Houston, TX - Toledo will head to the Lone Star State for five games in this weekend's Houston Hilton Plaza Invitational hosted by the University of Houston. All tournament games will be held at Cougar Field.

This will be the first season the Rockets have traveled to the Hilton Plaza Invitational.

The Rockets will begin the tournament on Friday, Feb. 19 with a 9:00 a.m. (CT) game against Texas, followed by a matchup with host Houston at 4:30 p.m. (CT). The Longhorns are currently ranked No. 24 by ESPN.com/USA Softball.

A day later, Toledo will face Iowa State at 1:00 p.m. (CT) followed by a second battle against the Cougars at 6:00 p.m. (CT).

UT will conclude the tournament on Sunday morning when it takes on Texas again at 11:30 a.m. (CT).

Ball State is also invited to the tournament, but the Rockets will not face the Cardinals until conference play later in the season.


Tournament Schedule
Friday, Feb. 19 (times in CT)
9:00 a.m. - Toledo vs. Texas
11:30 a.m. - Texas vs. Ball State
2:00 p.m. - Ball State vs. Iowa State
4:30 p.m. - Houston vs. Toledo
7:00 p.m. - Houston vs. Iowa State

Saturday, Feb. 20
10:30 a.m. - Ball State vs. Texas
1:00 p.m. - Toledo vs. Iowa State
3:30 p.m. - Houston vs. Ball State
6:00 p.m. - Houston vs. Toledo

Sunday, Feb. 20
9:00 a.m. - Iowa State vs. Ball State
11:30 a.m. - Texas vs. Toledo
2:00 p.m. - Houston vs. Texas

OPPONENT BREAKDOWN

Houston put together a 3-2 overall record while competing in the Bulldog Kickoff Classic last weekend. The Cougars dropped both games to host Mississippi State (9-1, 7-1) but defeated Tennessee Tech (4-0), Georgia Southern (10-2) and Alabama A&M (8-0). Houston has scored 24 runs in its five games and posted a .261 batting average. Senior Katie St. Pierre leads the team with a .400 average (6-for-15) and a team-high four runs.

Texas has a perfect 5-0 record heading into this weekend. They hosted the Texas Classic last weekend, where they defeated Arkansas twice (4-1, 6-5), North Carolina twice (6-5, 7-6) and North Dakota State (3-2). The Longhorns have a team batting average of .313 and have scored 26 runs. Junior Celina Felix leads the team with a .429 average and six hits.

Iowa State posted a 5-1 overall record at the Cyclone Invitational this past weekend. ISU defeated IUPUI twice (7-0, 7-0), Eastern Illinois twice (8-7, 10-1) and split a pair of games against North Dakota (10-1, 0-1). The Cyclones have recorded a .335 team batting average and notched 42 runs in their six games. Junior Cathlin Bingham has a team-high .556 batting average and has gone 10-for-18 at the plate. She is also one of three Cyclones to have scored six runs.

CHARLOTTE FIRST PITCH CLASSIC RECAP

Toledo opened its 2016 season with a 1-2 record at last weekend's Charlotte First Pitch Classic. The Rockets defeated UMASS, 5-4, on Saturday, Feb. 13.

Jessica Lemieux led the way for the Rockets offensively, going 3-for-8 (.375) on the weekend with two runs scored. She also drew two walks in the tournament.

Three Rockets compiled batting averages over the .300 mark, as the team combined for 19 hits leading to nine runs. Four players added a stolen base, and sophomore Kaitlyn Bergman and freshman Megan Choate each added two RBIs.

Senior Marla Gooding notched her first win of the season against the Minutemen. Gooding pitched a complete game against UMASS, allowing four runs on five hits with two strikeouts.

BUTLER SAYS:

"I thought our freshmen pitchers did well for their first weekend of games," head coach Kristen Butler said. "Danni Ryan came in to close out the last innings of our YSU game. Even though we lost, she came in and shut them down for three-straight innings. Our hitting was very good on our two-strike approach. We did a good job of working the count back to a hitters count. I also thought our defense looked pretty sharp last weekend."

"In this week of practices we really worked on our pitchers getting ahead of the batters," Butler said. "We had a lot of walks last weekend with our pitchers so we worked on getting ahead of the count this week. We also really focused on hitting early in the count. We did a good job with two-strikes, but the thing is that we got to two strikes. So we focused on having a better at-bat earlier in the count."


LOOKING AHEAD

Following this weekend's action, the Rockets will travel to Harrisonburg, VA for the JMU Dukes Invitational on Feb. 26-28 where they will face Saint Joseph's, Robert Morris, Binghamton and host James Madison.