Softball has title in their sights
The Lamar University softball team’s season is fully underway. The team has opened with 13 - 15 record after starting with a tough road schedule.
Head Coach Amy Hooks leads the Lady Cards into battle. After being hired in 2018 from Northwestern State, she has helped the Cardinals improve every year since 2022. She recorded her 100th career win last season and led the Cardinals to a Mid-Major Top 25 performance.
“I think we’ve put a really good product together when it comes to offense, defense and pitching,” Hooks said. “We obviously always want to improve and bring players in that are going to help us accomplish that. We did that again this year — our freshman class is phenomenal. They’ve really been able to contribute early this year, so we’re excited to see how that carries us throughout the season.”
Coach Hooks said it is important to have a consistent tone from the beginning so it carries through the whole season.
“The big thing for them is staying at a six (out of 10) when it comes to energy and hype,” she said. “We played Sam Houston State, a team we know really well, and so at the beginning you could feel the energy start to creep up. Everybody’s getting excited and getting a little hyped up and then when the ending was over, they came back down to their six, which is like they’re neutral. (We’re) just making sure we’re not too hot and too low, and then just knowing that we can swing it with the best of them.
“We’re going to give up runs. And we try not putting pressure on our defense or our pitching because our bats are good enough to go and score against anybody.”
The Cardinals opened their season at the LSU Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, where they swept their two-game series against Big-10 team Illinois. Coach Hooks said it is a testament to how the players don’t think about the team on the other side, only themselves.
“The game is the game, and it doesn’t matter how big the school you face and what their budget is, what conference they’re in — it’s softball,” she said. “I think they understood that it wasn’t about what was across their chest, it was about us and what we do really well and playing our style of softball. That’s really been the theme, just playing Cardinal softball regardless who’s across the field.”
The Cardinals 2025 season came to an end after an SLC quarterfinals loss to Incarnate Word. Coach Hooks said while was hurt by the loss, they are not dwelling on it.
“We don’t harp on it or put too much pressure, but (the team) definitely has huge goals,” she said. “The returners know that feeling, that bad taste that was left in their mouth.”
Hooks said the team started its offseason work from the moment last season ended. She said the team is driven to be the first LU team to win the Southland Conference Tournament.
“A lot of prep work went right after season ended, and in the off season and in the summer,” she said. “The team was getting after it individually and then the returners trained with the newcomers. They held their own player meetings over the summer to outline expectations and then let the newcomers really get a feel for what it’s going to be like before they ever get on campus.
“It had to be player led. They had to be the ones that wanted to do it and they really just grabbed it by the horns and said, ‘This is what we want to do. We don’t want to be watching the semifinals or the championship game of the tournament. We want to be in it.’”
The team has already played plenty of away games and Hooks said this is by design.
“I did something that most coaches don’t want to do, and that’s play the first four weekends on the road to try and become road warriors,” she said. “Hopefully, the way our conference championship is set up we don’t have to play the tournament on the road, but if we have to, we’re ready and prepared.”
Hooks said the away schedule also prepared the team for a tough Southland Conference slate.
“The Southland Conference continues to get better every year,” she said. “We try to schedule a really tough non-conference schedule. We want to see all different kinds of levels. We want to see really elite pitching, we want to see dominant hitters, we want to see all of that. And the way you prepare for those games only gets you ready for conference play. You need to see some tough teams, but you also need to compete to keep the morale up.”
The team thrives on support from the students and community, Hooks said.
“When it’s your home, somewhere that you pour your blood, sweat, and tears into everyday, it makes you want it more,” she said. “To look up there and see your stadium full, and to hear the roar of the crowd, and to have your walk-up song, just little things like that, I think it’s huge, and Southeast Texas has showed up for us. I want to make Lamar softball and Beaumont a really hard place to come and play.”
