COMMERCE – The East Texas A&M University softball team returns to action on Saturday, after a week of game cancelations due to inclement weather, hosting the Lion Classic Saturday through Monday at the John Cain Family Softball Complex.
LIONS' WEEKEND SCHEDULE
LION CLASSIC
The Lions welcome three teams to Commerce this weekend with South Dakota, Prairie View A&M, North Dakota playing at John Cain Family Softball Complex. The full schedule for the Lion Classic can be found
HERE.
THE 'ET' ERA BEGINS
February 7 marked the first games for the Lions since the university's name change to East Texas A&M. Two of the Lions' three primary uniforms this season will feature the words East Texas A&M across their chests.
RODRIGUES REMAINS ON FIRE
After batting .500 on opening weekend,
Emma Rodrigues (Little Elm - John Paul II) continued to remain on fire at the plate for the Lions, hitting another home run last week. She is the team leader with a batting .400 and is the team leader in runs scored, hits, triples, home runs, and RBIs.
HOUSER TOSSES ONE-HITTER AGAINST COYOTES
After allowing a hit to the leadoff batter,
Kate Houser (Lorena) tossed a one-hit shutout in her first career start as a Lion to give East Texas A&M a 2-0 win over South Dakota, which was its first win of the season. Houser struck out five in the game and picked up 14 strikeouts in four appearances last season.
STAYING HOME TO BEGIN 2025
The Lions play the first 15 games of the season at home, which includes hosting three tournaments. East Texas A&M's first games away from home are against Prairie View A&M and UT Arlington in Arlington next Friday. The Lions' 15 straight home games to start the season are the second most in NCAA Division I behind Grand Canyon.
LOADED DECK IN 2025
This season, the Lions are slated to play three teams that played in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, including four-time defending national champion Oklahoma as well as Southeastern and Grand Canyon. The Lions also have six games against Power Four conference opponents, though four of them are at home. East Texas A&M faced Iowa and Rutgers twice at home last week, challenges Kansas on March 1 and the Sooners on March 19.
MEEP MEEP
The Lions recorded 76 stolen bases last season, which was 44th in NCAA Division I, while also being the tops among all schools that are currently reclassifying to Division I. This season, the Lions are 11 for 14 in stolen base attempts with the 11 stolen bases being top 125 in the country.
A RARE DOUBLE NO-HITTER
A rarity happened in Denton between East Texas A&M and Missouri last seaosn. Both the Lions'
Julia Sanchez (The Kinkaid School) and the Tigers' Cierra Harrison tossed complete games and neither allowed a hit in the game. Missouri took a 1-0 win thanks to a walk, two steals, and a sacrifice fly in the first inning. It was the only double no-hitter in college softball.
WELCOME NEWCOMERS
This season, the Lions have 10 newcomers on the 23-player roster. Of the 10 newcomers, three are freshmen in
Aaliyah Wilcox (Covington, Ga.),
Victoria Masters (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), and
Tori Tiumalu (Indio, Calif.), while the transfers for the Lions are
Avery Rohlman (Littleton, Colo.) from Midwestern State, Neveah Terrell (Pennsauken, N.J.) from Maryland-Eastern Shore,
Lexi Gamez (Anaheim, Calif.) from Orange Coast College,
Emma Rodrigues (Little Elm - John Paul II) from Grayson College,
J'Lailah Dotson (Hitchcock) from Alvin Community College,
Hailey Montemayor (Lubbock - Monterrey) from Frank Phillips College, and
Maddie Cason (Honey Grove) from Howard Payne. All 10 newcomers made their Lion debuts during opening weekend.
PRESEASON POLL
In the preseason poll released by the Southland Conference, the Lions were picked 10th, after finishing ninth each of the last two seasons. The SLC features 10 teams in softball this season with the addition of SFA. The top-eight teams following the regular season will qualify for the SLC Tournament.
2025 SOUTHLAND SOFTBALL PRESEASON POLL
| No. |
Team (First-Place) |
Points |
| 1 |
Southeastern (9) |
152 |
| 2 |
McNeese (9) |
151 |
| 3 |
UIW (2) |
130 |
| 4 |
Nicholls |
106 |
| 5 |
Lamar |
95 |
| 6 |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
70 |
| 7 |
HCU |
68 |
| 8 |
SFA |
62 |
| 9 |
Northwestern State |
46 |
| 10 |
EAST TEXAS A&M |
20 |
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Lions' first two games of the weekend comes against North Dakota State. NDSU is 4-6 this season, having picked up wins FIU, Charleston, and two against Fordham. Jasmyn Yessian is batting .292 to lead qualifying hitters, though Savannah Henzler is batting .462 with one home run and three RBIs in 13 at-bats. Piper Reed is the team's ERA leader at 2.38 in five appearances. Addie Bowers has started four of the 10's team games and is pitching to an ERA of 5.50 in 14 innings pitched. This weekend is the first time the Lions and the Bison are meeting on the softball diamond.
The other opponent the Lions face this weekend is South Dakota, who they have already played twice this season and play three additional times this weekend. The two teams went 1-1 against each other during the East Texas A&M Leadoff. The Coyotes are 5-4 on the season, having recorded wins over Mississippi Valley State and UTSA last week. Tatum Villota is batting .519, while Autumn Iversen has recorded 10 of the team's 40 RBIs. Clara Edwards is pitching to an ERA of 3.86 in 32.2 innings, having recorded 22 strikeouts and a 3-2 record and McKenna Young has thrown 11.2 shutout innings with 14 strikeouts and is a perfect 2-0.
-ETAMU-
