SHAWNEE – There's a quick turnaround for Oklahoma Baptist (29-15, 20-6 GAC) who hosts Arkansas Tech (26-22, 15-12 GAC) beginning on Thursday, April 17 at 6 p.m.
Games two and three will follow on Friday starting at noon at Bison Softball Park.
While the Bison have won seven in a row over ATU, overall, this has been a very competitive series. In fact, in 30 matchups since the 2009 season, each team has won 15 times. Last season, OBU won by 2-1, 4-1 and 4-3 tallies en route to its second consecutive GAC Regular Season Championship.
Below are tidbits on both teams.
Bison Notes
- OBU got its 28th and 29th wins of the season after sweeping Northeastern State by 9-1 and 5-3 scores on Tuesday.
- Coming into the series with ATU, the Bison are in second place in the GAC, five games back of No. 9 Southern Arkansas (37-5, 27-1 GAC).
- Freshman Kaley Cook had a homer and a stolen base in the series with NSU. In the process, she broke the school's previous record for stolen bases in a season. Cook's got 38, besting a 1993 total of 37 set by Mary May.
- Morgan Max notched another save for OBU against the RiverHawks, her sixth. That's good for second in the conference and fourth nationally. Plus, the six saves are the most in the D2 era, passing Kayleigh Jones' mark of five set in 2022.
- OBU tallied four homers in the series with NSU, bumping its season total to 58. Currently that's the sixth-best total in the nation and leads the GAC.
- Plus, the 58 bombs are second-most in school history and four away from tying the 2013 team single-season record of 62.
- Also of note, the team's .511 slugging percentage is best in the conference and No. 20 in D2 while their 108 stolen bags are No. 9 in the country, first in the league and most in school history.
- Cook (38) and Sammie Greene (32) lead the stolen bases category this year for OBU.
- One last note offensively, Greenlee Wells has a GAC-high 12 homers while Max and Greene rank second with 11 each.
- Junior Jaycee Shaffer picked up another win in the circle on Tuesday. She's got 16 victories this season. Those slot her 16th nationally and second in the league.
Golden Suns Notes
- ATU split a doubleheader with Delta State on April 14, moving its record to 26-22.
- This season, the Golden Suns are 12-17 away from home.
- Offensively, Arkansas Tech's .274 batting average and 4.25 scoring average are ranked ninth out of 12 GAC schools. They do have the fifth-most hits though at 342.
- The Golden Suns also have a GAC-leading 35 sacrifice bunts and 15 sacrifice flies.
- Pitching-wise, ATU's 5.90 strikeouts per seven innings ranks fourth in the conference as does their 3.16 earned run average.
- A few players stick out for Arkansas Tech. Sadie Turner has been hit-by-pitch a whopping 14 times this season, the top mark in the GAC.
- Turner is also ranked fourth in the GAC with a .484 on-base percentage and has seven homers.
- Of note, no ATU player ranks in the top-ten of the GAC in batting average, slugging, runs scored or hits.
- Caroline Wilhelm has added four sacrifice flies which lead the league and rank 39th in D2.
- Kacie Gibbins and Maycie Hardy have posted team-highs with 48 hits each.
- Leading the way in the circle are Aly White and Alexis Findley. Each have ERAs lower than 2.73 and have accounted for 18 wins.
- For Findley, her 142 strikeouts are third-best in the conference and 29th in the nation.
