The Angelina College Lady Roadrunners have gone 5-1 to open the 2019 season. They still have yet to play a single game at home.
That situation will change on Friday when the Lady ‘Runners host their home opener in a doubleheader against San Jacinto College. AC has played in a pair of road tournaments, including last weekend’s jaunt to the Permian Basin Invitational. There, the Lady Roadrunners dropped a 4-3 decision to Odessa on the first day but bounced back to take a 7-6 win over Lamar Community College and a 9-3 win over Snow College the next day.
Head coach Mark Mattson said he saw plenty of what he wanted to see in his team’s performances.
“Our kids showed tremendous fight,” Mattson said. “We had to deal with a lot of things outside the game. The weather was unbelievably cold, and that made it tough to grip the ball and bat. We’ve had some players dealing with illness as well.
“We did a good job. We’re still in the early phases of the season, and we’re still adjusting to seeing players in different spots to see how they perform. We’re looking at our pitching, piecing things together to see who follows whom well. The tournament helped us quite a bit.”
The first home stand will have a slight wrinkle: AC will play a very familiar San Jacinto College team on Friday in Lufkin – and then head to Houston on Saturday to face the very same Lady Coyotes on their home field.
Those four games will carry a conference-game level of intensity, and Mattson said he’s hoping the four combined games will offer a little of everything.
“The players on both teams will be ready to battle,” Mattson said. “Their coach (Kelly Saenz) and I both love to win, and she’ll have her team ready to go. There should be some exciting games.
“I hope we see some good, tough games, some situations where we really have to battle. We want to see a bunch of different scenarios to give us an idea of how we’ll cover those situations as the season goes along.”
Friday’s doubleheader is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start at the Larry Phillips Family Sports Complex on the Angelina College campus.
The email address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
