SHAWNEE – The two schools that played in last year's Great American Conference Tournament Championship – Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Arkansas – meet this weekend for a three-game series at Bobby Cox Field.
Competition starts on March 22 at 4 p.m. Todd Miller, the voice of the Bison, will be on the call.
In series history, SAU leads the Bison 19-7 including winning the last seven games. It should be noted that six of those have been decided by no more than three runs.
SAU, slotted No. 13 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), is the first-place team in the GAC almost midway through conference play. The Muleriders are 19-7 overall and 12-3 in the GAC. They are 9-1 in true road games this season.
For the Bison, they are 16-11 and 7-8 in the GAC. OBU is currently tied for eighth with Southwestern. The green and gold have won 11-of-14 games in Shawnee this year too.
One of the key objectives for OBU this weekend will be in the batter's box. Last week at Monticello, the team batted .239. That came against a UAM staff that had the nation's No. 43 team ERA. Coming into this series, SAU boasts the No. 20 ERA (4.02).
Here's a look at the key leaders for the Bison.
Isiah Lissade: Tenth in D2 with 78 total bases; ranks 8th with 44 hits, 43rd with seven homers and 29th in runs scored (32).
Alex Schroeder: His nine homers are No. 14 in the nation and No. 1 in the GAC. He's also sixth nationally with 38 RBI. Schroeder needs just 10 more runs driven in to become OBU's all-time leader.
Troy Shields: Is slotted 25th in two categories: home runs (8) and RBI (33). He's also eighth in the GAC in slugging (.652), a career-high.
Jacob Campbell: Checks in at No. 9 in the GAC in home runs (6) and runs scored (26).
On the pitching mound, OBU's usual three-game rotation is
Brek Galbreath,
Nolan Feazle and
Cameron Pool. Galbreath is 13th in the conference with 34 strikeouts while Feazle has the tenth-best ERA (3.95). As for Pool, he produces 9.64 strikeouts per nine innings. That's good for eighth in the GAC.
Also of note, four different Bison have a pair of saves which rank top-seven in the league:
Ryan Turbeville,
William Ellis,
Jordan Brewer and
Bryant Thornton.
Southern Arkansas has a bevy of pitchers it can turn to. Mikel Howell and Tim Ruffino are tied for 11th in D2 with two complete games. Ruffino is also No. 1 in the GAC in ERA (2.05). And don't forget about Jeremy Adorno, a player with several All-America certificates. His 53 strikeouts are sixth-best nationally.
Offensively, Will Richardson has a potent bat for the Muleriders. He ranks top-six in the GAC in batting average (.381), hits (37) and RBI (36). Junior infielder Brandon Nicoll has also been very good ranking sixth in hits (35), second in homers (8) and second in runs scored (31).
