SHAWNEE – Following an electric, two-game sweep of conference rival Southern Nazarene, the Oklahoma Baptist Bison softball team will head to Henderson State this weekend.
On Friday, March 14, OBU takes on the Reddies with a 12 p.m. doubleheader before a solo game on Saturday starting at noon. The Bison lead the all-time D2 series 18-14 and have won 11 straight dating back to May 1, 2021.
Oklahoma Baptist is 14-11 overall and 9-2 in the Great American Conference after Tuesday night's wins over SNU. With that, the Bison remain a game out of first place in the standings with Harding (10-1) and Southern Arkansas (10-1) occupying the top spot.
As for HSU, they have lost six in a row and are 12-9 and 4-7 in league play. Below are notes on both squads.
Bison Notes
- The green and gold defeated the Crimson Storm 14-7 and 5-4 this past Tuesday. In those games, OBU attained seven home runs.
- Since the program started GAC play in 2016, that's the most combined homers in a GAC doubleheader.
- Sammie Greene had two, including the game-winning blast during the second contest, while senior classmate Morgan Max also notched a pair.
- This season, Greene, Max and Greenlee Wells all have seven homers and are tied for the GAC lead.
- Greene's senior season has been sensational to this point. She ranks top five in the GAC in batting average (.493), slugging (.836), hits (36), on-base percentage (.575), total bases (61) and stolen bases (17).
- Furthermore, as a team, OBU's 33 bombs are first in the GAC and top 30 in D2.
- During the series with SNU, Bison pitching only obtained five strikeouts, however, they relied on their defense. In fact, OBU's staff accumulated 26 ground-ball outs and 10 fly-ball outs over 69 batters faced.
- This season, OBU's 3.64 ERA is fourth in the league while its 6.57 strikeouts per seven innings is 33rd in the country.
- With the series win, OBU has now won 22 consecutive GAC series. Its last series loss was against Southeastern in March of 2023.
- In an incredible stat, over the last 11 games versus Henderson, spanning 69 innings, OBU has allowed just eight runs to the Reddies. That's an ERA of 1.04.
Reddies Notes
- Henderson State was 12-3 to start the season but has since lost six straight. Most recently, Ouachita swept the Reddies on March 11 by 2-0 and 5-4 scores.
- HSU ranks 11th in the GAC in batting (.242), slugging percentage (.358) and total bases (194). They are also last, 12th, in hits (131).
- Only three players have batting averages above .300: Macy Hoskins (.302), Hilary Akers (.338) and Justine Burch (.373).
- For Burch, her BA is good for 10th in the GAC while her .500 on-base percentage is slotted seventh.
- Hoskins has a team-high three homers while Akers' 14 RBI are tops on Henderson.
- Also of note, Brooke Johnson has added two bombs with 10 runs batted in for the Reddies.
- Johnson is also Henderson's top pitcher. Her 1.19 ERA is near the top of the GAC and she's allowing opponents to hit .198. That's also a top-three mark.
- In 10 appearances so far, Johnson has fanned multiple batters in nine of those games including a season-high six strikeouts twice: Northwest Missouri (2/1) and Harding (3/7).
