SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist (6-6, 0-0 GAC) will open Great American Conference action against Harding (8-5, 0-0 GAC) on Friday with a single game before wrapping up the series on Saturday in a doubleheader at Bison Softball Park.
First pitch is slated for 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, while Saturday's game will begin at noon.
Fans can enjoy coverage of the series on the Bison Sports Network and keep up with the live stats here.
Friday marks the 29th all-time meeting with HU and the 11th in Shawnee. Harding leads the series 21-7 and has won eight out of the last 10 matchups. A season ago, OBU collected two wins over HU, a 3-0 series-opening victory in Searcy and a 4-2 triumph at the 2023 NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament.
Oklahoma Baptist concluded a hefty pre-conference schedule last week, featuring contests against six teams in the national discussion. The Bison drew wins over then-ranked No. 3 Central Oklahoma (2-1), No. 19 Rogers State (5-3), and (RV) Washburn (3-2). RSU has since jumped to No. 7, while UCO dropped to No. 12.
The Bison turned in a 4-1 record at the Raising Cane's Softball Tournament a week ago, picking up wins over Fort Hays State (5-2), Washburn, Nebraska Kearney (14-1), and Central Missouri (1-0).
Oklahoma Baptist registered season highs in hits (14) and RBI (14) in its five-inning, run-rule victory over UNK. Against UCM, the Bison prevailed after nine frames of action.
OBU owns the league's third-best ERA (3.01) going into the first week of conference play. Last week, the pitching staff of Kayleigh Jones, Maggie Place, and Jaycee Shaffer produced an earned run average of 2.06.
Jones was named GAC Co-Pitcher of the Week after collecting two wins in three appearances over Washburn and Central Missouri. Jones turned in a 2.45 ERA and struck out 35 batters, including a career-high of 20 punchouts against UCM.
The feat broke the all-time Bison single-game strikeouts record (16), which was held by Kayla Jones and herself. It was the third time in Jones' career that she had recorded at least 16 strikeouts in a game. Jones would've recorded her fifth no-hitter on Bison Hill if it hadn't been for one Central Missouri connection.
Place and Shaffer charted their first wins this season against Fort Hays State and Nebraska Kearney, respectively. Place, a freshman, recorded her first win as a Bison after striking out five and surrendering one run in 7.0 frames. The win over the Lopers was the second victory of Shaffer's career. She struck out five and gave up one earned score in 5.0 innings.
At the plate, Ally Ryan is off to a hot start with a team-best .423 batting average and .732 slugging percentage. Those marks are 12th and 8th in the conference, respectively. Ryan adds team leads in hits (11), RBI (11), total bags (19), and home runs (2). She only homered once a season ago.
Emily Adler is batting .333 and has 10 hits with four RBI. She owns the second-best toughest-to-strike-out rating (30.0) in the GAC with one strikeout in 30 at-bats. Last week, she hit .400 and registered three RBI.
Despite a slow start at the plate, Sammie Greene has a team-high of seven stolen bases in eight attempts. She also adds 17 putouts and a perfect fielding percentage out in center field.
Also of note is catcher Hailey Stanford's .364 batting in five games. Including her first appearance against UCO on Feb. 2, Stanford has tallied four hits and her first career home run while recording 33 putouts and a 1.000 fielding mark behind the plate.
SCOUTING HARDING
Harding holds an 8-5 record after picking up wins over Davenport (1-0), Ferris St. (9-2), Tiffin (17-2), and Purdue Northwest (8-0) at the Music City Invitational.
HU has the best batting average in the GAC (.334), combined with a .465 slugging percentage. The ball club paces the country with 10 triples, including seven last week. Additionally, HU has the fifth-most stolen bags (37) in Division II.
Macy Ham heads the offensive efforts with a .455 batting average, one of three hitting over .400 for Harding. Jordan Cabana and Kaya Lee round out the trio with marks of .441 and .419.
Ham also leads the conference in hits (21), while reigning GAC Player of the Week Emma Curry has team leads in RBI (11) and slugging percentage (.722). Curry received the league's honor after going 9-for-16 across five games with three multi-hit performances.
In the circle, Harding has an ERA of 3.16. Riley Price has seven wins in 13 appearances with a 2.43 ERA. Price has tallied 33 strikeouts and surrendered 17 earned runs in 49.0 innings of action. Next, Abby Burch has a 5.04 ERA and 1-2 record in nine appearances. She totals 11 strikeouts.
Head coach Ashley Reeves is in her fifth season at HU and owns a 123-71 overall record.
