MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama softball opens its Sun Belt Conference account this weekend when it travels to No. 5 Louisiana-Lafayette for a three-game set scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
 
Fans are encouraged to stay abreast of any scheduling changes caused by weather over the weekend.
 
Links to live stats, audio and video, as well ticket information can be found by accessing the Jaguar softball schedule page. In-game Twitter updates are provided for each USA contest via the program's official handle, @USAJagsSoftball.
 
USA (10-8) went 2-2 at the 2016 Aquafina Invitational in Gainesville last weekend with wins over Florida A&M and Illinois State and losses to No. 1 Florida and Florida International to conclude the non-conference portion of its schedule.
 
South Alabama opened the event with a 7-3 victory over FAMU, powered by a five-run third inning. The Jaguars tagged Rattler starter Veronica Burse for six runs on nine hits, before staving off a quality relief appearance from Tahli Snider.
 
USA manufactured three runs over the final two innings to answer a three-run Redbird fourth inning for the come-from-behind win before being shut out by the top-ranked Gators, 9-0.
 
Costly errors spelled defeat for USA in the club's final contest versus FIU on Sunday. The Jags leapt to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame before the Panthers scored three unanswered runs (all unearned), including Dominique Grossman's seventh-inning sacrifice fly, which gave FIU the lead.
 
USA batted .272 over the weekend, led by senior third baseman Emily Messer, who went 8-for-13 (.615) with a team-high four runs scored and three stolen bases. Stephanie Pilkington, Kristian Foster and Alex Breeden recorded three RBI apiece at the event.
 
Devin Brown set a new career high in strikeouts with 17 versus FAMU, marking the second-most strikeouts ever recorded in a game in Jaguar history. Brown finished 1-1 on the weekend with 26 strikeouts in 16 innings pitched with a save. Destin Vicknair was also 1-1, fanning 13 batters in 12 innings of work.
 
Louisiana-Lafayette enters the weekend with a 17-1 record, the only blemish being a 6-3 home loss to Oregon, ranked fifth in the polls at the time, on Feb. 19. ULL is 9-1 at Lamson Park this year. The Ragin' Cajuns have outscored opponents, 170-29, and outhit them, 174-84. ULL is batting at a .377 clip.
 
Lexie Elkins leads ULL at the plate with a .551 batting average, 27 hits, 24 runs scored, 14 home runs and 31 RBI. She is slugging well over one-thousand and boasts a .652 on-base percentage.
 
Alex Stewart is 8-0 in the circle with a 1.94 ERA, while Kylee Jo Trahan is 6-1 with a team-low 1.91. The ULL pitching staff is holding opponents to a .213 batting average.
 
The previous matchup between the clubs came on May 9, 2015, when USA defeated the Ragin' Cajuns, 2-0, to claim a third SBC Tournament title over the last four years.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).