AUSTIN, Texas – First year head coach Jeff Staton and the Concordia Texas softball team will look to return to the American Southwest Conference Tournament when they take the field on Saturday for their season opener against Trinity.

The Tornados missed out on the conference tournament for the first time since 2016 last season after finishing with a 15-25 record, including a 10-17 mark in ASC play. Concordia Texas has 15 players returning in 2020, including seven starters, while the program is under new leadership after Staton was promoted to the role of head coach back in July.

In the conference's preseason poll, the Tornados received 70 points, including a first-place vote, and were picked to finish fourth in the ASC West Division. The conference will return to a two-division format for the first time since 2013.

Seniors Summer Harper, Ashley Hallmark and Miranda Mueller, meanwhile, were selected to the ASC Preseason Players to Watch List.

Harper, one of two four-year seniors for CTX, started in 39 of the team's 40 games last season, batting .297 at the plate and led the team in doubles (9) and RBIs (23), while also recording two home runs and five runs scored.

Hallmark, out of Burnet, Texas, enters year two with the Tornados after making 35 starts for the team last season. She batted .242 at the plate, finishing second on the team in runs scored (16), as well as recording seven doubles, a home run and driving in 16 runs on the year.

Mueller, meanwhile, will look to take on a more prominent role for CTX in 2020. The San Antonio native made 20 starts and appeared in 24 games for the Tornados, and is one of five players returning to reach double figures in RBIs last season, finishing with 11 runs batted in.

In the circle, CTX will rely on the arms of Heather Casiano and Taylor Verinsky, who both had breakout seasons in 2019.

Casiano made 24 appearances, including seven starts, registering a 7-5 record and posting a 2.55 ERA in 77 innings of work. Verinsky, meanwhile, took the circle 17 times last season, recording a 3.54 ERA after 61.1 innings of work.

The Tornados will best tested early on, open the year on the road against Trinity, playing the Tigers in a doubleheader on Saturday at noon and 2 p.m.

The team will then return to Tornado Softball Field for their home opener, hosting the reigning national champions Texas Lutheran in a doubleheader on Feb. 8 beginning at 2 p.m.

After a split doubleheader against Hendrix and Austin College, CTX will open conference play at home, hosting Belhaven in a three-game series on Feb. 21-22.
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The Tornados will face 16 difference opponents in 2020, and will close out the season at home when Mary Hardin-Baylor arrives in town for a three-game set on April 24-25.

Concordia Texas will be looking to make its ninth ASC Tournament appearance in program history, which will be hosted by the top team in the conference on April 30-May 2.

The Tornados will begin a new era on Saturday, facing Trinity in a two-game series at noon and 2 p.m. in San Antonio.