Softball Opens Season at Mardi Gras Invite

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern softball will open its 2024 season with a three-day, five-game weekend tournament when it travels to the Mardi Gras Invitational Feb. 2-4 in Youngsville, La.
 
SE opens play on Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. versus Delta State with a 7 p.m. matchup against Mississippi College to follow at 7 p.m. On Feb. 3 the Savage Storm open with Augustana at 4:30 p.m. before taking on Union at 7 p.m. They will close out the weekend on Feb. 4 at 11 a.m. with Tuskegee.
 
Southeastern rolls into the 2024 season picked fourth in the Great American Conference preseason poll after winning the league's postseason tournament a season ago and earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Central Regional.
 
The Storm return four 2023 All-GAC selections in pitchers Reese Taylor and Amberlyn Walsworth, as well as catcher Sabetha Sands and designated player Iliana Olivares.
 
Walsworth ranked sixth in the league last season with 14 wins and was third in strikeouts with 150, while Taylor was eighth in wins with 12 and top 10 in ERA at 2.67 while adding 102 strikeouts.
 
Sabetha Sands led SE in average at .321 and posted 15 doubles last season which ranked fourth in the conference, while Olivares turned in eight doubles and 22 RBI as a utility player.
 
The Storm also return starters Kady Fryrear, Gracie Ore, Kamryn Rackley, Bailey Beard, and Sammi Dutton who each started more than 40 games.
 
SE will feature its largest roster in recent memory as is will see 12 newcomers, six freshman and six transfers, joining a roster that returns 13 total players form a season ago.
 
Delta State enters the weekend picked to finish 11^th in the Gulkf South Conference after posting a 19-34 record overall and a 12-18 mark in GSC play in 2023.
 
MC on the other hand comes in after finishing second in the GSC a year ago and posting a 43-11 record and was picked to repeat its second-place finish in the league's preseason poll.
 
AC enters as the preseason favorite in the Northern Sun and led that league with a 39-15 record overall with a 23-5 mark in NSIC play.
 
UU heads into the 2024 season picked seventh in the GSC preseason poll, matching its seventh-place finish in 2023 when it posted a 24-26 overall record and a 13-15 mark in league play.
 
Tuskegee finished second in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference West Division in 2023 after turning in a 23-17 record overall and a 15-4 mark in SIAC play.