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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — After clinching the No. 4 seed in the Great American Conference Tournament, the Henderson State softball team begins its quest for a conference tournament title on Wednesday night, when the Reddies take on No. 5 Southern Nazarene at 6 p.m. in Bentonville, Arkansas.
REDDIES REPORT
- Henderson will face a familiar foe in its opening round game of the GAC Tournament on Wednesday evening. The Reddies and Crimson Storm just finished a four-game series to end the regular season, which saw each squad take two games.
- The two teams met in an elimination game at the 2017 GAC Tournament last season, where SNU got past HSU 2-1 in a 16-inning affair that broke the record for longest game in GAC Tournament history.
- The Reddies finished the regular season 32-23 overall and 24-20 in conference play. Their fourth-place league finish is the program's best result since winning the regular season conference title in 2015. 24 league wins is also the most for Henderson since 2015 and is a seven-game improvement from 2017.
- Since the inception of the GAC in 2011-12, Henderson is 4-2 in first round games at the GAC Tournament, with its only losses coming in 2012 and 2017. The Reddies are 8-3 in neutral site contests, and 6-2 in night games, this season.
- Regardless of result on Wednesday, the Reddies will play on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Bentonville, Arkansas, in either the winner's or loser's bracket. Henderson will face either No. 1 seed Southern Arkansas or No. 8 seed East Central in the second round.
- HSU has been great in the middle innings this season. The Reddies have out-scored opponents 48-32 in the third, and 43-22 in the fourth, thus far in 2018. When leading after four innings, Henderson is 26-4 this year.
- If the Reddies score first in a game that bodes well according to the numbers this season. Henderson is 23-8 when striking first, but just 9-15 when its opponent gets the first run of the contest.
- Freshman
Madie Green leads the club in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (.376), slugging (.624), OBP (.439), RBIs (37) and homeruns (10). She is Top-10 in the GAC in all of those categories except for RBIs, where she is ranked 11th. Green is batting .415 with runners in scoring position this season.
- Senior
Bethany Allen is the team leader in hits (63) and stolen bases (12). She ranks 11th in the GAC in batting average (.366) and eighth in hits.
- Senior pitcher
Sydney Bonner is fifth in the GAC in wins (12), sixth in innings pitched (148.2) and opposing batting average (.257), and 11th in ERA (2.87).
SCOUTING SOUTHERN NAZARENE
- The Crimson Storm finished the season 24-26-1 overall and 20-18-1 in GAC action to clinch the No. 5 seed. They won two games from the Reddies this past weekend at Dee White Field, 8-6 and 1-0. They are 5-2 against Henderson the past two seasons.
- SNU is led offensively by Mahina Sauer, who won the GAC regular season batting title with a .430 average at the plate. Sauer was 6-for-11 in last weekend's series against the Reddies.
- In the circle, Katelyn Brown is the workhorse for the Crimson Storm. Brown leads the GAC in strikeouts (211), and is second in appearances (44) and innings pitched (197). She has won 16 games this season, one of which came in last weekend's series against HSU.
- In the two games that SNU took from the Reddies in the final GAC series of the regular season, the Crimson Storm took advantage of six errors over the course of the two contests by Henderson. The Reddies committed 11 errors in the four games.
