SHAWNEE – This coming Thursday and Friday, Oklahoma Baptist (17-15, 10-11 GAC) hosts Northwestern Oklahoma State (18-18, 9-12 GAC) for a Great American Conference series.
An April 2 doubleheader begins at 3 p.m. before an April 3 single game starts at 1 at Bobby Cox Field at Ford Park.
Todd Miller will be on the call of the games on the Bison Sports Network. Historically, OBU leads the series 35-13, however, the Rangers have won the last two series meetings against the green and gold. That includes a three-game sweep last season in Alva.
Here are tidbits on both squads.
For the Bison:
OBU has split its last six games and in each of those contests, opponents have scored at least six runs.
Matt Marsic has climbed the statistical leaderboard and leads the team with a .437 average. That ranks 30th in the country and second in the GAC. The senior has hits in 10 straight games and 18 of the last 19 contests. Marsic is also No. 37 in D2 in on-base percentage (.538).
The Bison have a trio of players ranked top-32 in homers.
Lucas Schaefer's 12 bombs are slotted 12th while
Tui Amosa and
Braden Smith are tied for 32nd with 10 homers apiece.
Offensively, the green and gold rank well offensively in Division II. They are eighth with 84 doubles and tenth with 53 homers. Plus, the team's .586 slugging mark is slotted sixth while the .343 team batting average is No. 14.
Five different players bat at least .357:
Keenan Morris,
Quinn Johnson, Smith, Amosa and Marsic.
OBU will try and get back in gear on the mound. The staff's 7.97 ERA is slotted ninth in the GAC. That said, the Bison have continued to strike opponents out. They lead the GAC and are No. 18 nationally with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
For the Rangers:
Northwestern has won four in a row, including a three-game GAC sweep of Southern Nazarene. In those three contests, the Rangers scored 38 runs.
The Rangers are third in the GAC and No. 25 nationally with 355 hits. They also lead the conference and have a top-30 mark with 74 stolen bags.
On the mound, NWOSU has the fifth-best team ERA (6.05) and rank third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.78). They are also second in walks allowed per nine innings (4.10).
Individually, Logan Sandoval leads the GAC with five victories and three complete games. He also has the third-best ERA at 3.74.
Reliever Ryan McClaskey has earned three saves. Those rank 51st nationally and fourth in the conference.
Offensively, Alexander Dabrowski is having a strong season. He's fourth in the GAC with 41 runs scored and he leads with 33 stolen bases. That latter tally is second-best in the nation.
Cole Barton and Joel Lindahl are significant offensive threats too. They are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the GAC in toughest to strikeout. For Barton, he's only struck out seven times in 130 at-bats. That's an average of one strikeout every 18.6 at-bats.
