SHAWNEE – No. 20 (NFCA) Oklahoma Baptist (18-2, 6-0 GAC) hosts East Central (5-15, 3-3 GAC) this weekend at Regent Bank Park. On March 7, the two teams will play a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. before a Sunday, March 8 contest at 2.
The Bison trail the all-time series 28-15 but have not lost a conference series to the Tigers in each of the last five years. Furthermore, OBU has won nine of the last 10 contests.
Here are notes on both teams.
For the Bison:
OBU is 18-2. That's the best start through 20 games in school history. The previous best was in 1992 when the program was 16-4.
The Bison are the premiere home-run hitting squad in Division II. They lead with 1.55 homers per game and are second in total bombs (31).
Seniors
Greenlee Wells and
Ally Ryan led the team with 12 and seven homers, respectively. Wells' total leads the nation while Ryan sits in 10th.
How about this for Wells: she ranks within the top-20 in the country in seven different categories including first with 74 total bags.
A few other significant offensive marks,
Kaley Cook's 20 stolen bags are sixth in D2 while the team's .565 slugging mark checks in at No. 8.
In the circle,
Jaycee Shaffer and
Jaycee Kelln are doing a fine job. Shaffer's 11 wins are a top-three national mark and her 78 strikeouts rank third.
For Kelln, her two shutouts are tied for 16th and her 3.40 strikeout-to-walk ratio is third-best in the GAC.
For the Tigers:
A few things stick out for ECU who won two of three against Northwestern last week. The Tigers are third in the GAC in fielding (.969) and fourth in hits allowed per seven innings (8.17).
However, East Central is 11th in the GAC in strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.26) and 12th in ERA (5.16). The Tigers' staff has also walked 63 batters and hit 15 more.
Brooklyn Charnock leads with 27 strikeouts and two wins but has allowed 14 extra-base hits included five homers.
Offensively, Elysa LeClair has a team-high .328 batting average with 21 hits. Kennedy Lord has posted 11 RBI and three homers while Kenni Tudor also has three home runs.
Along the base paths, LeClair and Sara Camplain have each stolen a team-high six bags.
