SHAWNEE – Three weekends remain in the regular season and what's next for Oklahoma Baptist (25-14, 18-5 GAC) is as important as any series yet.
On April 11-12, the Bison will play three Great American Conference contests at Harding who has dipped a little in the last week. In fact, HU has dropped five in a row and sits in third place behind OBU in the standings with a 33-9 and 17-7 GAC mark.
Competition from Searcy starts on Friday with games at 4 and 6 p.m. On Saturday, the finale begins at noon. Historically, Harding leads the series with OBU 21-10 but have lost four of five. However, HU has never lost a GAC series at home to the Bison since 2017.
Below you'll find notes on both squads.
Bison Notes
- Morgan Max had a unique series at Northwestern. She was 5-for-5, did not strike out, earned one sacrifice fly and drew seven walks. Max also earned a save in the circle.
- The senior from Moore has been outstanding this year. Her .421 batting average ranks fourth in the GAC while she also ranks top-five in home runs (10), RBI (46), slugging (.9794), and on-base percentage (.522).
- Classmate Sammie Greene has been sensational for OBU as well. She's the GAC leader in homers (11), runs (40) and total bases (93). She also boasts nine other, top-3 marks including hits (53), on-base (.504), RBI (39), slugging (.769) and stolen bases (30).
- As a team, OBU leads the conference and is eighth nationally with 51 homers. That is also the third-best total in OBU single-season history.
- The Bison also have dialed up 219 RBI, the best mark in the GAC, as well as 97 stolen bases. That's No. 2 in the league and 11th nationally.
- Speaking of stolen bags, freshman Kaley Cook is nearing the previous OBU record for steals. She's got 33, four away from tying the 1993 record (37) set by Mary May. Cook is also one triple away from tying the school record of seven set by Amy Lassetter in 1984.
- Lastly on the offensive end, Greenlee Wells, who plays shortstop, is tied with Greene with 11 bombs and is tied for fourth in the GAC with 12 doubles.
- Junior Jaycee Shaffer is now up to 14 wins after earning two in Alva. That total is a top-25 NCAA mark and second in the GAC. Her winning percentage of .875 is second best in school history as well.
- Shaffer also has the third-most strikeouts (123) in the GAC and ranks third with 13 complete games and fourth with three shutouts.
Harding Notes
- Despite some recent struggles, including being shut out four consecutive games, Harding possesses maybe the most balanced team in the league.
- HU leads the GAC in batting average (.329) and is second with a 1.99 team ERA. They also have the most hits (371) and second-best fielding percentage (.972) in the league.
- Harding also is also ranked top-three in RBI (211) and scoring (5.62).
- Individually, Kaya Lee and Zoey Neal have led the HU offense.
- Lee is the GAC leader with a .442 batting average and 61 hits. She's also sixth in on-base percentage (.480).
- Neal is the league leader with 54 runs batted in and four sacrifice flies while also ranking second with 54 hits.
- Additionally, Macy Ham has a GAC-high 34 stolen bases and 40 runs scored.
- In the circle, Harding relies on Brooklyn Gobble, a former member of Oklahoma Baptist.
- Gobble's 2.15 ERA is fourth-best in the GAC and her 4.68 hits allowed per seven innings is No. 2. Plus, her 29 appearances are tops in the league while her four shutouts rank second.
- Teammate Riley Price has been strong too, owning a 10-5 record with two saves, 36 strikeouts and a 1.59 ERA.
