After a memorable men’s basketball tournament match-up, Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern will take center stage once again this weekend in a softball showdown featuring a pair of undefeated teams in Houston on Friday.
The winner of this weekend’s series will have the upper hand in the race for the SWAC West title as Texas Southern head coach Worley Barker has dominated the division with nine consecutive SWAC West titles since 2010 along with three SWAC Tournament Championships during that span. TSU once again is off to another solid start with a 6-0 mark in SWAC play as they swept Mississippi Valley State and Alabama A&M.
Prairie View A&M, the 2018 SWAC Tournament Champions, has quietly flown under the radar this season under head coach Vernon Bland. The Lady Panthers have picked up where they left off last season with an impressive 11-game winning streak which featured wins over Texas-San Antonio, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Wichita State, Tennessee State, and Delaware State. PVAMU is 6-0 in SWAC play and has outscored its league opponents by a 49-13 margin.
Texas Southern has dominated the Lady Panthers with a 24-6 mark since 2011. However, Prairie View A&M finally got over the TSU hump last season as they captured its first regular season series over the Lady Tigers since 2008. Prairie View A&M added an exclamation mark over TSU last season as they sent TSU home in the semifinals of the 2018 SWAC Tournament.
Prairie View A&M freshman Diavionne Dewalt is the team’s top batter with a .410 average while senior Destinee Williams leads the team and ranks second in the SWAC with 32 hits. TSU’s Marissa Padron is batting .393 and ranks second in the SWAC with seven doubles. On the mound, both teams feature string pitchers as Crystal Castillo leads PVAMU with a 2.13 ERA and 56 strikeouts. TSU is led by Naomi Reyes’ 2.46 ERA and 32 strikeouts.
The series kicks off at Memorial Park Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. with a doubleheader scheduled for 12 p.m. on Saturday.
