RICHARDSON, Texas (Jan. 19, 2022) – Coming off a softball season in which Oklahoma Christian posted its best record in program history (39-9) and earned the No. 1 seed in the South Central Regional, the Eagles were picked fourth in the Lone Star Conference's preseason poll for 2022, released Wednesday.
The poll, in which 43 coaches, athletic communications professionals and media members voted, had the 2021 regular-season LSC champion, Texas-Tyler, first with 22 first-place votes and 654 points. The defending NCAA Division II champion, West Texas A&M, was second with 16 first-place votes and 629 points, followed by Angelo State (Texas) with one first-place vote and 571 points.
OC, the 2021 LSC regular-season runner-up, received three first-place votes and 565 points. The Eagles went 6-2 last season against the three teams picked ahead of them, sweeping regular-season doubleheaders from Texas-Tyler, West Texas A&M and Angelo State (the latter on the road) before falling twice to West Texas A&M in postseason play.
The LSC is the toughest conference in Division II softball, with seven teams appearing in the top 25 in the national coaches' poll last season. The Eagles have a new head coach this season in
Shalee Rodriguez, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at OC. The Eagles return most of their top players, including All-America pitcher
Kali Crandall (last season's South Central Region pitcher of the year) and All-Region players
Brooklin Bain,
Brianna Robinson and
Kylie Janzen.
OC will open its season on Feb. 4 against Southeastern Oklahoma State in the Arkansas Tech Winter Invitational in Conroe, Texas.
"We are excited to be ranked among the top teams in the Lone Star, but being picked fourth may just add a little more fuel to our fire this season," Rodriguez said. "Each year is a new year and that just means we have something to prove to the rest of our conference to get where we want to be. We have a lot of players with LSC experience in our lineup, along with some new faces who are ready to get back to the top!"
Rounding out the top 10 in the LSC poll were Texas A&M-Commerce in fifth with 525 points, Texas A&M-Kingsville sixth with one first-place vote and 481 points, Lubbock Christian (Texas) seventh with 423 points, Texas A&M International eighth with 393 points, Cameron ninth with 323 points and St. Mary's (Texas) 10th with 321 points.
St. Edward's (Texas) was 11th with 272 points, followed by Midwestern State (Texas) with 213 points, Texas Woman's with 182 points, Texas-Permian Basin with 146 points, Eastern New Mexico with 94 points and Western New Mexico with 56 points.
