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#3 SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
25-3 (15-1 GAC) |
NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
LADY RANGERS
7-21 (5-11 GAC) |
Saturday, March 25 | 4 p.m. | DH
Dawson Field at the Mulerider Softball Complex - Magnolia, Ark.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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Sunday, March 26 | NOON | DH
Dawson Field at the Mulerider Softball Complex - Magnolia, Ark.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
LEADING OFF
#3 Southern Arkansas carries a seven-game win streak into this weekend's Great American Conference series with Northwestern Oklahoma State (7-21, 5-11 GAC), which will be the Lady Rangers' first trip to Magnolia since joining the league in 2013.
The Lady Muleriders are 7-1 at home this season and begin a ten-game home stand that will run through early April. SAU is at the halfway mark of the season and has spent the first six weeks of the season ranked in the top 5 of the NFCA DII Coaches Poll.
SAU counters with arguably one of the best offensive lineups from top to bottom in the country and places in the Top-5 in five categories nationally, including a nation-leading 1.96 home runs per game, while scoring the second-most runs per game at 8.86 Southern Arkansas' slugging percentage of .630 is the third-highest mark in the country, while its .457 on-base percentage ranks third nationally.
The Lady Muleriders boast the top offense in the Great American Conference and own league-bests in a dozen offensive categories: batting average (.347), slugging percentage (.629), on-base percentage (.456), runs scored (248), hits (279), RBIs (227), doubles (55), home runs (55), total bases (505), plate appearances (987), walks (131), and hit-by-pitch (35).
The lineup responsible for that high offensive production features six players that have played and started all 28 games and are hitting .300 or better with all having 25 or more hits. Five of those six players have 20 or more RBI, with a pair of players owning 40 or more. A Lady Mulerider boasts the best mark in 13 offensive categories within the Great American Conference. Four players:
Jill Roye,
Maddie Dow,
Marina Duran, and
Brooke Goad 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 (1.70 ERA) and senior
Kaylee Garner (2.31 ERA) have combined for 23 of SAU's 25 wins. The duo has combined for 156 strikeouts to just 38 walks and 11 complete games.
So far this season, Garner owns a no-hitter, Taylor has claimed a GAC Pitcher of the Week honor, while Roye has the other two wins and sports a 1.98 ERA in nine appearances.
A breakdown of SAU's first 28 games includes thirteen games with 10 or more runs, 11 run-rule victories, six one-run wins, four extra-inning affairs with three reaching the tenth inning, and three loses by a combined four runs.
First-pitch for Saturday's doubleheader is slated for 4 p.m. Sunday'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.
THE DOW IS RISING
Senior first baseman
Maddie Dow has 66 career home runs with 14 of those home runs coming this campaign. Dow currently leads NCAA Division II in the category, while teammate
Brooke Goad is second in the country with 11.
Dow's 66 bombs to this point in her electric career at Southern Arkansas are tied for fourth-place all-time in NCAA Division II history with Katelyn Vinson of Midwestern State (2013-2016). The Bonham, Texas, native's next home run will move her into fourth place all-time and a dozen 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 and is currently in ninth-place all-time with 143. She is 17 walks away from moving into the top-five of the category. To this point in the season, Dow has been hit-by-pitch 15 times; four shy of tying the single-season record at SAU which was set last season by
Summer Ehrig (19).
NFCA NUMBER THREE
For the sixth-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 (25-3, 15-1 GAC) have appeared in all six 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. 3 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 13-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),
Marina Duran (
WEEK 5) and
Brooke Goad (
WEEK 7) 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 32 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 (104-38). 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 91-35 in league play in his four years as a head coach in the GAC and 48-9 since the beginning of last season.
SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA
Northwestern Oklahoma enters this weekend of play having won five of their past eight games, including taking three of four from Arkansas-Monticello last weekend in Alva. In six games, the Lady Rangers are winless on the road.
As a team, the Lady Rangers are hitting .224 (162-for-722); the 11th lowest mark in the Great American Conference, while owning a 4.09 team-ERA (9th | GAC) and a .939 fielding percentage (12th | GAC).
Four players have played and started all 28 games for Northwestern Oklahoma this season. Infielder Brittany Corrales leads the team with a .316 average (25-for-79), while Madi Parrot hits .267 (20-for-75). The two players have combined for 26 runs scored and a dozen RBI. Audrey Estes leads the club in RBI with 13 and Megan Sanders follows with 12 RBI. Madison McGraw leads the team with a .432 slugging percentage, 38 total bases, four home runs, two triples, and 15 runs scored. McGraw has also registered a dozen RBI.
In the circle, Madison Garza and Karly Murray have combined for NWOSU's seven wins with Murray leading the team with four. The duo has started 27 of the Lady Rangers' 28 games and has combined for nine complete games, three shutouts and 123 strikeouts. Murray (62) and Garza (61) are 7th and 8th respectively in strikeouts in the GAC. Murray leads the team in innings pitched at 79.1 and Garza owns the club's lowest ERA at 4.48. Garza also registered a no-hitter of UAM last weekend.
COACH
Jill Webb is in her first season with the Lady Rangers and currently is serving as the interim head coach. Webb has held assistant coaching jobs at the University of the Redlands (Calif.) and at Skidmore College (N.Y.), where she was a member of the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year. Webb played collegiately at Division I Georgetown, where she was the starting catcher for the Hoyas.
LAST SEASON
Due to wet conditions, the two teams were only able to get the front half of last year's four-game series played, which resulted in 16-1 and 1-0 victories for the Lady Muleriders.
THE SERIES
The Lady Rangers and the Lady Muleriders will meet for the first time in Magnolia in a series that dates back to 2013; when the former joined the Great American Conference as a provisional member of NCAA DII. Southern Arkansas is 9-5 all-time against NWOSU, including a 6-4 record on the road. The Lady Muleriders were scheduled to host NWOSU in 2015, but weather forced the series to be moved to a neutral site in Rockwall, Texas, where Southern Arkansas took three of four from Northwestern Oklahoma. Lady Mulerider Head Coach
Jason Anderson owns eight of the series' 14 wins with five coming in his tenure in Magnolia and the other three coming as head coach of the Lady Rangers in 2014.
