THE GAMES
Tarleton Softball begins the final month of the regular season Tuesday afternoon as the TexAnns play host to St. Mary's in Stephenville for a pair of crucial in-region contests beginning at 2 p.m.
GAME COVERAGE
There will be live stats and video available for the games, courtesy of the home team. Tuesday will also be the first radio broadcast of the season.
Casey Hogan will have the call on the flagship station of the Tarleton Sports Network presented by the North Texas Ford Dealers – 90.5 FM in Stephenville – and online at TarletonSports.com/ListenLive. Direct links can be found on the Official Tarleton Sports App, Game Day preview story and Game Day graphics on Tarleton's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, as well as on the team schedule page at TarletonSports.com. Follow @TarletonSports or @tarletonsball on Twitter for links to coverage. Fans can also have access to all the links for every game by downloading the TarletonSports mobile app for iOS and Android.
SCHUTT SPORTS/NFCA DII PLAYER OF THE YEAR TOP-50 WATCH LIST
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association released its annual Top-50 Watch List for the Schutt Sports/NFCA Division II National Player of the Year earlier this season and Tarleton State University had two players to keep an eye on –
Georgia Capell and
Tanna Huie. The top 50 list is comprised of returning NFCA All-Americans from last season and a slew of players submitted by head coaches and selected by the NFCA Division II All-America committee. They are the second and third players in Tarleton history to be named to the Top-50 Watch List, joining
Katelyn Conlee in 2016.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Jordan Withrow and
Georgia Capell have been named 2019 Preseason All-Americans by Fastpitch News (FPN). Withrow was named an All-America Second Team pitcher while Capell earned honorable mention honors. Withrow is coming off the best year of her brief Tarleton career as a sophomore in 2018. As a sophomore, Withrow was an honorable mention All-American by FPN and the Lone Star Conference Co-Pitcher of the Year. She also earned all-conference and all-region recognition and was named the LSC Academic Player of the Year. Last spring, she became the first Tarleton pitcher in program history with over 200 strikeouts in a single season (252). Capell made quite the impression as she became the first freshman in program history to be named an All-American. She earned third-team honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA). In her debut season, Capell was named the South Central Region and Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year as well as all-conference and all-region.
WITHROW TABBED PRESEASON PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Jordan Withrow was named the LSC Preseason Pitcher of the Year after a sophomore campaign where she was the LSC Pitcher of the Year, an NFCA All-Region Second Team selection and FastpitchNews.com Honorable Mention All-American. Withrow went 26-6 in the circle with 221.1 innings of work and 252 strikeouts, becoming the first player in program history to strikeout 200 in a single season.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
Georgia Capell has already established herself as one of the most dangerous hitters in the country in just her second collegiate season. Capell enters the weekend ranked in the national top 10 of five different statistical categories – including No. 2 in RBI (45), No. 3 in RBI per game (1.45), No. 3 in home runs (12), No. 6 in home runs per game (0.39) and No. 8 in total bases (86).
CHASING THE HOME RUN RECORD
Georgia Capell has already moved into sole possession of fourth place on the Tarleton home run list with 30 career long balls. She is one of four players in Tarleton history with 30 career long balls and joins Samantha Swanda (31) as the only TexAnns to hit 30 home runs in two seasons. With her next homer, she'll move into a three-way tie for second-most in program history with Swanda and Alicia Petersma (31).
Arianna Rodriguez is the program's all-time home run leader with 41.
CHASING THE QUEEN OF Ks
Jordan Withrow has moved into second place in Tarleton history in total strikeouts, becoming the third player in school history to strikeout over 400 batters in a career. She goes into the week with 479 career punchouts and is second in program history. Only Hall of Famer Carla Geeslin (521) has more career strikeouts.
LAST TIME OUT
Tarleton Softball extended its winning streak to nine games and completed the three-game sweep of MSU Texas with a 6-1 victory on Saturday at the Tarleton Softball Complex. Four TexAnns had multi-hit performances:
Elizabeth Svienty (2-4),
Tanna Huie (2-3),
Morgan Ling (2-3, 2 RBI) and
Jessica Lee (2-for-3, RBI). In the circle was
Jordan Withrow and she picked up her second win of the series and 11th victory on the season by tossing six innings of four-hit ball with eight strikeouts and only one run allowed.
Julia Wernet came in to close the game out in the seventh inning and allowed one hit and had one strikeout in a scoreless appearance.
INSIDE THE SERIES
Tarleton and St. Mary's have one of the richest rivalries in the South Central region. The teams have split 70 all-time meetings right down the middle at 35-35 since the series began in 1998. St. Mary's won the season opener against Tarleton 3-1 in Houston earlier this season, but Tarleton has won four of the last five since 2017.
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will hit the road this weekend for a three-game series at UT Permian Basin, beginning Friday at 6 p.m. in Odessa. For more information on the Tarleton Softball program, follow @tarletonsball on Twitter.
