PREVIEWING THIS WEEKEND
•The Southwest Minnesota State softball team (15-17, 10-10  NSIC) will head to UMary (18-22, 9-11 NSIC) on Friday to participate in the Marauders Pediatric Cancer Awareness game at 1 and 3 p.m. in Bismarck, N.D. and travel to Minot State (21-16, 10-10 NSIC) on Saturday for  a 12 and 2 p.m. doubleheader.

    GAME COVERAGE
•Live stats will be available for fans at smsumustangs.com.
•Updates can also be found by following @SMSUSoftball on Twitter. 

    PREVIEWING THE MUSTANGS
•SMSU comes into the week at 15-17 overall and 10-10 in the conference. 
•SMSU is tied for fifth in the conference. 
•SMSU returns home after going 4-2 in a three-game road series after the weekend series scheduled to be played in Marshall was moved to Sunday and Monday and pushed to a road series. 
•SMSU was swept by Northern State on Sunday but swept both MSU Moorhead and Wayne State on Monday and Tuesday. 
•SMSU's offensive leader, Emma Grote, missed a seven-game stretch with an injury. Grote leads the Mustang offense with a .418 batting average with a team-high 33 hits including one double, two triples, and one home run. 
•Grote is also 10-of-10 for stolen bases.                                                                                                                    
•Bailey Johnson comes in second with a .391  batting average with a team-high 34 hits including eight doubles, four triples, and for a team-high four home runs with Kali Tomlinson
•Johnson is the RBI leader with 23.
•SMSU has three players all batting over .300 with a team total 18 home runs.    

    IN THE CIRCLE
•Athena Golling leads the Mustangs with a 9-8 record in the circle and a 2.67 ERA with 18 appearances and 16 starts. 
•Megan Cull has a 4-7 record  and a 4.98 ERA with 14 game appearances and 10 starts. 
•Golling leads in strikeouts with 76 while Cull has 50. 
•Shelby Crank has a 2-1 record in nine appearances with five starts and 17 strikeouts. Crank picked up her first two victories this season with back-to-back victories.
 
    HEAD COACH BAILEY BOUMAN
•Head coach, Bailey Bouman, is in her first season as head coach. 
•Bouman is a 2014 graduate of Sioux Falls where she played basketball and softball. 

    PREVIEWING UMARY
•UMary is 17-23 overall and 8-12 in the NSIC after splitting with MSU Moorhead on Tuesday with a 7-6 victory in game one and 6-4 loss in game two.
•Rebekkah Keller leads the Marauders in batting with a .366 batting average and leads the team in hits with 52.
•Haley Berube has drove in a team-high 31 RBIs.
•Brieann Backes has a 10-9 record with 74 strikeouts this season. Backes also holds a 5.95 ERA.
•Head coach, Steph Roan, is in her first season at UMary. Roan is a alumnus of St. Cloud State where she was an essential aspect of the program.
    
    UMARY SERIES HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State leads the all-time series 15-13 dating back to 1990.
•The series is tied at 4-4 in games played in Bismarck, N.D. 
    PREVIEWING MINOT STATE
•Minot State is 21-16 overall and 10-10 in the NSIC after getting swept by Northern State on Tuesday. 
•Lauren Cowden leads the Beavers in batting with a .430 batting average.
•Karlee Coughlin has hit a team-high 48 hits with 11 doubles, one triple, and three homeruns.
•Coughlin is also the team-leader in RBIs with 41.
•Laura Mendez has a 9-8 record with 46 strikeouts this season. Mendez also holds a 3.90 ERA.
•Head coach, Dave Kivett, is in his second season with a 46-40 overall and 22-24 conference record. 

    MINOT STATE SERIES HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State trails the all-time series by one game as Minot State leads 6-5 dating back to 2013. 
•The record is tied 2-2 in games played in Minot, N.D.
•SMSU and Minot met three times last season to go 1-2 after splitting a doubleheader and falling 3-1 in the conference tournament.

    NSIC RANKINGS
•Bailey Johnson comes in second with three triples.
•Athena Golling ranks sixth with 62 innings pitched and sixth in batters struck out with 49.

    NCAA STATISTICS
•NCAA stats as of April 16
•SMSU ranks 25th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.04)
•Bailey Johnson ranks 35th in triples per game (0.13). 
•Full NCAA rankings on page 17.

    NSIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
•Sophomore outfielder Bailey Johnson earned NSIC Player of the Week, announced on Feb. 19. 
•This is Johnson's first time receiving the conference honor. 
•In the season opener versus MSU Moorhead, Johnson finished 3 for 3 with two runs scored, a stolen base and one RBI to help SMSU earn a 7-2 victory. She also had a two-run double in SMSU's win over BSU. She closed the week with two hits, including a home run, a double, two runs scored and an RBI, in a 9-1 victory over MSU Moorhead. 

    NSIC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
•Senior pitcher Athena Golling earned NSIC Pitcher of the Week, announced on Feb. 19. 
•This was Golling's first time receiving the conference honor. 
•Golling threw two complete games to go 2-0 with 15 strikeouts and allowing one earned run in 12 innings. Golling struck out 11 batters to tie her career-high against Bemidji State.