Canyon, Texas – Missouri Southern State Softball will head down to Texas this weekend to the West Texas A&M Invitational for their second tournament of the season. This contest will be held in Canyon, Texas.
This will be Southern's first appearance in the tournament, and head coach Melissa Chmielewski is more focused on the performance of her own team than the challenge posed by the #4 Lady Buffs of West Texas A&M. "Our biggest philosophy going into this weekend is we are going to worry about ourselves. We're going to make sure we don't beat ourselves." said Chmielewski. Regardless of this philosophy, she is not ignoring the fact that Southern is playing a few schools that boast rather impressive resumes. Her team is ready and excited for the challenge posed by the 2014 Division II national champions #4 West Texas A&M, yet they are not overlooking the first game against the talented Cameron Aggies that had a successful opening weekend boasting a 5-3 record.
Southern hopes to improve after a rocky start last week in Durant, opening 1-5 on the 2017 season. Although such a start is disappointing, coach Chmielewski is optimistic after seeing many bright spots. She commented on the opening weekend games in Durant, "We fought back a lot, which is nice to see. It's growth from where we have been in those later innings." One of the games that did draw into the later innings was versus #12 St. Mary's, lasting until the 9th inning tied at one run apiece. Southern looks to carry over this competitiveness with ranked opponents to Canyon, Texas in their contest against #4 West Texas A&M.
Abi Corbett went 12-21 at bat in Durant, beginning where she left off last season with her average at .571 each day of the tournament. Chmielewski was glad to see her success, stating that it's good to get her speed on the bases. Chmielweski's next step to success was more inclusive, "Now we just need someone else to follow suit and help out with the success. We need everybody up there."
The Missouri Southern Lions' first game will be against the Cameron Aggies Friday February 10 at 12 pm.
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