April 5, 2012
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RUSTON - Louisiana Tech will host the defending Western Athletic Conference champion New Mexico State Aggies this weekend in an important three-game series at the Lady Techster Softball Complex.
The series begins Friday with a single game at 6 p.m. followed by Saturday's doubleheader which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Tech (15-19, 2-3 WAC) dropped two games at San Jose State last weekend before having the third one cancelled due to rain. New Mexico State (18-19, 0-6 WAC) has gotten off to a slow start in league play after being swept by BYU and Hawaii.
The Aggies, who have lost 17 of their last 25 games after opening the season 10-2, are trying to overcome the injury bug after losing both their starting shortstop Kristi Covarrubia and starting second baseman Tehani Kaaihue to season-ending knee injuries in the last two weeks.
New Mexico State, which won 40-plus games on its way to the program's first ever NCAA Tournament last year, leads the all-time series against LA Tech 15-10, including a three-game sweep of the Lady Techsters in Las Cruces last season.
Amber Olive (.387, 8 RBI, 7 SB), Tiare Jennings (.363, 6 HR, 29 RBI), Valerie Swedberg (.315, 7 HR, 25 RBI) and Kelsey Dodd (.281, 5 HR, 20 RBI) lead an Aggies offense that is batting .287 as a team with 33 home runs and 29 stolen bases.
In the circle, Karysta Donisthorpe (5-6, 4.13 ERA) and Alex Newman (9-10, 4.34 ERA) have logged the majority of innings for New Mexico State this season.
Tech (15-19) is coming off a pair of league losses at San Jose State this past weekend. The Lady Techsters continue to rely on the bats of Melanie Goff (.386, 10 RBI), Janna Frandrup (.368, 1 HR, 22 RBI), Erin Kipp (.347, 2 HR, 14 RBI) and Amanda Krueger (.263, 12 RBI, 29 runs).
Michelle Jones (9-9, 2.62 ERA), Erin Kipp (5-4, 5.55 ERA) or Melanie Goff (0-3, 6.34 ERA) have logged the majority of innings for Tech this season.
Tech fans can follow all of the action this weekend on Gametracker at www.latechsports.com or through Twitter updates by following @LATechMButler. Fans can also watch a live video/audio stream of the games by purchasing a subscription to LA Tech All-Access at www.latechsports.com.
