SOUTHERN ARKANSAS LADY MULERIDERS 16-11, 8-7 GAC	SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA SAVAGE STORM 12-15, 8-4 GAC
Saturday, March 28 | DH | 2 p.m. - Sunday, March 29 | DH | Noon Lady Mulerider Field - Magnolia, Ark. LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

 

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SERIES NOTES | SAU | SE

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Leading Off
The Southern Arkansas softball team enters play this weekend with a 16-11 overall record and are 8-7 in the GAC. The Lady Muleriders are coming off of an impressive
doubleheader sweep over Arkansas-Monticello on Rivalry Wednesday in the GAC. Coming into that twin-bill, UAM was the top team in the GAC standings. Fueling the
Lady Muleriders to the DH sweep was their pitching as they limited the Cotton Blossoms to just two runs over the two games.

The Southeastern Oklahoma softball team enters play this weekend with a 12-15 overall record and are 8-4 in the GAC. The Savage Storm have lost five straight games
which include DH losses to Missouri Western and Emporia State in non-conference action and a 11-10 loss to East Central in their most-recent action last week.

Statistically, the Lady Muleriders are hitting .314 as a team and have six starters hitting .300 or better. Ashton Atwell currently leads the team in average at .409 (38-for-93). Atwell also leads the team in RBIs with 31 and homeruns with 10. In terms of pitching, SAU has 4.18 team ERA. Miranda Cuff leads the staff in wins with six. Jami Godwin leads the team in ERA at 2.41.

For SE, they are hitting .340 as a team and have eight players over .360. Courtney Riddle and Jessica Simmons lead the team in batting at .417. Riddle has 35 hits in 84
ABs and Simmons has 30 hits in 72 ABs. Riddle also leads the team in homeruns with four and in RBIs with 25.

In terms of pitching, SE has a 5.99 team ERA. Jacee Bennett leads the team in wins with eight and has the most strikeouts with 59. Jessica Seay has the lowest ERA on the staff at 5.19.

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. This year, the Lady Muleriders, through 27 games, have hit 34 homeruns. Through 27 games last year, SAU had hit 30, putting them ahead of their record-pace in 2014.

Dow Career Record Holder: HRs 
Just 27 games into her sophomore season and Lady Mulerider designated player Maddie Dow has set a significant career record at SAU as she is now the top homerun hitter in program history after she blasted her 28th career longball in game two against Arkansas-Monticello on Wednesday, March 25.

Rain, Rain, Go Away
In what has been one of the wettest springs in some time across the Natural State, the Southern Arkansas softball schedule has been turned on its head as the team tries to get games in. Nine games so far have been canceled due to the weather and when the games have not been forced to be canceled, re-aranging of the schedule has had to take place. In fact, the Lady Muleriders have not played a weekend conference series as scheduled yet this season. Their only Friday-Saturday series was moved from Magnolia to Rockwall, Texas in order to get the games in against Northwestern Oklahoma.

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.
Anderson 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.

Bats on Fire at 8-State Classic
E quiped 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.

Atwell and Farfan Return Home
I n what was supposed to be SAU's home-opener against Northwestern Oklahoma, the Lady Muleriders ended up moving their series to a neutral site in Rockwall, Texas. The change of venue turned into an unexpected homecoming for Rockwall natives Ashton Atwell and Audrey Farfan, who played their high school softball on that very field. Both would make the most of their homecoming with Atwell hitting .563 (9-for-16) with three doubles, two homeruns, and seven RBIs while Farfan hit .500 (6-for-12) with one double, one homerun, and six RBIs.