SHAWNEE – The Oklahoma Baptist softball team will make its fourth consecutive appearance at the Great American Conference Softball tournament on Friday in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In light of the tournament's new format, the top-seeded Bison will play their first game in the semifinals against the winner of Thursday's third game between No. 4 Southern Arkansas and No. 5 Arkansas Tech.
Friday's contest is scheduled for noon at Bentonville High School's Tiger Athletic Complex.
Fans interested in attending can purchase a digital ticket ($8) online here. Cash is not accepted at the gate. Other coverage, such as the live stream and other tournament information, can be found here.
OBU closed the regular season with a 40-11 record and 30-3 conference mark to lock up the No. 1 spot in the tournament for a second straight year. It is a program record for GAC wins in a season, topping last year's total of 28.
Last night, the Bison nearly swept the conference's of-the-year awards as All-GAC honors were announced. Sam Maples and Kayleigh Jones repeated as Coach and Player of the Year, respectively.
Maggie Place garnered Freshman of the Year honors, while Morgan Max was named Player of the Year. It is the second straight year OBU has taken home four out of the five major awards given at the end of the season.
Plus, seven were named to the All-GAC team. There were four First Team selections: Jones, Max, Adi Reese and Ally Ryan. There were also three Second Team honorees: Place, Emily Adler and Sammie Greene.
The Bison look to rid their woes at the conference tournament, where they've never won a game. They've bowed out in the opening round the last three seasons.
However, riding an 11-game winning streak going into tomorrow's matchup, OBU is confident.
Oklahoma Baptist led the GAC in the following categories this season: ERA (1.90), home runs (40), strikeouts (370), on-base percentage (.388), and WHIP (1.04). The Bison also turned in top five marks in RBI (251), slugging (.439), total bases (573), and batting average (.287).
The green and gold hit .307 with a .459 slugging percentage during its streak. In the pitching lane, OBU boasted a 1.15 earned run average and limited opposing batters to a .181 batting average across 73.0 innings.
Jones and Place were the most feared pitching tandem in the GAC, combining for 37 wins and 323 strikeouts in nearly 293.0 frames of work. Jones threw three no-hitters, while Place allowed just 16 walks.
Max (.391) and Reese (.376) ranked in the top 10 of the conference for batting average, while Ryan was the league's top slugger with 17 home runs and a slugging percentage of .727.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
The Bison earned series wins over Southern Arkansas and Arkansas Tech this season. OBU swept the Golden Suns and dropped one contest to SAU, 1-2, after nine innings. Then, Oklahoma Baptist outscored the Muleriders 14-5 in the next two games of the series.
Southern Arkansas compiled a 32-16 record with a 21-12 mark in GAC action. They ended the regular season with the second-best ERA (2.07) in the league and the fifth-best batting average (.284).
ATU took down Henderson State 6-5 in the tournament's first round this morning to improve its record to 26-20 (17-16 GAC). Though they hit just .257 this season, their pitching was commendable, with a 2.88 earned run average.
