MAGNOLIA, Ark. – The journey to Longwood, Florida for the site of the 2024 NCAA Division II Softball Championship begins as Mulerider Softball is making their eighth consecutive appearance, ninth overall, in the NCAA postseason as they pack their bags for the road trip to the Sunflower State where they are hosted by the top-seed in the Central Region, Pittsburg State. Team 26 is set to face the host of the regional, who like Southern Arkansas is the runner-ups in their own conference, the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
As mentioned, the Muleriders enter NCAA postseason play as the Great American Conference Tournament Runner-Ups and the eighth-seed in the Central Region. Pittsburg, Kansas is the host of Central Region 1 which consists of the (1) Pittsburg State (51-6), (4) Augustana (45-13), (5) Oklahoma Baptist (40-12).
Team 26's latest turnouts came in the GAC Tournament in Bentonville, Arkansas as the group defeated Arkansas Tech (8-2) in the quarterfinals and regular season GAC champions Oklahoma Baptist (5-4) in the semifinals before falling to Southern Nazarene in the championship game.
Notable Muleriders
Southern Arkansas will arrive in the Sunflower State with five athletes receiving All-GAC honors and one conference superlative award.
The lone First Team All-GAC member, Sydney Ward, makes her third NCAA postseason appearance with a 1.72 earned run average which is the lowest ERA in the GAC. The senior has pitched 12 complete games and 162.2 innings in which she has struck out 140 batters (4th GAC) and thrown six shutouts (T2nd GAC).
Leading the team in strikeouts and the GAC Newcomer of the Year (Second Team All-GAC) is Brinson Rogers as the junior has accumulated 207 Ks (2nd GAC | 19th nationally) this season is only the fourth Mulerider in program history to record 200 or more strikeouts in a single season. The Statesboro, Georgia native has pitched for 135.2 innings as she is just one of two pitchers in the league to have allowed less than 100 hits with at least 100 IP in the regular season. She is second in the conference her hits allowed per seven innings with 4.75 (18th nationally) and ranks seventh in NCAA Division II for strikeouts served per seven innings with 10.7 (1st GAC).
A Buddha Bomb in the semifinal round of the league tournament could be looked at as one of the crucial plays to have gotten the Muleriders where they are now as Regan Dillon comes off one of her most clutch at-bats of the season in the matchup against top-seeded Oklahoma Baptist in the GAC Tournament this last week. Dillon's week was one of those you had to see it to understand moments as the sophomore started the outing 0-3 and on her final walk to the plate, the All-GAC Second Teamer nailed the coffin shut with a dinger out past left field for the arguable ticket puncher to the eighth straight regional appearance. The Bryant, Arkansas product's clutch performances is a significant reason that the sophomore earned a spot on the GAC All-Tournament Team. Dillon this season has recorded a .358 BA (58-162), 28 extra base hits (13 HR | 2nd GAC), 47 RBI, 33 runs scored, and an OPS of 1.162.
Regional Bracket (Times are shown in Eastern Standard Time)
Game times shown for games one and two have been updated in which Southern Arkansas is scheduled to face #1 Pittsburg State at 2:00 PM (CST) for game one and #4 Augustana and #5 Oklahoma Baptist will compete at 4:30 PM (CST) following game one.
(1) #5 Pittsburg State
The Gorillas hail for the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association in which competition runs high as PSU has gone toe-to-toe with squads such as the MIAA Tournament Champions #10 Rogers State (43-10), #12 Central Oklahoma (42-12), and Washburn who has been ranked on and off throughout the campaign.
This meeting between the Muleriders and the Gorillas will mark the tenth meeting between the programs as Southern Arkansas leads the all-time series 5-4 with the last three meetings going to the Blue and Gold. In those last three meetings, the Muleriders defeated Pitt State by finals of 3-2, 19-0 (5), and 11-3 (5). This matchup will be only the second meeting in Pittsburg as the last time that took place was in 2008 and was the last win in the series for the Gorillas (0-11).
The group saw three superlative MIAA awards while also accounting for six All-MIAA honorees.
