#8 Southern Arkansas is back on track after answering a rare league split with Northwestern Oklahoma State with a four-game sweep of Ouachita Baptist last weekend. The Lady Muleriders are set to host Arkansas-Monticello (24-10, 17-5 GAC) in a "Rivalry Tuesday" doubleheader. The Blossoms enter with a nine-game winning streak, while Southern Arkansas has won five in a row.
The Lady Muleriders are 13-3 at home this season and Tuesday's twin bill will conclude a ten-game home stand.
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: batting average (.336), slugging percentage (.598), on-base percentage (.437), runs scored (276), hits (339), RBIs (254), doubles (60),
home runs (66), total bases (603), plate appearances (1220), walks (151), and hit-by-pitch (37).
The lineup responsible for that high offensive production features five players that have played and started all 36 games and are hitting .325 or better with all having 37 or more hits. Three of those five players have 34 or more RBI, with a pair of players owning 46 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 (1.71 ERA) and senior
Kaylee Garner (2.01 ERA) have combined for 27 of SAU's 31 wins. The duo has combined for 187 strikeouts to just 43 walks and 12 complete games. So far this season, Garner owns a no-hitter, while Roye has three wins and sports a 1.36 ERA in 13 appearances with a 25-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
A breakdown of SAU's first 36 games includes thirteen games with 10 or more runs, 11 run-rule victories, eight one-run wins, four extra-inning affairs with three reaching the tenth inning, and five loses by a combined six runs.
First-pitch for Tuesday's doubleheader is slated for 4 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 70 career home runs with 18 of those home runs coming this campaign. Dow currently leads NCAA Division II in home runs.
Dow's 70 bombs to this point in her electric career at Southern Arkansas are fourth all-time in NCAA Division II history. The Bonham, Texas, is nine 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 148. She is 12 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 (31-5, 21-3 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 |
WEEK 9),
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 three times, 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 26 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 .733 (110-40). 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 97-37 in league play in his four years as a head coach in the GAC and 54-11 since the beginning of last season.
SCOUTING ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO
UAM enters Tuesday's rivalry doubleheader with Southern Arkansas currently ranked third in the Great American Conference with a 17-5 record in league play. The Blossoms own a 24-10 mark overall and will carry a nine-game win streak to Magnolia. Arkansas-Monticello is 7-5 on the road this season and 1-4 in their last five road games.
Offensively, the Blossoms are led by a pair of players that currently own a .330 average or better and have started all 34 games for UAM. McKenzie Rice's .364 average (39-for-107) paces the club and Kendra Coleman follows with a .337 average (35-for-104). Coleman leads the team with nine home runs and Rice follows with eight, a team-leading eight doubles, 33 runs scored and a club-best 39 hits. Maranda Clendenin and Meagan Duchesne have combined for 50 RBI.
Southern Arkansas will likely see two of the best arms in the Great American Conference on Tuesday as Coleman and Kaylee Freeman each own sub-2.00 ERAs and have combined for 20 of UAM's 24 wins. Coleman owns a 1.02 ERA; the best mark in the league. Coleman has tallied a 14-3 record, 16 complete games, five shutouts, two saves, and 109 strikeouts in 116.2 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting just .185 off of Coleman, while Freeman's 1.66 ERA has been posted in 11 appearances that have totaled 67.2 innings pitched.
THE COACH
Alvy Early is in his 21st season as head coach of the Blossom Softball program and has amassed a career record of 598-291-2. Early led UAM to the inaugural GAC regular season and tournament championships in 2012, four NCAA Regional Tournament appearances, and an NCAA Super Regional and No. 11 finish in 2010. Early claimed the 2012 GAC Coach of the Year honor and owns two GSC-West Coach of the Year awards and was named the GSC-West Softball Coach of the Decade.
Before taking over the softball program, Early coached for 21 seasons as UAM's Women's Basketball coach and compiled a 425-211 mark. Early is assisted by Kyle Lem and Emily Todd.
THE SERIES
The UAM/SAU Rivalry dates back to 1999; the first year of the Lady Mulerider Softball program. Southern Arkansas won the first meeting all-time between the two programs; a 4-2 decision on April 2, 1999. The Blossoms lead the series 50-28 and are 23-13 against SAU when playing in Magnolia.
LAST SEASON
Southern Arkansas and UAM split last season's home and home as each team captured a win on the road and at home. The four games were decided by a combined eight runs with no team scoring more than five runs in any of the four games.
