?            NSIC TOURNAMENT PREVIEW
•The No. 10 seeded Southwest Minnesota State University softball team (15-24) begins play in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament taking on No. 7 seed Minnesota State University (33-15) on Thursday starting at 10 a.m. at Sherman Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
•SMSU finished the NSIC regular season with a record of 10-14, while MSU was 14-10 in league play.
•SMSU?clinched a spot in the NSIC Tournament for the fourth straight season by defeating Minnesota Crookston twice last Sunday, 9-6 and 3-2 in nine innings.
•If SMSU wins, it would advance to face top-seeded Winona State at 2 p.m. at Bowden Field on the campus of Augustana University.
•If SMSU loses its first game, it would play at 2 p.m. versus either St. Cloud State or Northern State at Bowden Field.
•SMSU head coach Jamie Dunn begins the tournament with 99 career victories at SMSU.
•The winner of the tournament receives the NSIC's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament.
 
            GAME COVERAGE
•Live statistics for all tournament games will be available at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @smsusoftball on Twitter.
 
            SERIES HISTORY
•MSU holds a 65-23 all-time series advantage over SMSU in a series that started in 1975.
•MSU has won the past 11 games since April 4, 2013, and 16 of the last 17 overall since the start of the 2011 season.
•SMSU's lone win since the 2010 season came on April 4, 2013, when Amy Dreessen hit a walk-off grand slam in Marshall to give the Mustangs an 8-7 victory.
•SMSU head coach Jamie Dunn is 0-10 all-time versus MSU.
 
            HEAD COACH
•Jamie Dunn is in her fifth season as head coach and has an overall record of 99-139-1, including 62-79-1 in conference play.
•SMSU had qualified for the NSIC Tournament the past four seasons, including 2018.
 
            NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY FOR SMSU
•SMSU has won two NSIC Tournament championships since the tournament was started in 1996.
•SMSU won titles in 1998 and 2007.
•SMSU finished 0-2 in last season's tournament, losing to Minot State and Bemidji State.
•SMSU finished 2-2 in 2015 and recorded a 3-2 record in 2016.
 
MUSTANG NOTABLES
•SMSU is hitting .269 with 20 home runs, 49 doubles and seven triples.
•SMSU has an ERA?of 4.90 with 212 strikeouts in 253 innings.
•SMSU?has a .954 fielding percentage.
•SMSU is 6-3 in one-run games.
•SMSU is 14-1 when leading after five innings and 13-0 when leading after six innings.
•In NSIC?games only, the SMSU pitching staff has a league-leading 119 strikeouts.
•Freshman Bailey Johnson is the team leader with a .339 batting average and has scored a team-high 26 runs.
•Johnson earlier this season had a team-long 16-game streak of reaching base and is currently on a nine-game streak.
•Sophomore Emma Grote is hitting .326 and has a team-high seven stolen bases.
•Grote leads the team with 10 multi-hit games this season.
•Sophomore Kali Tomlinson is third on the team with a .317 batting average with 11 doubles, four home runs and leads the club with 26 RBIs. She also has team-high seven multi-RBI?games.
•Tomlinson and Grote both earlier this season had a 10-game hitting streaks, the longest by a Mustang this season. 
•SMSU's lone senior Mackenzie Clouse is batting .274 with 11 doubles and is third on the team with 17 RBIs.
•Junior Abbie Decker ranks third in school history with 21 hit by pitches.
•Sophomore Madison Krog finished tied for third in the NSIC?with 14 walks.
•Sophomore Megan Cull finished third in the NSIC?(league games only) with 75 strikeouts.
•Junior Shelby Crank has a team-low 4.37 ERA in 82 2/3 innings. She missed six games with an injury.  
•Junior Athena Golling, Cull and Crank all have five pitching victories this season.
 
            MORE MUSTANG STATS
•For career statistics and game-highs for each Mustang player go to SMSUmustangs.com/softballcareer.
 
            MUSTANG SOFTBALL HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State is in its 47th season of softball and has an all-time record of 929-865-1 in 1,795 games.
•SMSU won conference championships in 1985, 1986, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and won NSIC?Tournament championships in 1998 and 2007.
•SMSU made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.