Sunday’s weather forecast for Chadron has prompted a change in the softball schedule for this weekend, when Chadron State College is set to host New Mexico Highlands University in a four-game series.
The new schedule calls for two games to be played, starting at noon, on Friday, before another doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m.
The Eagles are coming off a trip to Grand Junction, where they took an 0-4 outing against No. 3 Colorado Mesa in their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opening weekend. They are 2-12 overall.
New Mexico Highlands (2-9, 0-4 RMAC) suffered much the same fate in their conference opener versus No. 23 Colorado Christian, played at a neutral location in La Junta, Colorado.
The Cowgirls are batting .322 as a team, with three players individually hitting .400 or better, and average more than nine runs per game. Those numbers could be misleading, however, as more than 35 percent of their hits for the season, and over half of their runs, came in their two wins against Western New Mexico. Junior outfielder Haley Rodriguez leads with a .529 mark, however after starting the first Cowgirls’ first seven games, she exited a February 20 game at Eastern New Mexico, and has only seen pinch-running duty ever since.
In NMHU’s nine losses it totaled 63 hits and 23 runs, for averages of 7.0 hits and 2.5 runs, batting .270 as a squad.
The Cowgirls’ pitchers have struggled so far against good competition, yielding more than 10 hits and eight runs per seven innings.