EUNICE, La. – The countdown to first pitch at LSUE's Lady Bengal Field is in its final hours as No. 2 Jones begins NJCAA Region 23 Tournament play with sights set on Oxford, Alabama.
The Bobcats arrived in Scott, La., early Wednesday afternoon as they get set to play Northwest Mississippi on Thursday.
Jones is carrying momentum into regionals weekend. The Bobcats have won 17 straight games and captured their seventh MACCC Tournament Championship in nine seasons last week in Fulton.
"We're excited to compete this week with a shot at the World Series on the line," 12th-year head coach
Chris Robinson said. "All six teams in this regional can easily qualify. It's last week's tournament, with the addition of another Top 20 program in LSU Eunice."
Jones swept the season series over the Rangers in Ellisville, 8-7 (8) and 7-0.
Nia Luckett's solo home run helped JC walk-off Northwest in the opening game in extras and
Sterling James tossed a complete-game four-hit shutout in the finale.
Jones has won the last 14 games over the Rangers dating back to 2012.
A good portion of the team's success in the circle has come from Luckett the last month, but Jones will need everyone to be big parts of this weekend's run.
James (13-1, 4 SV, 1.68) and USM transfer
Breley Boykin (13-2, 3.49) have been huge in the Bobcats' success all season long. James is 18-1 for her JC career and can be used in a starter or reliever role and Boykin has been a constant competitor in the circle all year leading the team in innings pitched (96.1) and strikeouts (128).
Luckett (13-4, 1.98 ERA) burst onto the scene April 18 against East Mississippi and has been lights out since then. The freshman hurler and back-to-back NJCAA Division II Pitcher of the Week has won her last nine starts, allowing just five earned runs with 76 strikeouts.
Jones leads the NJCAA with 16 shutouts and opponents are hitting .223 against them, third best in the NJCAA.
The Bobcats continue to pound the softball at the plate and rank in the Top 15 in nine different statistical categories, including home runs (87, sixth), triples (20, seventh) and slugging percentage (.677, eighth).
Jones, which hits .371 as a team, has pop 1-through-9 in the lineup, with five different Bobcats slugging 10 or more home runs.
With three home runs in Fulton last week from
Lauren Pope,
Tia'Rain Saunders and Cole, Jones broke the school record set in 2017.
Lauren Lindsey is hitting .451 with 19 homers, 15 doubles and 62 RBIs.
Tyesha Cole follows Lindsey with a .434 average, 11 home runs, 14 doubles and seven triples.
Meagan Wynne (.405) and
Kristian Edwards (.404) round out the top four averages on the team.
Only one team in NJCAA Division II has stolen more bases than Jones, and that team has played 14 more games. The Bobcats have stolen 172-of-182 bags, led by Cole and Edwards with 31 apiece.
Unfortunately, we will not be allowed to stream any games during the region tournament on JCJC-TV. Each college will front the cost for the games to be streamed instead of fans being charged $4.99 to watch each game.
Thursday's game, and all games during the tournament, will be streaming live through LSUE's YouTube channel. Direct links can be found on our schedule page.
