Still atop the Southland softball standings after losing two of three games in a midweek conference series at Southeastern Louisiana, McNeese State will look to put more distance between itself and the Lions this weekend when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a three-game series.

The teams will play a single game at 6 p.m. today followed by a 1 p.m. Saturday doubleheader.

The Cowgirls (35-14) are 15-3 in Southland games. Southeastern is second at 16-5. The Lions are off this weekend, meaning the Cowgirls can stretch their lead to two full games with a sweep of the Islanders (21-18, 9-9).

McNeese needs a combination of five wins or Lions losses to clinch the outright regular-season conference championship.

The Cowgirls head into the series leading the SLC with a .345 team batting average and the pitching staff has a league low 1.10 ERA in conference games.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (21-18, 9-9) comes into the series tied for third place with Northwestern State and Incarnate Word after losing two of three at Northwestern last week.

TAMU-CC has a 1.84 ERA in conference games, good for second in the Southland.

Aholelei Primrose (16-10, 1.78) leads the Islanders pitching staff. Kimane Rogron (.284) and Quinn DeAvila (4 HR) are the top TAMU-CC hitters.

Primrose and McNeese’s Ashley Vallejo are tied with Southeastern’s K.K. Ladner for the league lead in conference wins with eight. Vallejo (0.86) and Whitney Tate (1.27) are first and second in ERA while Primrose (1.59) is fourth.

The McNeese trio of Mariana Torres (.407), Reese Reyna (.400) and Alayis Seneca (.396) rank in the top seven in batting average in Southland games. Islanders catcher Gabriella Torres (.375) ranks eighth.

McNeese has owned the Islanders, not having lost to them since May 14, 2011, a span of 28 games.