SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State softball team plays their final three games inside Mayer Field this season, taking on rivals Lubbock Christian this Saturday and Sunday. The series begins with a 4 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday before closing with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Rambelles will honor their four seniors –
Ashlyn Lerma,
Paxton Scheurer,
Bailey Martinez, and
Maleya Burns – before the series finale on Sunday, as the quartet will play their final game at Mayer Field.
The Rambelles enter the weekend with a 28-19 record and a 20-16 record in conference play; they currently occupy the seventh spot in the LSC standings. They are coming off their final midweek series of the season against Texas A&M International, which saw them take two out of three games from the Dustdevils in Laredo.
The Rambelles are hitting .287 as a team and score 4.9 runs per game; they have hit 51 home runs and stolen 121 bases.
The Rambelle pitchers have a 2.87 ERA and have held opponents to a .233 average this season;
Cheyenne Floyd leads the team with 99 strikeouts and a 2.05 ERA while holding opponents to a 2.03 batting average.
Lerma, the Rambelles' leadoff hitter, has played in 218 games for the Rambelles in her five seasons in San Angelo, the tenth-most games played in program history. The second baseman has scored 184 runs and has a .351 career batting average. She has 145 career stolen bases, second-most in program history, and has 57 stolen bases this season, just two swipes shy of a new program record.
Lerma is a two-time all-LSC First Team selection as well as a two-time LSC Gold Glove winner; she is also a two-time all-region honoree and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American a season ago.
Scheurer, a native of Mansfield, turned in one of the greatest seasons in program history in 2021, hitting 23 home runs while driving in 72 runs en route to being named a consensus All-American; Scheurer was named the LSC Player and Academic Player of the Year, the first player to do so since the LSC switched to a one-division format, and was a CoSIDA Academic All-American as well as being named the LSC Fred Jacoby Academic Athlete of the Year.
In an ASU uniform, Scheurer has played in 159 games, hitting .343 with a .699 slugging percentage, the best in program history. She has 43 home runs, third-most in ASU history, and has driven in 147 runs.
Burns, a fifth-year senior from Brush Prairie, Washington, has played in 169 games, hitting .243 and slugging .442. She has tallied 82 hits, with 38 of those going for extra bases, and has driven in 63 runs. This season is one of her best, as she is hitting .264 with 24 hits, her most in a season, and has stolen ten bases.
Martinez, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, came to the Rambelles in 2021 from Howard College. In her three seasons in the Blue and Gold, Martinez has played 103 games, hitting .316. She has a .421 on-base percentage, recording 81 hits, with 21 of those being doubles. Across her career, Martinez has appeared in the lineup behind the plate, at first base, in the outfield, and as the designated player.
This season, she is hitting .370, second-best on the team, with 13 of her 44 hits going for extra bases; earlier this season, she carried a ten-game hitting streak. Since taking over as the Rambelles' first baseman, she has hit .422, the best mark on the team.
SCOUTING THE LADY CHAPS
Lubbock Christian, the tenth-ranked team in the country in the latest NFCA Division II poll, is 34-10 on the season and 24-9 in conference play; they are coming off a series win over Cameron and are 10-5 on the road this season.
The Lady Chaps are hitting .327 as a team and slugging .527; they have seven players hitting over .300 this season. Kasey Flores paces the Lady Chaps offense with a .390 average, and 17 home runs and 55 RBIs this season.
The Lady Chap pitchers have a 1.68 ERA with 286 strikeouts in 279 innings; they hold opponents to a .171 batting average.
An All-American a season ago, Taylor Franco has a 1.35 ERA with a 13-7 record; she has struck out 143 batters in 145 innings. Fellow pitcher Maxine Valdez has a 1.51 ERA and holds opponents to a .150 batting average.
The Rambelles are 9-3 against the Lady Chaps all-time; last season, the Lady Chaps took two out of three from the Rambelles, including a 13-inning thriller in last season's South Central Regional.
