) and runs (second with 15).
 
Teammate Kennedy Johnson has had the hot bat for the Warhawks recently, putting together a six-game hitting streak which is her second longest of the season. Johnson is the lone ULM hitter with two hitting streaks of at least six games in 2021, with her longest lasting seven games. Johnson's current streak began with a 1-for-3 outing against Coastal Carolina in the first game of the doubleheader on March 13. She followed that by going 1-for-2 versus Chanticleer pitching in the second game and wrapped up the series with a 1-for-3 outing against Coastal Carolina in the final game of the series.
 
ULM has two pitchers – Adriana Chavarria and Gianna Hulett – with at least 20 strikeouts this season and teammate Kelsey Giddens needs just two Ks to become the third. Chavarria surpassed Hulett for the team lead in strikeouts after fanning eight Southeastern Louisiana hitters in her last outing on March 24. Those eight Ks are tied for the single-game high by any Warhawk pitcher, a mark established by Amber Coons when she struck out eight of 15 Grambling State hitters on March 10.
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