Softball | 5/1/2019 11:22:00 AM

Oklahoma City, Okla. – Oklahoma Panhandle State University's softball team will open post-season play in the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament on Thursday (May 2/11 a.m.) versus Mid-America Christian University, at Oklahoma City University's Ann Lacy Stadium. The Aggies (29-19) will continue in the pool play round on Thursday evening versus NAIA No. 3-ranked OKCU (5 p.m.) and again Friday (May 3) versus Langston University (1 p.m.), with the winner of each pool meeting for the championship on Saturday (May 4/2 p.m.) at OCU.
 
Panhandle State will be making its second-consecutive appearance in the post-season, after going more than a decade without any championship round competition.
 
Links for live video, audio and statistics can be found at opsuaggies.com.
 
TOURNAMENT NOTES:
*AGGIES AT-A-GLANCE: OPSU enters the SAC tournament as the No. 6-seeded team, with an overall record of 29-19 and 20-16 in SAC games. Panhandle has won four-consecutive games and gotten a "W" in 12 of its last 16 outings.
 
*WINNING WAYS: Panhandle State's 29 victories is the second-most in a single season in school history. Only the NCAA Division II 2003 team (34-35) had more wins.
 
*SETTING THE STANDARD: The Aggies team – with a record of 29-19 – has already guaranteed itself of the first-ever season at or above the .500 mark in the 23-year history of the program.
 
*SCOUTING THE EVANGELS:* MACU is the No. 3-seed for the SAC tournament. The Evangels are 29-16 (.604) overall and 22-14 in the SAC. MACU has won 15 of its last 20 games.
 
*LAST TIME OUT VS. MACU:   The Aggies won three-of-four from the Evangels during the SAC regular season games. OPSU swept a doubleheader on March 29 (5-3 and 4-2) in Moore, Okla., and split a twinbill (also in Moore) on April 15 (0-8 and 4-3).  OPSU's win in the second game on April 15 snapped a nine-game winning streak by the Evangels.
 
*SCOUTING THE STARS:   Oklahoma City University is 48-6 overall and 30-4 in the SAC, and enters the SAC tourney as the No. 2-seeded squad and is No. 3 in the NAIA national poll. Four of its six losses have come to SAC conference mate UASO – the NAIA's No. 1-ranked team – and the Stars had a 22-game win skein between its doubleheader losses to the Drovers.
 
*LAST TIME OUT VS. OKCU:  The Stars swept all four games against Panhandle State this season. OKCU dominated the Aggies on March 25 in Goodwell (11-2 and 12-0), before Panhandled tightened the gap at OKCU on April 5, losing 7-6 and 5-3.
 
*SCOUTING THE LIONS: Langston is the SAC tournament No. 7-seeded team, coming into the competition with records of 18-31 overall and 11-23 in the SAC. The Lions closed the year with wins in four of its last six games.
 
*LAST TIME OUT VS. LU:  In a series played in Gruver, Texas due to weather, the Aggies won three-of-four in the series on March 23-24. LU took the series' opener, 6-5, before the Aggies' bats woke up and pounded out a 29-2 win in the second game of that Saturday doubleheader. On Sunday, OPSU swept the Lions by scores of 6-2 and 9-5. In that 29-2 win, OPSU set records for runs in an inning (15, in the second) and a game. The Aggies racked up 55 hits in the four-game set.
 
*NAIA TEAM LEADERS: The Aggies rank among the NAIA top-40 teams in: Triple (8th/21); Batters Struck Out (14th/269); Triples per Game (20th/0.438); Total Runs Scored (25th/293); Total RBI (28th/253); Total Hits (30th/422), and; Runs Scored Per Game (37th/6.1).
 
*NAIA INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: Several Aggies are also listed among the NAIA's top-40 categories:
Kaylor Battiest: Saves (1st/10); Fielding Percentage (t.1st/1.000); Innings Pitched (27th/158.1); Wins (35th/15).
Kayli Grove: Total Triples (25th/5); Total Doubles (38th/16).
Haley Neal: Total Chances (28th/316); Total Putouts (33rd/291).
 
*SAC HONORS: Pitcher Kaylor Battiest and firstbaseman Kayli Grove swept this week's SAC Player of the Week awards. Battiest, a junior transfer, went 2-0 from the circle on the weekend series to earn the SAC Pitcher of the Week award. Battiest tossed complete games in the first and last games of the set, hurling a two-hitter on Friday and a one-hitter Saturday. She had a 0.00 earned run average, permitting the Warriors just one unearned run. She struck out 17 batters total. Grove, a sophomore firstbaseman, had a dream weekend with the bat to receive the SAC Hitter of the Week honor. Grove went 6-for-10 at the plate, with all six of hits going for extra bases (three doubles, two triples and a home run), to give her a lofty 1.600 slugging percentage for the series. She drove in a total of eight runs, including a five-RBI performance in Friday's second game.
 
*SPECIAL"K": Kaylor Battiest leads the Aggies in strikeouts from the circle, registering 165 K's thus far in 2019. She averages 7.29 strikeouts per game and opponents are hitting just .229 against her.
 
*FRESHMAN PHENOM: Freshman DP Brittany Thomas is leading the OPSU team with a .393 batting average. She has 8 doubles, 1 triple and 3 home runs to her credit, while driving in 28 runs. She has scored 17 runs and drawn seven walks.