SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (43-10) will meet a familiar foe in the opening round of the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Central Regional tournament Thursday afternoon. The Bison will take on 4-seed and No. 18-ranked Harding at 3:30 p.m. inside Gerry Pinkston Stadium in Edmond, Okla.
Fans can listen to the play-by-play commentary of Todd Miller on the OBU YouTube page and watch the contest on the MIAA Network.
The Bison garnered the No. 5 seed in Monday's NCAA selection show, one of four Great American Conference teams selected from the Central Region.
The tourney in Edmond, hosted by top seed Central Oklahoma, also includes Southeastern Oklahoma State. The event is double-elimination, with play continuing until Saturday, May 12.
OBU claimed its first-ever GAC regular season title a couple of weeks back, ending the season on a 17-game winning streak and a 28-5 conference record. Last Thursday, the Bison bowed out of the league's end-of-the-year tournament following a loss to Southern Nazarene.
Oklahoma Baptist looks to rebound with a test against Harding, a team they've faced three times this season. The lady Bisons, who fell last week in the semifinals of the GAC tournament, bring a 44-12 overall record into Thursday. HU finished the regular season 26-7 in conference play, good for second place behind OBU.
Harding took the regular season series, defeating the Bison 1-3 and 0-1 in games two and three. Oklahoma Baptist beat HU 3-0 in game one on the back of an 11-strikeout performance from Kayleigh Jones.
The clubs battled for 12 innings in the series rubber match, but a Harding bunt sent the winning run across to seal the Bison's fate. It was the longest game in OBU's DII era.
In the series, the Bison hit .211 while HU batted .253, so a shootout is not expected. OBU fanned 24 Harding batters, led by Jones' 19 punchouts. The lady Bisons hit .210 with Jones in the circle, who twirled 13.0 innings without surrendering an earned run.
The senior broke her school record for single-season strikeouts after fanning three batters last week, bringing her total to 305, which ranks second in Division II. A season ago, Jones charted 304 strikeouts in 207.2 innings of action. She adds the country's second-most victories (30) and fifth-best earned run average (0.74).
Oklahoma Baptist also has a reliable pitching option in Aspen Younce, who boasted a 10-2 record during the regular season. In 90.1 innings of work, Younce has struck out 99 batters and thrown two shutouts for an ERA of 2.40.
Of all the powerful bats on the Bison roster, the swings of Emily Adler and Kennedy Clark have made the most noise. The GAC's Player of the Year, Adler, pairs a .419 batting average with a team-leading 67 hits. Clark, the conference Freshman of the Year, maintains a .386 average with 49 hits and a .528 slugging percentage.
SCOUTING THE LADY BISONS
Harding placed nine players on the All-Great American Conference team last week, including the Newcomer of the Year, Riley Price.
Price, a sophomore pitcher, leads HU in the circle with a 1.65 ERA and a 20-4 record. She totals the team's second-most strikeouts (102), a few less than All-GAC second-team honoree Lily Tanski.
Tanski turned in 13 wins and 108 strikeouts this season, while Harding's closer, Abby Burch, earned an NCAA-record 19 saves.
Three Harding offensive powers made the first team, including outfielder Macy Smith. Smith leads the team with a .377 batting average and the second-most hits (60). Sophomore Leigha Harris leads the squad in hits (61), while senior Nicole Shano totals the most RBI (39).