Heather Arnett was awarded as the league's Co-Player of the Year as the sophomore has registered a batting average of .455 (96-211 | 1st MIAA | 17th nationally) with 16 extra base hits, 31 RBI, 70 runs scored (4th nationally), 123 total bases (2nd MIAA), and a slugging percentage of .583. Of those 211 at-bats, Arnett has only been struck out on 12 occasions. The Gorilla's star athlete's 96 hits are the best in the conference while also being the second-best in Division II. Arnett is the MIAA's top base-stealer as the sophomore has recorded 51 stolen bags on 55 attempts (3rd nationally) and leads the league also with her stolen bases per game (0.89 | 7th nationally) and stolen base percentage (0.968 | 8th nationally). Arnett is also one of the conference's top triple-threat as she has recorded seven triples thus far (10th nationally).
The Gorilla top-two threats in the circle have been Ava Laurent and Kiana Pogroszewski. Laurent has started 28 of her 30 appearances and has accounted for a 19-1 record with 15 complete games (3rd MIAA) and 162.0 innings pitched. The freshman has recorded an ERA of 1.86 (7th MIAA) as she has surrendered 43 earned runs (48 total) with 117 hits, 52 walks, and 197 strikeouts. The ace was also named the MIAA's Freshman of the Year voted on by the league's coaches. Pogroszewski has started in 26 of her 27 appearances as she has completed nine games and pitched 132.0 innings. The redshirt senior has posted an ERA of 2.81 with 67 runs allowed (53 earned), 161 hits surrendered, 18 walks conceded, and 93 strikeouts recorded.
In the MIAA, the Gorillas hold the best BA (.351 | 12th nationally), second-most doubles (87 | 26th nationally), second-best fielding percentage (.975 | 8th nationally), least hit batters (12 | 22nd nationally), the second-most batters hit by pitches (40 | 26th nationally), most hits (543 | 5th nationally), best on-base percentage (.413 | 20th nationally), best scoring (6.70 runs/game | 23rd nationally), second-best slugging percentage (.507), second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.75 | 14th nationally), most team strikeouts per seven innings (7.16 | 17th nationally), most total runs (382 | 12th nationally), most sacrifice flies (21 | 10th nationally), second-most stolen bases (102 | 29th nationally), and the second-most triples (18 | 17th nationally).
(4) RV Augustana
The Muleriders and the Vikings met early in the season at the Mardi Gras Invitational in which Team 26 secured the victory by final of 8-0 in run-rule fashion.
The group is coming off of their second Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament Championship for the second time in the last three seasons.
Augustana faces Oklahoma Baptist for their regional opener following the conclusion of SAU vs Pitt State.
The Vikings have the NSIC's top batting average with .351 (10th nationally) while also ranking first in other categories such as doubles (114 | 3rd nationally), ERA (1.82 | 11th nationally), hits (576 | 4th nationally), home runs (82 | 5th nationally), HR per game (1.41 | 7th nationally), on-base percentage (.408 | 29th nationally), scoring (6.53 runs/game | 27th nationally), shutouts (19 | 2nd nationally), slugging percentage (.587 | 6th nationally), total runs (379 | 16th nationally), and WHIP (1.04 | 10th nationally)
(5) RV Oklahoma Baptist
Southern Arkansas is no stranger to the Bison as the two squads are split at 2-2 this season with the most recent outing going for the Muleriders in the GAC semifinals last Friday. Oklahoma Baptist won the regular season series against Team 26 two games to one in Magnolia.
The Bison may have not won the conference tournament, but they were still the top seed in the bracket due to their regular season champion title earned this spring.
As mentioned, OBU will face Augustana following the ending of the contest between SAU and Pitt State.
The Bison pitching staff has been the highlight of their campaign as they are home to the GAC Pitcher and Freshman of the Year in Kayleigh Jones and Maggie Place.
Oklahoma Baptist's sits atop of the Great American Conference in categories such as ERA (1.92 | 17th nationally), home runs (40), on-base percentage (.387), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.03 | 8th nationally), sacrifice flies (16), WHIP (1.04 | 8th nationally), and walks forced (194 | 13th nationally).
Game Time
Team 26 is scheduled for the first contest on Thursday at 2:00 PM CST against the Central Region's top-seed and MIAA regular season Co-Champion Pittsburg State.
