MAGNOLIA, Ark – After playing their last six games on the road, the Great American Conference leading Southern Arkansas University softball team will return to Magnolia as they are set to take on the Harding University Bisons in a three game GAC series. The Muleriders 23-12 (16-4 GAC) sit alone on top of the GAC standings, while Harding 27-11 (14-7 GAC) currently sits in third place. The three-game series will get started tomorrow evening at 5:00 p.m. followed by a double-header on Saturday that is set to start at 1:00 p.m.
SAU went 5-1 on their road trip, as they swept Southeastern Oklahoma State University two weeks ago and then took two of three from Henderson State University a week ago. The Muleriders were supposed to play two more games on the road this past Wednesday against Arkansas-Monticello, but the double-header since been rescheduled to April 13
th due to rain earlier in the week. HU picked up a GAC sweep over Monticello last weekend, but they fell in a midweek contest to Arkansas Tech on Tuesday 2-0. The Bisons are 6-3 in their last nine contests.
The Muleriders are 10-1 at home this season and will look to add to that number as they battle with the Bisons. SAU has outscored its opponents 170-87 on the year and have outhit their opponents 257-194, with
Jade Miller leading SAU in both of those categories. J. Miller leads the team with 49 hits and 33 runs, while also leading
Jason Anderson's squad in batting average (.392), number of total bases (84), home runs (9), and slugging percentage (.672).
Jaxynn Dyson and
Alese Casper have shown great offensive production as they have each collected 32 hits this season, while
Madison Miller has notched 22 base hits. Dyson leads SAU with 25 RBI, while Casper ranks second on the team with 28 runs.
Tiare Lee is tied with J. Miller with 22 RBI while M. Miller and
Sarah Evans both have knocked in 18 runs. Dyson has hit seven home runs on the season, followed by Evans (6), Lee (5), and M. Miller (4).
Taylor Murphy and Casper lead the team with 14 walks apiece.
Kiana Pogroszewski and
Sydney Ward have both collected 10 wins in the circle for the Muleriders. Pogroszewski leads the squad with a 1.10 ERA and 83 strikeouts through 83.0 innings pitched. Ward has tossed a team high 84.0 innings to go along with 79 strikeouts. KP and Ward both have tossed six complete games with KP collecting three shutouts.
Baylie Thornhill ranks second on the team with a 1.83 ERA through 30.2 innings pitched. Thornhill has struck out 33 batters and has allowed 11 runs (eight earned) on 30 hits.
Macie Welch has picked up two wins for SAU to go along with a team leading three saves. The Memphis transfer has struck out 39 batters through 37.2 innings pitched.
The Bisons come into this weekend's series having outscored their opponents 237-173 and outhitting them 359-251. Harding has four players that are hitting .378 or better, as Emma Curry and Nicole Sano lead the team with a .415 average. Leigha Harris is batting .388 while Chelsea Blankenship is hitting .378. All four players have 44+ hits as Shano leads the team with 51. Blanenship has collected 48 base knocks, followed by Harris (47) and Curry (44). Shano leads the team with 41 RBI and 13 home runs.
Megan Pistokache leads HU in the circle with a 10-4 record and has pitched 100.1 innings. Pistokache has surrendered 122 hits and 63 runs (56 earned) to go along with 56 strikeouts. Lily Tanski has also seen a decent amount of time in the circle as she has collected eight wins through 83.2 innings of work.
You can find live links to this weekend's series
here.
