SHAWNEE – The third-seed Oklahoma Baptist Bison (40-13) take on the six-seed Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm (23-27) on Thursday, May 7 at 6 p.m. in the Great American Conference Tournament.
The opening-round game takes place at Wolverine Athletic Complex in Bentonville, Ark. This is the first time the two squads will have faced each other in the GAC postseason.
During the regular season, OBU won two of three over SE. The Storm rallied to win game one, 8-6, before the Bison prevailed 10-9 and 3-2 in the finale.
Whichever team wins on Thursday will advance to the semifinals and will play either two-seed Southern Arkansas or seven-seed Henderson State on May 8 at 2:30 p.m. Below are notes on both teams.
For the Bison:
The green and gold were slotted eighth in the Central Regional rankings released on Wednesday. To qualify for the NCAA Tournament, OBU will need to maintain that top-eight placement.
In the regular-seasons series with SE,
Kaley Cook,
Abby Laskowski and
Katelyn Kilgore all hit at least .455. For Laskowski, she tallied a team-best six hits in the series with a double and home run.
Plus, sophomore
Haley Hacker tied OBU's D2 record with a three home-run performance in OBU's 10-9 comeback win in game two versus the Savage Storm.
Of note, SE scored 19 runs against Bison pitching. That was the second-most runs given up by OBU's staff in a GAC series this spring. (Harding; 21)
Among the top individual performers this year for OBU,
Greenlee Wells leads the GAC in slugging (.954), OPS (1.569), RBI (60), homers (19) and walks (66).
Teammate
Ally Ryan has recorded 14 homers and 44 RBI which are both slotted top-six in the GAC. Plus, centerfielder
Kaley Cook is the GAC leader with 48 steals, has the second-most hits (71) and her 45 runs scored are a top-five league total.
In the circle,
Jaycee Shaffer and
Jaycee Kelln are the frontrunners for the Bison. For Shaffer, her 20 victories are the No. 2 total as is her 169 strikeouts. For Kelln, she is slotted fifth with 130 strikeouts and has a top-10 opponent batting average (.247). Kelln also has the most wins of any freshmen pitcher (15).
For the Savage Storm:
Southeastern has two of the best sluggers in the conference. India McMurray is slotted fifth in slugging percentage (.667) while Tally Rowland sits in eighth (.615).
Emily Simmons has generated a top-ten RBI total (37) while McMurray has produced 12 homers, the fifth-best mark in the GAC.
Pitching-wise, Alyson Malone's 2.52 ERA leads the staff and ranks seventh in the GAC. Malone has 94 strikeouts, is 9-8 overall and allows a .244 batting average to opponents.
During the regular-season series, Malone tossed 7.0 innings, allowed six hits, four earned runs, fanned three and induced a combined 11 fly-ball outs.
Overall, SE posted a 4.17 team ERA during the regular season which was slotted tenth in the GAC. They also gave up 36 homers, tied for third-most in the league.
