SOUTHERN ARKANSAS LADY MULERIDERS 6-4, 0-0 GAC	NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA RANGERS 4-5, 0-0 GAC
Friday, February 20 | DH | 5 p.m. - Saturday, February 21 | DH | 11 a.m. Rockwall HS Field - Rockwall, Texas  LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

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SERIES NOTES | SAU

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Leading Off
The Southern Arkansas softball team enters play this weekend with a 6-4 overall record and will be playing their first games in the GAC this season. In their most recent weekend action, the Lady Muleriders played four in-region games in the regionally-renowned 8-State Classic hosted by Arkansas-Monticello. SAU would drop their first game
to Nortwest Missouri, but roared back offensively with 34 runs over their next three games, all wins, to end the weekend 3-1. The Northwestern Oklahoma softball
team enters play this weekend with a 4-5 overall record and are also playing their first games in the GAC. This past weekend, the Rangers also played four games iin the
UAM -State Classic, going 2-2 and picking up one-run wins over Pittsburg State and Central Missouri.

Statistically, the Lady Muleriders are hitting .319 as a team and have four starters hitting .300 or better. Darian Harris currently leads the team in average at .455 (15-for-33). Ashton Atwell leads the team in RBIs with 15 and homeruns with five. In terms of pitching, SAU has 4.61 team ERA and two of their starters have ERAs in the three's. Miranda Cuff and Chancy Williams leads the staff in wins with two each. Jami Godwin in five appereances (two starts) has the lowest ERA (2.33).

For NWOSU, they are hitting .235 as a team and have two players over .300. Jessika Sandoval leads the team in batting at .355 (11-for-31) while Allora Miller leads
in homeruns (3) and RBIs (10). In terms of pitching, NWOSU has a 4.52 team ERA. Shelby Anderson and Allora Miller lead the team in wins with two each. In 24.0 innings of work, Miller has 30 strikeouts and is limiting opponents to a.276 batting average against.
 

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Bats on Fire at 8-State Classic
Equiped with a potent lineup, the Southern Arkansas offense got things going in their four games at the 8-State Classic as they hit .391 (43-for-110) as a team and scored 38 runs on 43 hits. Nearly half of those hits on the weekend went for extra bases as SAU hit eight doubles and hammered out 12 homeruns to help give the Lady Muleriders a .791 slugging percentage as well.

Tabbed Second in GAC 
Coming off of a season in which the Southern Arkansas softball team won the Great American Conference Championship and advanced to their first-ever NCAA Regional Tournament, the Lady Muleriders were voted by the head coaches of the GAC to finish the 2015 season in second-place in the GAC. This year's team returns the services of seven position players who started over 55 games last year and three others who started at least 20 games. Additionally, the Lady Muleriders have bolstered their roster with the addition of 13 talented newcomers.

#BombSquad
Last season the Lady Muleriders belted 71 homeruns, ranking them second in the GAC and among the top-20 in all of NCAA Division II. Three players hit over 10 bombs with Maddie Dow leading the way with a SAU and GAC single-season record 21 homeruns. Behind Dow in homeruns a year ago was Brooke Goad who, in 36 games played before suffering a season-ending knee injury, hit 15 bombs. Goad's 15 homeruns prior to her injury were a SAU single-season record before Dow passed her later in the year.

Anderson Takes Over
Jason Anderson was named as the sixth head coach of the Southern Arkansas softball program on July 2 following the resignation of now former head coach Corey Lyon.
A nderson comes to SAU as a proven winner. In his seven previous seasons as a head coach, Anderson had garnered an outstanding career coaching record of 307-73 (.807). A NCCAA National Coach of the Yeat and five-time NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year, Anderson would guide his 2010 team at Central Baptist (NAIA) to a remarkable 52-1 (.981) record en route to winning the NCCAA National Championship. In his past two seasons as a head coach, Anderson has been in the NCAA DII
ranks and has won 40 or more games each season.

Record-Setters
Last season was one literally for the record books as the 2014 SAU softball team established, and in some cases, demolished previously-held records. In all, last year's Lady Mulerider softball team would set 54 new records. 20 of those records were team single-season records, 15 were individual season records, nine were individual career records, eight were team game records, and two were individual game records.