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#4 SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
21-3 (11-1 GAC) |
SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
LADY BULLDOGS
10-10 (4-6 GAC) |
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Saturday, March 18 | 11 a.m. | DH
SWOSU Athletic Complex - Weatherford, Okla.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
LEADING OFF
After suffering their first Great American Conference loss of the season last weekend in the series opener vs. Southern Nazarene, the fourth-ranked Lady Muleriders are refocused and ready for a four-game league slate with upstart Southwestern Oklahoma (10-10, 4-6 GAC) this weekend in Weatherford.
Southern Arkansas (21-3, 11-1) carries a three-game win streak and an 8-0 road record into this weekend of play. The Lady Muleriders are off to the second-best start in program history through 24 games after having started 22-2 last season.
SAU counters with arguably one of the best offensive lineups from top to bottom in the country and places in the Top-20 in seven categories nationally, including five Top-10 rankings. Its
powerful start offensively has the Lady Muleriders leading the nation in home runs per game (2.09), while scoring the second-most runs per game at 9.41. Southern Arkansas' slugging percentage of .652 is the third-highest mark in the country, while its .465 on-base percentage is the fifth-best.
The Lady Muleriders
boast the top offense in the Great American Conference and own league-bests in 13 offensive categories: batting average (.354), slugging percentage (.652), on-base percentage (.465), runs scored (222), hits (244), RBIs (205), doubles (46), home runs (51), total bases (449), plate appearances (849), walks (118), and hit-by-pitch (26).
The lineup responsible for that high offensive production features seven players that have played and started all 24 games and are hitting .330 or better with all having 25 or more hits. Six of those seven players have 20 or more RBI, with a pair of players owning 38 or more. A Lady Mulerider
boasts the best mark in 11 offensive categories within the Great American
Conference. Three players,
Jill Roye,
Maddie Dow, and
Marina Duran, have been named Great American Conference Player of the Week this season with Dow claiming the honor twice so far.
A relatively unheralded pitching staff possesses both a youth and veteran presence as freshman
Victoria Taylor (2.01 ERA) and senior
Kaylee Garner (2.07 ERA) have combined for 19 of SAU's 21 wins. The duo has combined for 150 strikeouts to just 31 walks and nine complete games. Garner flirted with a perfect game during her last outing before finishing with the program's ninth no-hitter. Roye owns the other two wins and sports a 1.58 ERA in seven appearances.
A breakdown of SAU's first 24 games includes a dozen games with 10 or more runs, 11 run-rule victories, four extra-inning affairs with three reaching the tenth inning, and three loses by a combined four runs.
First-pitch for Friday's doubleheader is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday's twin bill is scheduled for noon. Live coverage links and game-by-game recaps of all of this weekend's action will be available at
www.muleriderathletics.com/coverage.aspx.
THE DOW IS RISING
After sending three round-trippers into orbit during Monday's doubleheader sweep of Southern Nazarene, senior first baseman
Maddie Dow now has 65 career home runs with 13 of those home runs coming this campaign.
The 65 bombs to this point in her electric career at Southern Arkansas are fifth all-time in NCAA Division II history. The Bonham, Texas, native is two home runs away from moving into fourth place all-time and 14 home runs shy of tying the NCAA Division II career record of 79 set by Steph Denlinger of Kutztown from 2006-2009.
Dow has also cracked the Top-10 of the NCAA Division II Career Walks list with 141. Her next walk will put her in ninth place all-time and 18 walks away from moving into the Top-5 of the category.
NFCA NUMBER FOUR
For the fifth-consecutive week, the Southern Arkansas Softball program has been tabbed to a Top-5 spot nationally in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top-25 Coaches Poll. The Lady Muleriders (21-3, 11-1 GAC) have appeared in all five weekly NFCA polls this season after beginning the year at No. 5 nationally in the organization's Top-25 Preseason Poll.
Currently ranked as the No. 4 team in the nation, Southern Arkansas has spent three weeks as the second-ranked team in the nation; its highest ranking in program history. Dating back to last season's week 7 poll, the Lady Muleriders have appeared in 12-straight NFCA DII Top-25 polls. Before their first ever national ranking at No. 23 in week 7 of 2016, SAU received votes in weeks five and six.
GAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Jill Roye (
WEEK 2),
Maddie Dow (
WEEK 3 |
WEEK 6), and
Marina Duran (
WEEK 5) have all staked claim to the GAC's Player of the Week award this season with Dow claiming the honor twice, while freshman starting pitcher
Victoria Taylor (
WEEK 5) garnered the first GAC Pitcher of the Week award for her career.
