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#8 SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
LADY MULERIDERS
27-5 (17-3 GAC) |
OUACHITA BAPTIST
LADY TIGERS
13-19 (5-13 GAC) |
Friday, March 31 | 4 p.m. | DH
Dawson Field at the Mulerider Softball Complex - Magnolia, Ark.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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Saturday, April 1 | 1 p.m. | DH
Dawson Field at the Mulerider Softball Complex - Magnolia, Ark.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
LEADING OFF
#8 Southern Arkansas is coming off a rare league split last weekend as it dropped a pair of games to Northwestern Oklahoma State at home. The Lady Muleriders are set to host Ouachita Baptist (13-19, 7-13 GAC), which split with Southeastern Oklahoma State last
weekend.
The Lady Muleriders are 9-3 at home this season and are in the midst of a ten-game home stand that runs through early April. SAU begins the second half of the season and has spent the first seven weeks of the season ranked in the Top 10 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 four categories nationally, including the fourth-most runs per game at 8.13. The Lady Muleriders are averaging a nation-leading 1.84 home runs per game. Southern Arkansas' slugging percentage of .601 is the third-highest mark in the country, while its .445 on-base percentage ranks fourth nationally.
The Lady Muleriders boast the top offense in the Great American Conference and own league-bests in eleven offensive categories: slugging percentage (.600), on-base percentage (.444), runs scored (260), hits (304), RBIs (238), doubles (55), home runs (59), total bases (542), plate appearances (1107), walks (147), and hit-by-pitch (35).
The lineup responsible for that high offensive production features six players that have played and started all 32 games and are hitting .300 or better with all having 33 or more hits. Four of those six players have 30 or more RBI, with a pair of players owning 45 or more. A Lady Mulerider boasts the best mark in a dozen offensive categories within the Great American Conference.
A relatively unheralded pitching staff possesses both a youth and veteran presence as freshman
Victoria Taylor (1.62 ERA) and senior
Kaylee Garner (2.17 ERA) have combined for 25 of SAU's 27 wins. The duo has combined for 171 strikeouts to just 40 walks and 12 complete games. So far this season, Garner owns a no-hitter, while Roye has the other two wins and sports a 1.67 ERA in nine appearances with a 22-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
A breakdown of SAU's first 32 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 five loses by a combined six runs.
First-pitch for Friday's doubleheader is slated for 4 p.m. Saturday's twin bill is scheduled for 1 p.m. 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 67 career home runs with 15 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 67 bombs to this point in her electric career at Southern Arkansas are fourth all-time in NCAA Division II history with Katelyn Vinson of Midwestern State (2013-2016). The Bonham, Texas, is 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 eighth-place all-time with 146. She is 14 walks away from moving into the top-five of the category. To this point in the season, Dow has been hit-by-pitch 17 times; two shy of tying the single-season record at SAU which was set last season by
Summer Ehrig (19).
NFCA NUMBER 8
For the seventh-consecutive week, the Southern Arkansas Softball program has been tabbed to a Top 10 spot nationally in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top-25 Coaches Poll.
The Lady Muleriders (27-5, 17-3 GAC) have appeared in all seven 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. 8 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 14-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 30 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 .726 (106-40). 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 93-37 in league play in his four years as a head coach in the GAC and 50-11 since the beginning of last season.
SCOUTING OUACHITA BAPTIST
The Lady Tigers are 13-19 overall this season and 7-13 in Great American Conference play. Ouachita won their last outing and split a league series with Southeastern Oklahoma State on the road. OBU is 3-5 in true road games this season.
Two players are hitting over .300 for the Lady Tigers through the halfway point of the season. Macy Wilson leads the team with a .330 average (33-for-100) and is one of just two players that have played and started all 32 games for OBU this season. Wilson's 33 hits lead the team. Macy Nantz follows with a .304 batting average (28-for-92) and leads the team in doubles (6), home runs (5), total bases (49), and slugging percentage (.533). Daniella Brantley is just shy of the .300 mark as she is hitting .295 (26-for-88) and leads the team in RBI with 19. Five players have scored ten or more runs, five have registered ten or more RBI and six players have recorded 20 or more hits.
Nantz paces the club in the circle with a team-best 3.72 ERA in 55.2 innings pitched. Kelsey O'Brien owns a 4.30 ERA and leads the team in wins (6), complete games (5), innings pitched (96.1), strikeouts (63) and opponent batting average (.273).
The Lady Tigers are coached by Mike McGhee and are assisted by Kailey Madden.
THE SERIES
The series between Ouachita and Southern Arkansas began in 2002 with the Lady Muleriders claiming an 11-3 victory in the first ever meeting between the two programs. Since then, the series has remained competitive with SAU holding a 32-24 series lead, including a 16-9 mark when playing in Magnolia. The Lady Tigers last won at Southern Arkansas on February 28, 2015, in a 5-0 victory in a series opener. That series was shortened to three games. The last time the Lady Muleriders lost a series to OBU was in 2013 when the Lady Tigers took three of four from SAU in Arkadelphia.
LAST SEASON
Last year's series was cut short to three games due to weather and Southern Arkansas won the three games by a combined 27-3 margin. The Lady Muleriders tossed a pair of shutouts in a doubleheader sweep on March 19.
