PREVIEWING THE NSIC TOURNAMENT
•The No. 7 seed Southwest Minnesota State University softball team (26-18) opens play at the 10-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament this Thursday taking on No. 10 seed Northern State University (22-18) in a first round match-up starting at 10 a.m. at the RYSFA Complex in Rochester, Minn.
•The winner of the double-elimination tournament receives the NSIC's automatic bid to the six-team NCAA Central Region Tournament.
•If SMSU wins its opening round game, they would advance to the quarterfinals to take on No. 2 seed Minnesota State at 2 p.m.
•If SMSU loses its first game, they would fall to the losers' bracket and play either No. 4 Minnesota Duluth or No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul.
•NSIC regular season champion, Augustana, is the tournament's No. 1 seed.
 
GAME COVERAGE
•Live video and stats for the entire tournament will be available at SMSUmustangs.com.
 
SMSU AT THE NSIC TOURNAMENT
•SMSU has won a pair of NSIC Tournament championships in 1998 and 2007.
•This is SMSU's sixth straight tournament appearance. The Mustangs finished in fourth place in both 2018 and 2016.
•SMSU went 1-2 at the 2019 tournament opening with a win over Upper Iowa, before losing to Augustana and Minnesota Duluth.
 
ABOUT NORTHERN STATE
•Northern State finished the regular season with a 22-18 record.
•The Wolves enter the tournament having lost six straight games with their last win on April 24.
•NSU is led by Kennady Thompson, who is batting .365 with 18 RBIs.
•Makenzie Merritt is hitting .337 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs.
•NSU is batting .310 and averaging 4.7 runs per game, while the pitching staff has a 3.72 ERA with 299 strikeouts in 256 innings.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. NORTHERN STATE
•SMSU and NSU have meet 90 times since the 1986 season with SMSU leading 66-24.
•The teams split two doubleheaders this season. In a non-conference doubleheader on March 7, NSU won game one, 2-1, before SMSU won 11-3 in game two. The two clubs met in a conference twinbill on April 18 in Aberdeen, S.D., with SMSU taking game one, 10-7, before NSU earned a 6-4 win in game two.
•SMSU's victory on March 7 snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series dating back to April 7, 2017.
•The last time the two teams met at the NSIC Tournament came on May 1, 2015, with SMSU winning 5-3 in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
SMSU HEAD COACH
•Bailey Bouman is in her third season as head coach with an overall record of 54-51, including 30-30 in NSIC play.
•The 11th head coach in program history, Bouman was named to the position on Aug. 8, 2019.
•Bouman was an assistant coach with the SMSU women's basketball program from 2015-17 and was also an assistant women's basketball coach at Dordt College (Iowa) before returning to SMSU.
•Bouman is a 2014 graduate of the University of Sioux Falls where she played both basketball and softball for the Cougars.
 
SMSU DIAMOND NOTES
•SMSU closed the regular season last weekend winning one of four games at Minnesota State and Concordia-St. Paul.
•SMSU lost twice by scores of 14-0 to No. 17 MSU on Saturday, before splitting a doubleheader at CSP on Saturday, losing 2-1 in eight innings, before winning 10-5.
•SMSU had 13 combined hits in the first three games of the weekend before breaking out of its slump with 14 hits in game two on Sunday.
•In the final NSIC statistics (NSIC games only), Kali Tomlinson led the conference with 42 base hits. She was also second in doubles (12) and total bases (77), sixth in both runs scored (30) and slugging pct. (.755) and ninth in batting average (.412).
 
MUSTANGS IN SINGLE-SEASON RECORD BOOK
•Kali Tomlinson set the program single-season record for doubles on Sunday versus CSP and now has 17 on the season. Tomlinson's .762 slugging percentage currently ranks first in team single-season history, while her 42 runs scored is two from tying Kirsten Springer's record of 44 set in 1989. Tomlinson has also belted 12 home runs ranking as the second highest in team single-season history. Amanda Burkhart holds the record with 18 set in 2009.
•Bailey Johnson has 16 doubles this season tied for second place all-time.
 
SMSU SEASON NUMERS
•Entering NSIC Tournament play, SMSU is averaging 4.9 runs per game, batting .311 with 69 doubles, 10 triples and 22 home runs.
•The SMSU pitching staff has a 3.81 ERA in 283 innings with 217 strikeouts.
•Kali Tomlinson is batting a team-high .397 and leads the team in base hits (60), RBIs (43), doubles (17), home runs (12), and slugging percentage (.762). Tomlinson, who reached base in 28 straight games from March 19 to May 8, also has a team-high 19 multi-hit games and 10 multi-RBI games.
•Emma Grote is hitting .377 with 57 hits, 34 runs, and four doubles. On May 2, Grote became the fourth player in program history to surpass 200 career base hits and has now amassed 203 ranking fourth in team history. 
•Bailey Johnson is batting .361 with 16 doubles and 28 RBIs. She holds the program's all-time doubles record with 50.
•Lileya Kebos is hitting .321 leading the team in triples with five and has a team-high eight stolen bases.
•Megan Cull has appeared in 27 games in the circle and is 12-7 with one save. She has a 3.48 ERA in 104 2/3 innings, has recorded a team-high 94 strikeouts and has three shutouts and seven complete games.
•Shelby Bloemendaal is 8-7 in 21 starts tossing a team-high 114 2/3 innings with a 3.91 ERA. She had 10 complete games and two shutouts.
•Allison Christians has appeared in 21 games with a 6-3 record and three saves. She has a 3.68 ERA in 58 1/3 innings.
 
MUSTANGS IN THE NCAA STATS
•In the latest NCAA statistics (May 10), SMSU ranks 16^th in hits (382), 27^th in doubles (69), 59^th in batting average (.312), 57^th in total runs (218).
•Kali Tomlinson is sixth in doubles (17), 10^th in total bases (115), 18^th in hits (60), 25^th in home runs (12).
•Bailey Johnson ranks 11^th in doubles (16).
•Lileya Kebos ranks 15^th in triples (5). 
•Emma Grote is 26^th in hits (57).
 
MORE MUSTANG STATS
•For career statistics and game-highs for each Mustang player go to SMSUmustangs.com/softballcareer.
 
MUSTANGS IN THE CAREER RECORD BOOK
•Entering the NSIC Tournament, Bailey Johnson ranks first in team history in doubles (50), slugging pct. (.627), and on-base pct. (.473), is second in batting average (.378), sixth in in total bases (279), tied for seventh in home runs (15), tied for ninth in triples (8) and tied for 10^th in RBIs (92). 
•Kali Tomlinson ranks second in slugging pct. (.626) and doubles (46), third in home runs (30), third in total bases (336), fourth in batting average (.365), fourth in RBIs (123), and seventh in hits (196).
•Emma Grote is fourth in runs scored (123), fourth in hits (203) and tied for 10th in stolen bases (29).
•Megan Cull is sixth in strikeouts (291) and tied for fifth in appearances (98).
 
SMSU PICKED 10TH IN NSIC POLL
•Southwest Minnesota State University was picked to finish 10th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
•Mustang senior Megan Cull was named a "Pitcher to Watch", while junior outfielder Bailey Johnson was named a "Player to Watch" in the NSIC this spring.
 
MUSTANG HISTORY
•Southwest Minnesota State is in its 50th season of softball in 2021.
•SMSU has played 1,905 games compiling an all-time record of 986-918-1.
•SMSU has won 10 NSIC regular season championships, two NSIC Tournament titles and has played in four NCAA Tournaments.