THIS WEEK IN GRIFFON SOFTBALL
NCAA CENTRAL SUB-REGIONAL I May 11-13 I Searcy, Arkansas (Harding Softball Field)
Tournament Homepage
 
Thursday, May 11 – 2:30 p.m.
#8 Missouri Western (38-18) vs #1 Harding (54-6)
MWSU Game Notes | Live Stats I Live Video I Live Audio
 
ST. JOSEPH – Griffon Softball makes a program record fourth straight NCAA regional appearance later this week in the Searcy, Arkansas central sub-regional.
 
The eighth-seeded Griffons will open regional play with top-seeded Harding. The Lady Bisons defeated Missouri Western 8-0 in the Griffons' second game of the regular season.
 
FAN INFO
All tournament information can be found on the tournament web page linked above. Tickets are $5 per day for adults and $3 for students. All games will have free live stats, radio and video streaming. The games can be heard live via the Griffon Sports Network.
 
FIRST TO FOUR
The 2017 senior class became the first in program history to qualify for a regional in each of their four seasons. It's also the program's 10^th appearance in the last 13 seasons. This senior class claimed the 2016 MIAA regular season and tournament championships along with being a part of the 2014 MIAA tournament championship team. They've been a part of 157 wins and are prominent in the MWSU record book.
 
REST OF THE FIELD
Missouri Western and Southern Arkansas are the only two teams in the Searcy sub-regional making back-to-back regional appearances. Those two faced off in the Magnolia sub-regional championship with Southern Arkansas advancing to the 2016 World Series. Winona State is back after a one year absence and Harding is making its first-ever appearance after re-instating the softball program in 2014. The overall central region features the two teams tied for the most wins in division II in Hading and second-seeded Minnesota State. The Mankato, Minnesota sub-region includes second-seeded Minnesota State, Central Oklahoma, Augustana and Pittsburg State. The winners of each sub-regional will face off next week in a best of three hosted by the top remaining seed.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE
Missouri Western won eight of its final nine regular season games, including a seven-game winning streak to improve its regular season record to 36-16. The Griffons went 2-2 as the No. 5 seed at the MIAA Softball Championships in Oklahoma City two weeks ago. Missouri Western went 12-5 after a season-high five game losing streak that left the team 26-13 and on the outside of the postseason picture looking in.
 
TALE OF TWO TEAMS
Jen Bagley Trotter knows what her team is capable of at its best, she's seen it this season. While the seven-game winning streak toward the end of the season was the Griffons best of the year, the team may have played its best softball early in the year. The Griffons had the national pitcher of the week in Barbara Billingsley after going 5-1 at the UAM 8-State Classic in February. The team batted .325 that weekend and had a 2.10 team ERA, including a 0.95 from Billingsley. On the season, Missouri Western batted .301 with a 3.08 ERA.
The Difference between Wins and Losses
Batting: Wins - .333 / Losses - .230
ERA: Wins – 2.18 / Losses – 5.14
Runs per game: Wins - 6.4 / Losses - 2
Doubles per game: Wins - 1.5 / Losses – 0.9
Home runs per game: Wins - 1.1 / Losses – 0.4
Stolen bases per game: Wins - 1.6 / Losses – 0.2
Errors per game: Wins - 0.7 / Losses – 1.3
 
RIDING HOT STREAKS
Senior Morgan Rathmann and sophomore Shelby Uhl bring hot streaks at the plate to the regional; both batted .462 two weeks ago at the MIAA Softball Championships in Oklahoma City. Rathmann's run stretches even further. MWSU's career hits, triples, stolen bases and runs leader batted .512 in the team's last 12 games with 21 hits, five triples and seven stolen bases in seven attempts. She broke the MIAA career triples record at the conference tournament in addition to becoming MWSU's career hits queen that weekend. Rathmann has a hit in 12 of her last 14 games, including three four-hit and seven-multi-hit games.
 
FRIDAY SCENARIOS
A win Thursday would pit the Griffons against the winner of Thursday's Southern Arkansas versus Winona State game at 11 a.m. on Friday. A loss to Harding will put MWSU against the loser of the other game at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Should Missouri Western lose Thursday and win the 1:30 game on Friday, they would play again at 4 p.m. versus the loser of the 11 a.m. game.