MAGNOLIA, Ark. – With one series remaining in the regular season, the Southern Arkansas University softball team 33-14 (24-6 GAC) will head back to Oklahoma for the second weekend in a row to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State University 13-31-1 (7-23 GAC) in a three game Great American Conference series in Alva. This will be the final series before the GAC conference tournament next weekend.

The Muleriders come into this final weekend tied for 1^st place in the GAC standings along with Arkansas Tech. SAU and ATU both sit at 24-6 in league play, with the Golden Suns are set to take on Southeastern Oklahoma State University this weekend. The Rangers of NWOSU come into this final series losers of their last 11 and are 1-15-1 in their last 17 games. NWOSU has only won two GAC series over East Central University and Southwestern Oklahoma State University, while SAU has won every series except for the series against ATU.

SAU has won 10 of their last 11 games after taking last weekends series 2-1 over SNU. The Mulerider bats continue to stay hot, as SAU collected 30 hits in the three-game series against SNU, to take their team batting average to .297 on the season. Jade Miller's average continues to keep her average above .400 as the grad transfer is batting .416 on the year. J. Miller has also done a very nice job of getting base hits as she has 69 on the year to lead the GAC and team. Miller's 69 hits ranks 10^th among NCAA DII players. The Utah Valley transfer also leads the team in runs with 43, which ranks second in the GAC, and ranks first on the team with 11 home runs, which has her tied for third in the conference.

Jason Anderson's squad has four other players with a .300 batting average or higher, with three of them being over .330. Tiare Lee is second on the team with a .344, followed by Alese Casper (.338), Gracie King (.337) and Jaxynn Dyson with a .306. Casper ranks second on the team in runs scored (38) and hits (50), followed by Dyson with 45 hits and 25 runs scored, both of which are third best on the team. Madison Miller (34) hits and Lee (33) hits both have 30+ hits for SAU.

Dyson holds the team lead in RBI with 38, followed by J. Miller with 32. Lee (28) RBI, M. Miller (25) RBI, and King (24) RBI all have 20+ RBI for SAU. Dyson is second on the team with eight home runs, followed by Lee and King who both have six. Taylor Murphy leads the team with 21 walks, and also has been the hardest to strikeout as she only has 8 strikeouts on the season.

Three of SAU's pitchers have an ERA of 2.00 or less. Kiana Pogroszewski leads the team with a 1.48 ERA, followed by Baylie Thornhill with a 1.82 ERA and Sydney Ward who carries a 1.96 ERA. Macie Welch also has a respectable ERA with a 2.60. SAU's staff ERA is a 1.84 and opponents are only hitting .223 off of SAU's four arms.

Ward leads the staff with a 15-3 record, and also leads the team in strikeouts with 123. The Crowder College transfer has held opponents to a .201 batting average which leads the team. Ward as allowed 40 runs (33 earned) on 87 hits in 117.2 innings of work, which is the second most on the team behind KP who has tossed 118.1 innings.

Pogroszewski holds a 13-4 record and ranks second on the squad with 114 strikeouts. KP has allowed 35 runs (25 earned) on 94 hits. The Utah native is holding opponent batting averages to .218. Thornhill has picked up three wins in the circle as she sits at 3-3 through 42.1 innings of work. The Division I transfer has allowed 14 runs (11 earned) on 41 hits to go along with 47 strikeouts. Welch has won two games on the season and has struck out 39 batters to go up against 38 hits allowed. The Natural State product has allowed 25 runs (14 earned).

The Rangers come into the weekend batting .266 as a team and they have been outscored 305-210 this season. Abby DeTar has been the top hitter for NWOSU, as she leads the team in hits (55), runs (36), batting average (.367) and is tied for the team lead in RBI with Mackenzie Adams with 35. Adams leads the team in home runs with 10, followed by DeTar with seven. Hannah Howell ranks second on the team with 37 hits. Allison Zanca carries the second-best average for the Rangers as she is batting .346 to go along with 36 hits.

NWOSU's pitching staff has a combined ERA of 7.82 and opponents are hitting .338 off of them. Howell has been the best arm in the circle for NWOSU, as she leads the team with a 9-13 record. Howell also leads the team in ERA (6.67), innings pitched (143.0), strikeouts (73) and complete games (13). She has allowed 208 hits and 121 runs (106 earned). Hannah Scoggins is second on the team with an 0-9 record through 79.2 innings. Scoggins has struck out 41 batters with go along with an 8.92 ERA.

The series will get started tomorrow afternoon with a double-header that is set to start at 2:00 p.m. The two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday afternoon with an 11:00 a.m. first pitch. You can find live links to this weekend's series here.