Tournament Central
COMMERCE – The ACU Wildcats are back in action this weekend in the Lion Invitational a the John Cain Family Softball Complex on the campus of East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M-Commerce).
ACU (0-5 on the season) will play Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Iowa (twice), Rutgers, and East Texas A&M in the three-day tournament. The Wildcats will play SIU-Edwardsville (12:15 p.m.) and Iowa (4:45 p.m.) on Friday, Ruters (10 a.m.) and Iowa (12:15 p.m.) on Saturday, and East Texas A&M (2:30 p.m.) on Sunday.
All games will be covered via live stats and on ESPN+. Scores and links to live stats and broadcasts can be found
here.
ACU Notes
• The Wildcats dropped all five games last weekend at the Aggie Classic in College Station, although they played their best game in the Sunday finale, falling to seventh-ranked Texas A&M, 1-0.
• ACU was led offensively last weekend by freshman
Taylor Haywood, who hit .417 with three RBI in five games.
• Senior pitcher
Lina Russo had two starts and finished the weekend with a 3.77 ERA in 13.0 innings of work.• ACU hit just .212 as a tam in five games, had a fielding percentage of .910 (12 errors), and an 8.50 ERA.
SIU-Edwardsville Notes
• Senior pitcher Emma Henderson was named the team's Pitcher of the Week for her performance at last weekend's UT-San Antonio Tournament. Henderson threw six innings of shutout softball and hit SIUE's first home run of the season in a Feb. 7 game against UMass-Lowell.
• In the second game on Friday, she got the Cougars started with an infield RBI early in the game and another home run against UTSA. She would take her second win of the season against UMass Lowell after entering the game in the fourth inning Feb. 9, giving up no hits.
• Lauryn Yslava was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week after leading the Cougars to a pair of wins at the UTSA Tournament. Yslava finished the weekend with a .471 batting average, hitting 8 of 17 mainly as the team's leadoff hitter. Five of her eight hits went for extra bases, and she collected four multi-hit games. Yslava belted two home runs in a game against Weber State. For the week, she recorded nine runs scored, three RBIs, one stolen base, and 17 total bases, and an OPS of 1.500.
Iowa Notes
• The Hawkeyes opened the 2025 season at the NFCA Leadoff Classic, where they went 2-3 with wins over Kennesaw State and Marshall. All three of Iowa's losses came to top-25 teams: #5 Tennessee (10-1), #10 Texas Tech (11-0), and #15 Missouri (3-2).
• Iowa was led offensively by senior Tatianna Roman and junior Tory Bennett, who hit .500 and .385, respectively.
• Junior Jalen Adams picked up both wins and had a 0.00 ERA in 14.0 innings pitched. She had a career-high 10 strikeouts against Kennesaw State to open the season.
East Texas A&M Notes
• Head Coach Brittany Miller was a pitcher at the University of Iowa, earning the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year award twice and being named to National Fastpitch Coaches Association Second Team All-America.
• The Lions went 9-45 overall last season and 2-22 in Southland Conference play.
• In the opening weekend, Emma Rodrigues led the Lions hitting .500 with one home run. Kate Houser in the circle had a 2.33 ERA in two starts and picked up 14 strikeouts.
Rutgers Notes
• The Scarlet Knights opened the 2025 campaign last weekend at The Spring Games in Leesburg, Florida. Rutgers opened the season with a 6-2 victory over defending Horizon League Champion Cleveland State before falling 8-1 to MTSU,
• Veterans Jillian Anderson and LA Matthews hit .333 with five hits, including a double on the weekend. Matthews recorded three RBIs while Anderson sent home a pair of Scarlet Knight base runners.
• Redshirt freshman Hailey Stripling made her RU debut and finished the weekend with three RBIs, four runs scored, and a pair of stolen bases. Stripling was responsible for three of RU's six runs in the 6-3 season-opening victory over Cleveland State.
• Inside the circle, freshman Ella Harrison made three appearances with 14.2 innings pitched with 15 strikeouts, including 10 in her Scarlet Knight debut against MTSU. Her double-digit strikeouts marked the most by a rookie hurler since Jaden Vickers in 2020.
