The Marshall University softball team continued its hot start to the season over the weekend in a three-game sweep over the University of Texas San-Antonio at the Dot Hicks Softball Field in Huntington. The team moved to 17-4 overall, and is now 3-0 in Conference USA play. The team outscored the Roadrunners 24-8 over the three games.

“We had some impressive numbers this weekend,” head coach Shonda Stanton said. “We scored 24 runs on the weekend in three games. That’s a great start to conference play. This group can do some special things this year. The good news is we’re not where we need to be at yet, we need to get better. On the whole, I’m very proud of this group.”

Senior Jordan Dixon started on the mound for both game one on Saturday and the third game of the series on Sunday. She pitched a complete game in both outings, going the full seven innings both games. She allowed only one hit on Saturday, and 11 total between her two starts. Between the two games, she gave up a combined four earned runs, struck out 19 Roadrunner batters, and only walked one UTSA batter.

Despite the cold weather, the Herd combined for seven home runs on the weekend, including two each from senior Shaelynn Braxton and junior Taylor McCord. The two each hit multiple home runs in the same game, as McCord had two homers in game two, while Braxton had two homers in game three.

“It was a good day for me offensively,” Braxton said. “My coaches were talking to me about my pitch selection and making sure I was picking good pitches and attacking those pitches aggressively. And that’s just one of the hardest things about the sport.”

Of the 12 Conference USA teams, Marshall is only one of three schools to start out conference play 3-0 (along with North Texas and Western Kentucky). The Herd also has the fewest amount of overall losses with four. The team is confident after a series sweep in their first of eight C-USA series.

“With this group we’ve got a great opportunity to go practically undefeated throughout conference play as long as we take care of ourselves,” Braxton said. “We expect to come out and sweep every single weekend, and obviously it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row, but when you’re able to do that, it’s amazing.”

The team now shifts focus to a non-conference matchup at Ohio University on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The team then resumes Conference USA play on Saturday at Charlotte. The 49ers lost two out of three games at Louisiana Tech this past weekend.

Patrick O’Leary can be contacted at [email protected].