One-on-one with UTEP softball coach, T.J. Hubbard; Miners looking for big things as 2022 season begins Thursday

EL PASO, Texas - The UTEP softball team will open its regular season with six games this weekend as it hosts the 2022 UTEP Invitational at the Helen of Troy Softball Complex.

All UTEP games will be streamed on CUSA.tv with a paid subscription and all non-UTEP games will be streamed for free on the UTEP Athletics YouTube channel. 

The Miners will begin competition Thursday, Feb. 10 with a doubleheader versus Idaho State.

The game times have been moved up to 2 p.m./5 p.m. MT. The rest of the UTEP schedule is listed below.  

Friday, Feb. 11 

Abilene Christian – 4 p.m. 

Creighton – 7 p.m. 

Saturday, Feb. 12 

Creighton – 4 p.m. 

Sunday, Feb. 13 

Abilene Christian – 1 p.m. 

“We are super excited to start at home in our newly renovated facility,” head coach TJ Hubbard said. “This will be back-to-back years that we have opened the season at home. We are excited to see our players get out there. They have been doing an excellent job with their training and development. We have a good group of kids, and we are looking forward to see what they are able to do against the competition that we have coming in for our tournament.” 

Returning Miners to Watch 

Redshirt senior utility Ilena Santos is one of the key returners that started in 36 games and played in all 37 last season. Santos was second on the Miners in batting average (.301), on-base percentage (.422), doubles (seven) and walks (13). 

Senior infielder Pate Cathey started in all 37 games for the Miners and slashed .278/.319/.407 with two home runs and 17 RBI. Cathey tied for first in the team lead with eight doubles and second on the squad with 30 hits. She was tied for second in C-USA with three sacrifice flies. 

New Faces in the Dugout 

The other half of the Miners’ roster is made up of five freshmen and four transfers: three infielders (Fr. Ajia Richard, Fr. Kaylin Jackson, So. Hunter Harkrider), two freshmen pitchers (Annika Litterio, Aalijah Alarcon), two sophomore catchers/utilities (Cheyenne Stark, Marijn Crouwel), and two outfielders (Fr. Jordyn Lopez, So. Savannah Favre). 

Tickets
 Season Ticket - $60
 Doubleheader - $12
 Single Game - $8
 Groups 10+ -$5