THE GAMES
No. 21 Tarleton is set to begin their fourth season with head coach Mark Cumpian this weekend at The Scrapyards in Conroe. The Texans will start with six games played over the first three days of the season, starting with a 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. double header against Minnesota Duluth and Harding on Friday. Tarleton will then play Henderson State (10 a.m.) and Southern Arkansas (12:30 p.m.) on Saturday before closing out the weekend against Texas A&M-Kingsville (10 a.m.) and Augustana (3 p.m.) on Sunday. The games on Sunday will feature Tarleton against the No. 1 and 2 teams in the national poll and each of the last two teams from last year's national championship series.
 
TARLETON IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Tarleton Softball will open the 2020 season ranked the No. 21 team in the nation by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. This is the fourth time in program history Tarleton will open a season among the national top 25. Tarleton is one of four Lone Star Conference teams to begin the season national ranked- joining Texas A&M-Kingsville (2), Texas A&M-Commerce (10) and Cameron (15). The four Lone Star Conference schools are the most by any conference in the national pool. Five other leagues were represented by two teams.
 
ABOUT THE WINTER INVITATIONAL
This is the second year that Arkansas Tech will host a softball tournament at The Scrapyards. 15 different teams will be traveling from across the country to take part of this four-day event. Tickets can be purchased at the gate on the day of the game. There are no advanced ticket sales.
 
GAME COVERAGE
Links to live stats can be found on TarletonSports.com Softball Schedule Page. Complete game recaps will be available on TarletonSports.com after the final game of each day. For periodic score updates, follow @Tarleton_SB on Twitter.
 
LSC PRESEASON POLL
The Texans racked up 90 wins over the last two years – the most in the LSC – having their second straight 40-win season in 2019. Tarleton Softball was picked to finish third in the annual Lone Star Conference preseason. The LSC preseason poll is voted on by conference coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members. Tarleton collected 594 votes and one first-place vote. After advancing to the 2019 National Championship game, Texas A&M-Kingsville is picked to finish atop the league with 692 votes and 32 first-place votes. Texas A&M-Commerce is the only other team ahead of Tarleton, with the Lions picked second with 666 votes and seven first place selections.
 
CAPELL TABBED PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Georgia Capell was selected as the LSC Preseason Player of the Year after a sophomore campaign where she was named CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team section, earning both D2CCA All-America and NFCA All-American status. She hit .387 with 57 runs scored, 17 doubles, 18 home runs, and 68 RBI last season. Her 68 RBI and .822 slugging percentage were outright Tarleton single-season records. She also moved into sole possession of second place on Tarleton's all-time home run list with 35. Capell finished the season among the top 10 in the nation in five statistical categories – RBI (68), RBI per game (1.24), home runs (18), home runs per game (0.33) and total bases (134).
 
RETURNING ALL-LSC PLAYERS
Tarleton will be returning four All-LSC selections this 2020 season. Texans Destiny Crumpley, Jordan Withrow and Capell all received All-LSC first team honors. Crumpley played in 47 games from the Texans, hitting .318 with 26 runs, 42 hits, nine home runs and 43 RBI last season. Withrow set the program record with 570 career strikeouts, going 22-5 in the circle last season. Competing in 36 games Withrow completed 21 games with nine shutouts, recording seven 10+ strike out games, with a season high of 13. Senior Morgan Ling returns as an All-LSC third team selection. Ling hit .283 with 23 runs scored, 34 hits, seven doubles and 19 RBI in her junior year.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES: WINTER INVITATIONAL FIELD
Tarleton will face off with six different teams at the tournament. The series history against each opponent is as follows:
 
Tarleton leads Minnesota Duluth 1-0 since 2019.
 
Tarleton falls to Harding 1-0 since 2014. The Texans and Bison have not met since.
 
Tarleton leads Henderson State 3-1 since 2009.
 
Tarleton trails the series 2-6 against Southern Arkansas since 2012.
 
Tarleton leads Texas A&M-Kingsville 50-37 since 1997. The Texans have won six of the last nine games since 2017. Tarleton racked up two six-game winning streaks since the start of 2004.
 
Tarleton falls to Augustana (SD) 1-0 since 2002.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
The Texans will head to Arkadelphia, Arkansas next weekend for four games at the McGhee/Hawkins Tournament. Tarleton will go up against two new opponents, while squaring off with Ouachita Baptist for the first time since 2014. For more information on Tarleton Softball program, follow @Tarleton_SB on Twitter.