SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist, winners of 24 straight regular-season Great American Conference series, puts that streak to the test this coming weekend. On March 29-30, OBU will head to Durant to face Southeastern Oklahoma State.
In fact, who was the last program to earn a series win over the two-time reigning GAC regular-season champ? Southeastern. Competition this time around starts with a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday the 29th before a 1 p.m. contest on Sunday.
OBU is 21-12 this season with a 14-3 GAC mark. That's good for third in the standings. As for SE, it possesses a 16-18 record and sits in fifth in the GAC with an 8-9 record.
Here are notes on both teams.
Bison Notes
- Oklahoma Baptist went 5-0 last week with victories at Texas Woman's and Ouachita.
- Freshman Nichelle Marshall was sensational. Over three games played, she hit .714 (5-7) with three homers, seven RBI and a slugging mark of 2.000.
- Senior Sammie Greene was lights out too, batting .533 with a team-high nine RBI and 18 total bases.
- Halfway through the GAC schedule, Greene is the conference leader in batting average (.480), slugging (.840), on-base percentage (.556) and homers (10).
- Also of note, after last week's contests, a total of six players hit at least .500: including Greene and Marshall, Morgan Max, Kaley Cook, Greenlee Wells and Kaylee Davis reached that percentage.
- Speaking of Cook, she's having an outstanding freshman campaign. She boasts top-five GAC marks in batting (.426), runs scored (33), hits (46), triples (5) and stolen bases (28).
- It should also be noted that Cook is within distance of two OBU single-season records. Her five triples are two away Amy Lassetter's 1984 mark of seven while Cook's 28 stolen bags is nine off a 1993 total of 37 set by Mary May.
- Cook is also on a team-high, 15-game hitting streak which started March 5 at Cameron.
- Lastly on the offensive end, Max's 41 RBI is second-best in the GAC and sits 12th all-time in OBU single-season history.
- In the circle, Jaycee Shaffer continues to lead. Her 11 victories and 97 strikeouts are third in the league. Plus, her 2.45 ERA is a top-10 league mark.
- Max also has earned three saves for the Bison. That's one off the GAC lead.
Savage Storm Notes
- Southeastern has lost five of its last seven games, however, it did earn an impressive 5-2 win over No. 10 ranked Central Oklahoma on March 25.
- This season, SE is 9-5 at home.
- Junior first baseman Iliana Olivares has been SE's top offensive threat this spring. Her 41 hits rank top-six in the GAC while her .383 batting average is inside the top-10.
- Fellow classmate India McMurray has tallied 22 RBI which is a top-11 GAC mark. However, she's recorded just one of those with three hits over the last seven games (3-for-18).
- Another rather potent bat for the Savage Storm is Sage Harlow. She has five homers with 19 runs driven in.
- Pitching wise, Southeastern has had some struggles. SE's ERA of 4.36 is currently eighth in the conference. They have also allowed teams to score 4.97 runs per game.
- Furthermore, Southeastern's staff has allowed opponents to hit .315. That total ranks ninth in the GAC.
- Trinity Oden leads the Savage Storm with a 3.38 ERA, five wins and 77 strikeouts.
