PREVIEWING THIS WEEK
•The Southwest Minnesota State softball team (17-19, 12-12  NSIC) will host Concordia-St. Paul (26-18, 13-11 NSIC) on Wednesday at 2 and 4 p.m. to conclude home play and honor the 2019 seniors in Senior Day. 
•SMSU ranks ninth in the conference while CSP ranks sixth. 
•The top 10 teams in the conference will advance to the NSIC Tournament May 2-4 in Rochester, Minn. 

    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 17-19 overall and 12-12 in the conference. 
•SMSU ranks ninth in the conference. 
•SMSU returns home after going 4-2 in a three-game road series sweeping Wayne State on Tuesday and splitting with both UMary and Minot State this weekend. 
•Bailey Johnson passed Emma Grote as SMSU's offensive leader after hitting .579 last week to now hit .420
•Johnson is the RBI leader with 26.
•Johnson and Kali Tomlinson are tied for the team with four home runs. 
•Grote is batting .375 and is 11-of-11 for stolen bases.                                                                                                                                                                
•SMSU has three players batting over .300. SMSU has hit 18 home runs.    

    IN THE CIRCLE
•Athena Golling leads the Mustangs with a 10-9 record in the circle and a 2.52 ERA with 20 appearances and 18 starts. 
•Megan Cull has a 5-7 record  and a 4.77 ERA with 16 game appearances and 12 starts. 
•Golling leads in strikeouts with 87 while Cull has 55. 
•Shelby Crank has a 2-2 record in 11 appearances with five starts and 18 strikeouts. 
 
    HEAD COACH BAILEY BOUMAN
•Bailey Bouman, is in her first season as head coach with a 17-19 overall record and 12-12 in the NSIC.
•Bouman is a 2014 graduate of Sioux Falls where she played basketball and softball. 

    PREVIEWING CONCORDIA-ST.PAUL
•Concordia-St.Paul is 26-18  overall and 13-11 in the NSIC after sweeping both Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston last weekend.
•CSP defeated BSU in game two 11-10 in 12 innings. 
•Carlie Hart leads the Golden Bears in batting with a .413 batting average and leads the team in hits with 64.
•Justine Schattner has drove in a team-high 38 RBIs.
•Samantha Sullivan has a 10-8 record with 93 strikeouts this season. Sullivan also holds a 3.55 ERA.
•Kali Kaestner and Aryka Knoche both have eight victories in the circle as Kaestner holds a team-low ERA with 3.07 and a 8-4 record. Knoche has a 3.12 ERA and a 8-6 record.
•Head coach, Bob Bartel, is in his 15th season at CSP. Bartel holds a 423-369 overall and 182-176 record in the conference.
    
    CSP SERIES HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State leads the all-time series 37-27  dating back to 1977.
•SMSU is on a three-game winning streak with a double header sweep last season and a 5-2 victory in the conference tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.
•SMSU trails the series 10-11 in games played in Marshall. 

    NSIC RANKINGS
•Bailey Johnson ranks fourth in batting average (.424), fifth in slugging percentage (.717), and second in on base percentage (.504), 
•Athena Golling ranks ninth in earned run average.

    NCAA STATISTICS
•NCAA stats as of April 21
•SMSU ranks 31st in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.86)
•Athena Golling ranks 32nd in strikeout-to-walk ratio.
•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.

    SMSU SOFTBALL HISTORY
•First Year of Softball: 1972
•All-Time Record: 949-886-1
•All-Time Conf. Record: 373-245-1 
•NCAA Tournament Appearances: 4

      SMSU ALL-TIME CAREER RECORDS
•Athena Golling ranks second in most games finished (29) and eighth in most strikeouts (234). 
•Bailey Johnson leads in highest slugging pct. (.623, highest on base pct. (.474), and second in highest batting average (.377).

      NEXT UP 
•SMSU travels to Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 1 and 3 pm. in Duluth, Minn. and St. Cloud State on Sunday at 12 and 2 p.m. to conclude the regular season.