MAGNOLIA, Ark. – #5/4 Southern Arkansas heads back to Oklahoma for the second time this season where a Great American Conference weekend series at East Central awaits the league-leading Muleriders. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start with Sunday's finale slated for noon. Live coverage links are available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
The Muleriders (17-4, 11-1 GAC) are looking to get back on track after dropping two of their past three and three of their previous five games. SAU swept league opponents Northwestern Oklahoma, Southwestern Oklahoma and Arkansas Tech and took two of three from Ouachita, but was on the other end of home midweek matchups against Delta State and Arkansas-Monticello.
Southern Arkansas and East Central (1-19, 0-12 GAC) will meet in Ada for the first time since the 2016 season. The 41
st meeting since 2006 is on tap this weekend in the series opener and SAU controls the series during the span 33-7 with a 22-6 advantage since the 2012 season; both programs' first as charter members of the GAC.
SAU holds several top 20 offensive rankings nationally including base on balls (3rd, 138), hit-by-pitch (9th, 44), home runs (10th, 35), on-base percentage (12th, .447), runs (17th, 200), scoring (17th, 9.5), and slugging percentage (20th, .537).
Five players are hitting north of .300 led by junior
Riley Orr's .379 average. Freshman
Brandon Nicoll leads the team in hits with 29 and extra base hits with 15, junior
Ty Manning follows with 28 and three other players have recorded at least 20. Manning paces four other Muleriders with 20 or more runs scored as his 27 have been sparked by a team-leading 10 stolen bases and 11 hit-by-pitch. Seven players have walked at least ten times with Sutton's 23 standing as the sixth-most in DII entering the weekend.
Junior
Tucker Burton leads the team in home runs with eight, while Manning and Nicoll have both registered eight doubles.
The Muleriders rank 22nd in the country in strikeouts per nine at 10.8 and own the GAC's second-best ERA at 4.22, second-best WHIP at 1.38, second-highest strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.52 and third-best walks allowed per nine at 4.27.
Southern Arkansas' weekend starters have been very good. Freshman
Jeremy Adorno and juniors
Jacob Womack and
Wyatt Marr are a combined 13-1 this season. Adorno's .68 ERA ranks ninth nationally and do his 3.6 hits allowed per nine. His 59 strikeouts are the second-most in the country and just three back of the national leader, while Womack's 52 Ks are the sixth most. The pair ranks 1 and 2 in the GAC in strikeouts. Marr follows with 25 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched this spring.
Sophomore
Chance Bolter is 2-0 with one of the staff's three saves this season in five relief efforts totaling 5.0 innings. Junior
Maddux Solomon has appeared in three games totaling three relief innings and has yet to allow a run. Junior
Parker Abrego and sophomore
Kade Garmany both operate with an ERA under 2 as each has made three appearances this season.
ECU's Mason Glowacki leads three players with an average north of .300. He leads the team in hits (27), doubles (6), RBI (15), runs scored (18) and stolen bases (6). The Tigers swing at a clip of .255 and have recorded 43 extra base hits. On the mound, ECU holds a team ERA of 13.19 and seven pitchers have logged at least 10 innings of work. The Tigers have recorded 131 strikeouts and walked 121 batters.
