By: By: Jacob Pumphrey
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#25 SOUTHERN ARKANSAS
MULERIDERS
12-5 (7-2 GAC) |
SOUTHERN NAZARENE
CRIMSON STORM
6-10 (2-7 GAC) |
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GAME NOTES (PDF)
Leading Off
No. 25 Southern Arkansas enters the second weekend in March among the top teams in the Great American Conference with a 7-2 mark in league play. The Muleriders, currently tied for third in the league standings with Henderson State, are coming off a pivotal series win on the road at Oklahoma Baptist. This weekend, the Muleriders welcome in Southern Nazarene for a three-game conference series inside Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field.
Through 17 games, Southern Arkansas is hitting .267 as a team and owns one of the top pitching staffs in the GAC as the Muleriders' staff-ERA of 3.68 leads the league.
Senior
Jake Tisevich leads the team in hitting with a .405 average and is one of five Muleriders with 15 or more hits this season. Classmate
Jacob Richardson's 23 hits lead the team as do his six home runs, which rank second in the GAC. Richardson is slugging a team-best .682, while senior
Mark Fontenot ranks in the top three of the team in hits, doubles, home runs, runs scored, RBI, total bases, walks, average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Junior
Dakota Wright has registered a team-leading 19 RBI.
On the mound, senior southpaw
Kenneth Tabor owns a 4-1 record in a team-high 29.1 innings pitched. Tabor and fellow senior starter
Hunter Vasquez lead the team with 33 strikeouts and both own sub-3.00 ERAs, while senior
Jacob Stroder joins Tabor as a four-game winner through the first month of the season. In five appearances out of the bullpen, junior
Eric White has been impressive in picking up three saves, while allowing just three hits and a walk in 9.0 innings of work.
Southern Nazarene comes to Magnolia with a .286 team-batting average and a 6.68 team-ERA. Cole Wagner leads the team with a slash of .404/.507/.596 and is tied for the team-lead with 23 hits. Austin Cooper has also collected 23 hits and leads the team with 14 RBI. Eight players have recorded ten or more hits. Garrett Perez owns a team-high 24 runs scored which ranks third in the GAC and his nine stolen bases ranks second.
Ryan Mills leads the SNU pitching staff with a 2-2 record in 26.1 innings pitched. Five pitchers have logged ten or more strikeouts led by David Gustafson's 30.
It will be the sixth series meeting all-time between Southern Arkansas and Southern Nazarene. The Muleriders have won 13 of the 15 games, including the last nine. During that streak, SAU has held SNU to one run or less in six games and has scored ten or more runs in a game five times. The Crimson Storm victories over SAU include a home win in the first-ever meeting between the schools in April of 2013 and a road win in April of 2014.
