MAGNOLIA, Ark. – A wild ride on a winding regular season road comes to an end this weekend for Southern Arkansas. The Muleriders head east to close out the final Great American Conference series of the season as Arkansas-Monticello awaits in a three-game series from Weevils Field. Live coverage links are available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
Southern Arkansas (27-16, 18-11 GAC) is currently fourth in the league standings, three games back of UAM (25-20, 21-9 GAC) in the win column. Below the Muleriders are both Henderson State and Ouachita with each at 18-12 in league play. The top four finishers in the regular season standings will host the remaining four teams next weekend in the league's opening round of postseason action.
By virtue of their pair of wins over Northwestern Oklahoma in a weather-shortened series last weekend in Magnolia, Southern Arkansas earned a 13
th appearance to the GAC Tournament; one of two teams (Arkansas Tech) to punch a ticket to every league tourney since the first was contested in Enid, Oklahoma in 2012.
SAU and UAM have met 50 times on the diamond since 2012 when both longtime Natural State universities became charter members of the GAC. The Muleriders lead the series 30-20 during that time and is 11-8 against the Weevils in Monticello. SAU topped UAM 11-0 in seven innings on April 2.
Southern Arkansas leads the conference in complete games (6), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.74), walks allowed per nine (3.10) and triples (15).
Mikel Howell leads the pitching staff and the conference and ranks 19
th nationally with half of SAU's complete games,
Tim Ruffino leads the team, ranks second in the GAC and holds a top 35 mark nationally in K-to-BB ratio at 4.86 and the latter ranks second in the GAC and 18
th among all DII arms in BB/9 at 1.33.
Clay Burrows and
Will Richardson have each hit three triples and are tied for second in the GAC in the category.
The Muleriders are slashing .286/.403/.482 and in addition to their league-lead in three-baggers rank inside the GAC's top five offensively in walks (203), hit-by-pitch (80), on-base percentage (.403), sacrifice flies (16) and runs per game (7.5).
Trace Shoup leads the team in average (.360), OPS (1.085), runs scored (42), doubles (12) and on-base percentage.
Brandon Nicoll leads the team in hits (57), home runs (12), RBI (40), total bases (104) and slugging percentage (.630).
SAU owns a team ERA of 4.43 which is the third-lowest in the GAC. The Muleriders average 8.5 strikeouts per nine highlighted by
Jeremy Adorno's 10.8 which ranks second in the GAC and 30
th in DII. Adorno's 88 strikeouts lead the GAC and are the fourth-most nationally. Six arms join the weekend starters with a dozen or more punchouts with
Isaiah Haynes' two dozen Ks leading all SAU relievers.
UAM enters the final weekend of the season slashing .303/.398/.500. The Weevils' average ranks second in the GAC behind a doubles per game rate of 2.25 which leads the GAC and ranks 17
th in DII. UAM also leads the league in strikeouts-per-nine at 9.4 which rates inside the top 20 nationally. The Weevils carry a team ERA that sits at nearly 6.00.
Camden Tanner leads the GAC in average (.435), hits per game (1.63), on-base percentage (.522), slugging percentage (.760) and ranks second in hits (67). Charles Peacock's 72 strikeouts rank fourth in the GAC, while his 13.89 K/9 rate ranks first and is the second-highest in DII. Connor Irvine follows Peacock in Ks with 67.
