Bentonville, Ark. – The SAU Softball team is hoping that this weekend will be an example of "third times' the charm", entering the conference tournament as the regular season champion and the #1 seed for the third year in a row; however, the previous two times have not seen the Muleriders win the conference tournament, something they hope to remedy this weekend.
The Muleriders get a familiar face in Arkansas-Monticello in the first round on Friday at 12:30 p.m. The Blossoms walked off the Muleriders to split their double-header in Monticello on March 10
th, while the Muleriders swept the return double-header in Magnolia on April 6
th.
The Muleriders are 1-2 in the tournament versus the Blossoms, with the top-seeded Blossoms beating the Muleriders in 2012 by a score of 6-0 and in 2013 by a score of 5-3. The Muleriders' lone win came in 2014 when they claimed a 9-3 victory en route to winning the tournament.
The one seed is 7-1 all-time versus the eight seed, with the lone win coming in 2019 when Ouachita Baptist upset the Muleriders in the first round; SAU is 3-3 all-time as the one seed while UAM have never entered the tournament as the final seed.
A win for the Muleriders would advance them to a semifinal matchup where they would face the winner of the Arkansas Tech-Southern Nazarene matchup; neither team was able to play the Muleriders this season due to COVID-19.
The teams in a potential championship game on the other side of the bracket include Harding, Southeastern Oklahoma, Ouachita Baptist and Oklahoma Baptist.
The Muleriders had eight players named to the All-GAC teams:
Victoria Taylor,
Laina Suesue,
Alese Casper and
Elisa Favela on the first team;
Sydney Wader and
Sarah Evans on the second team; and,
Faith Otts and
Jaxynn Dyson as honorable mentions.
As a team, the Muleriders are second in the conference with a .314 batting average and lead the conference with 44 homeruns on the season. They also lead with 141 walks drawn, and have only struck out a league-low 140 times.
Inside the circle, the Muleriders are the only team with a team ERA below 2.00, at 1.96. They are averaging one strikeout per inning, the only team in the GAC to do so.
Alese Casper's .406 batting average is second-best individually in the conference, only behind GAC Player of the Year Mahina Sauer from SNU; and
Sydney Wader's 1.71 ERA is the second-best in the conference behind GAC Pitcher of the Year Lily Tanski from Harding.
Live coverage links for all of the Muleriders' games this weekend can be found on MuleriderAthletics.com