COACHING MILESTONES
Head Coach
Jason Anderson claimed career victory #400 on February 25 with a 10-0 road victory over East Central in the series finale. On March 13, Anderson claimed his 100th career victory at Southern Arkansas in an 8-0, run-rule victory against Southern Nazarene at home.
Anderson became the second head coach in program history to win 100 games and is just 36 wins from tying the program record for victories by a head coach which was set by Kevin Blaskowski (136-126 | .519); the school's first head coach and current head coach of West Texas A&M.
The Sheridan, Arkansas, native already owns the program record for win percentage which currently sits at .725 (100-38). Anderson, who is in his third season at Southern Arkansas, currently averages over 40 wins a season, has six seasons with 40 or more wins including four with 52 or more and has not had a losing season in ten years as a head coach.
Anderson is currently 87-35 in league play in his four years as a head coach in the GAC (3 with SAU) and 44-9 since the beginning of last season.
SCOUTING SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
The Lady Bulldogs have won 10 games for the fifth time in six Great American Conference seasons, however SWOSU's softball program is rising as they are just seven wins away from matching their win total a year ago and 11 wins away from matching their win total in 2014 and 2015 combined.
SWOSU has won their last three games and opened GAC play this season with a 5-4, eight-inning win over league-leading Harding, before suffering a 6-4, eightinning loss in the next game to the Lady Bisons and a 2-0 defeat in game three. The Lady Bulldogs are 3-3 this season in Weatherford.
Southwestern Oklahoma relies on a deep bench as it has seen 13 players start seven or more games, with 15 players playing in 10 or more games. Fourteen players have 20 or more at-bats this season.
The Lady Bulldogs are swinging just shy of a .300 clip as a team (.298 | 5th GAC). Three players are hitting .400 or better led by Abigail Schade's .410 average (16-for-39) and four players are swinging north of .300. Tori Hawk is hitting .356 (15-for-48) and is leading SWOSU in games played (20), runs scored (17), hits (21), home runs (4), RBIs (16), slugging percentage (.627 | 11th GAC), and stolen bases (11 | 2nd GAC). Hawk leads the team with nine multiple hit games. Eight other players have recorded five or more RBI with Kaytlin Donaldson's nine ranking behind Hawk, while five additional players have recorded 15 or more hits. At least six players have started a game in all nine lineup spots.
Defensively, SWOSU is fielding .938 (400 PO, 206 A, 40 E) on the season; the 11th-lowest percentage in the GAC.
In the circle, the Lady Bulldogs own a team-ERA of 3.83 (8th | GAC) and have the fewest strikeouts of any staff in the league with 49. SWOSU has hit a combined 24 batters, which leads the GAC. Southwestern Oklahoma is led by Miranda Grover, who boasts the fourth-lowest ERA in the conference at 1.63, while allowing just seven earned runs in 30.0 innings pitched.
Grover is responsible for half of SWOSU's ten wins and is unbeaten on the season with a staff-low .264 opponent batting average. Taya Haney has accounted for three Lady Bulldog wins in a staff-leading 51.2 innings pitched. Haney owns a team-best 20 strikeouts.
COACH
Kim Maher is in her first season as head coach of the Lady Bulldog Softball program; becoming the fourth head coach in school history when she was hired on June 2, 2016. Maher's last head coaching stop came at NCAA Division I Purdue.
In her eight seasons guiding the Boilermaker program, Maher's teams collected 240 wins, with six 30-win seasons, while defeating nine teams ranked in the Top 25. An impressive resume as a coach and player, Maher is a former Olympic Gold Medalist as a player with USA Softball in 1996.
LAST SEASON
The Lady Muleriders swept Southwestern Oklahoma last season and outscored the Lady Bulldogs 28-4 in a four-game series in Magnolia. (
DH 1 |
DH 2)
THE SERIES
Southern Arkansas is 13-6 all-time against Southwestern Oklahoma, but owns just two wins on the road in Weatherford in seven games played. In 2015, the teams were only able to play three games in Weatherford due to rain. That series saw Southern Arkansas win 2-1 (its only 2 wins on the road at SWOSU) and score a dozen or more runs in all three contests.
The Lady Muleriders have won five straight games against the Lady Bulldogs and are 12-2 in their last 14 meetings with SWOSU. The first-ever meeting between these two programs took place on February 20, 2004, in a neutral affair in Conway, Arkansas, that SAU won 4-1. It would be eight years before the two teams met again; renewing competition in 2012 in the first year of Great American Conference play.
