The Saint Louis University softball team extended its conference winning streak to 12 games on April 18 against the George Mason Patriots, setting a program record.
The streak began on March 29 against the St. Joseph’s Hawks, with an 8-3 win. Throughout the streak, SLU outscored conference opponents 70-17, securing shutouts in half of the games.
With a 14-5 conference record, Saint Louis has risen to the top of the Atlantic 10 (A10) standings. They currently sit two games ahead of the Dayton Flyers.
The Bills are second in the league in fielding percentage, while holding the second-lowest earned run average. During this streak, they have allowed only 1.42 runs per game.
That defense is enough to put the team into championship contention, but paired with an offense that has scored 3 runs or more in each game during this streak, the Billikens are a monster of a matchup.
A10 fielders are allowing 7.17 hits per game against the Billikens. SLU’s superstar slugger Abby Mallo totaled 15 during the streak. Mallo leads the conference in Runners Batted In (RBIs) with 55, 20 of which came in this streak. Almost one-third of SLU’s RBIs during this stretch have come off Mallo’s bat.
First baseman Jane Kaniecki spoke about the team’s emotions surrounding SLU’s program-record streak.
“It’s been awesome, we have the staff to do it. They’re really willing to go the distance,” Kaniecki told ESPN+’s Colin Suhre. “And then our offense can work. It gives our offense the comfort to be able to do our thing and not have to press and look to score runs”.
Of course, the Billikens still score runs, at a clip of 5 per game, leading the A10. Against conference opponents, SLU’s average increases to 5.16 runs scored per game.
SLU will host their penultimate conference series starting on April 26 against St. Bonaventure.