McNeese softball will host Stephen F. Austin in its last home Southland Conference series of the season, beginning with a game at 6 p.m. on Friday, Apr. 16 and concluding with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday. All three games are scheduled to stream on ESPN+.
The weekend holds special significance as seven senior players—Jada Muñoz, Rylee Eyster, Maddie Weeks, Lindsay Davis, Ryann Schexnayder, Delaney Dunham, and Rylee Cloud—and two managers, Grace Janik and Blake Simon, will be recognized in postgame ceremonies following Saturday’s doubleheader.
McNeese enters the series with a record of 28-18 overall and is tied for fourth place in the conference standings alongside Lamar and Northwestern State. The Cowgirls are coming off a midweek series win over Houston Christian. Their opponent, Stephen F. Austin (26-21), sits seventh in the league after losing their most recent home series against Southeastern but managed to hand the Lions their first conference loss of the season with a narrow 4-3 victory.
Key contributors for McNeese include Nyjah Fontenot leading with a .371 batting average and 46 hits; Rylee Cloud following closely with a .326 average and ten doubles; Alexis Dibbley also leads with fourteen doubles this season. Maddie Taylor has made significant impact both offensively—with nine homeruns and forty RBIs—and as a pitcher where she holds nine wins and an ERA of 4.15 across seventy-seven innings pitched.
Brookelyn Taylor leads McNeese’s pitching staff with ten wins and five complete games while maintaining an ERA of 3.23 through nearly ninety-eight innings pitched this year.
