THE GAMES
Tarleton is set to begin Lone Star Conference play this weekend with a westward road trip to UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico. The Texans will play two games at UT Permian Basin on Friday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. before making the journey to Western New Mexico for a Sunday doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
 
LONE STAR CONFERENCE PLAY
With the addition of six new softball programs to the Lone Star Conference, the league has made a significant change to the LSC schedule that will require teams to play one doubleheader against every team – as opposed to a three-game series, as in years past. The doubleheaders will go Friday-Sunday until the last week of March when the schedule will change to Thursday-Saturday for the remainder of the season. Tarleton will play Midwestern State on Wednesday next week because of travel-partner rules.
 
QUALIFYING FOR THE LSC POSTSEASON
The Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament will take the top 10 teams from the league for a postseason event from April 30 to May 2, 2020 – played at the home field of the No. 1 seed. The tournament is single elimination.

GAME COVERAGE
All games of the series will have live stats available, courtesy of the host teams. UT Permian Basin does not offer a live video feed of their softball games. Western New Mexico will have a video feed. Direct links to live stats and video can be found at the Tarleton Softball schedule on TarletonSports.com or on the Game Day graphics from @TarletonSports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Tarleton went 2-1 at the Lubbock Christian Round Robin Tournament in Lubbock. The Texans rallied from behind to defeat Eastern New Mexico and West Texas A&M on Saturday before falling to host LCU 2-0 in the finale Sunday. Destiny Crumpley hit .444 on the weekend with 5 RBI, all of which came in the comeback effort against Eastern New Mexico in the opener.
 
TARLETON IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Tarleton climbed one spot in the latest NFCA national poll to No. 23. Tarleton opened the year ranked No. 21 in the nation before falling to No. 24 last week. Tarleton has defeated previously-ranked No. 1 Augustana (S.D.) on their way to an 13-4 start this year. The Texans have now been ranked in 10 consecutive NFCA polls dating back to April 3, 2019, including last year's final and this year's preseason rankings. Tarleton (24) is one of six LSC schools in the national rankings – UT Tyler (3), Angelo State (8), Texas A&M-Commerce (16), Texas A&M-Kingsville (19) and Lubbock Christian (22). Oklahoma Christian is also receiving votes in this week's poll.
 
LSC PRESEASON POLL
The Texans racked up 90 wins over the 2018 and 2019 seasons – the most in the LSC. 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).
 
SCHUTT SPORTS/NFCA 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 Thursday afternoon and Tarleton State University has two players to keep an eye on – Georgia Capell and Jordan Withrow. 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. This is the third year that Tarleton has been represented on the early-season watch list. Katelyn Conlee (2016) was the first player in program history to be on the list. Capell and Tanna Huie were on last year's list. Capell becomes the first player to appear on multiple watch lists.
 
TOPS IN THE LSC
Tarleton has won 103 games combined since the start of the 2018 season. That total is the most wins by a Lone Star Conference school over that span. The second most is Angelo State with 100 wins since 2018.
 
WITHROW GETS 600
Tarleton's all-time strikeout leader recorded her 600th career strikeout with a looking strikeout of Henderson State's Kaitlyn Felder in the fourth inning on Feb. 8.
 
QUITE OFFENSIVE
All nine of Tarleton's starting hitters have recorded at least one multi-hit game this season. Georgia Capell leads the team with seven multi-hit performances this season.
 
MILESTONE WATCH: GEORGIA CAPELL
Tarleton's Georgia Capell is closing in on the following milestones within the Tarleton Softball program:
 
Georgia Capell is already closing in on Tarleton's all-time home run leader, Arianna Rodriguez, in her junior season. She is two home runs away from tying Arianna Rodriguez for the program record (41).

Georgia Capell is No. 3 all-time in program history in runs scored. Capell has scored 135 runs in her Tarleton career. She is 15 runs shy of Arianna Rodriguez (150) for second all-time and 40 shy of Melody Mayse (175) for the program record.
 
Georgia Capell has moved into a tie with Alicia Petersma for the third-most RBI in program history (129). She is 20 runs shy of Arianna Rodriguez (149) for No. 2 all-time and 62 RBI away from tying Nyka Wood (191) for the program record.
 
MILESTONE WATCH: JORDAN WITHROW
Tarleton's Jordan Withrow is closing in on the following milestones within the Tarleton Softball program:
 
Jordan Withrow is closing in on her former teammate's all-time wins record at Tarleton. Withrow (66) is two wins shy of passing Haley Freyman (67) for the most wins in Tarleton history.

Jordan Withrow is close to becoming only the third Texan in program history to throw 600 innings. She recently moved into third place all-time with 581.1 innings of work. Haley Freyman (678.0) and Carla Geeslin (647.1) are the only other Texans to have topped 600 career innings.
 
Jordan Withrow is four shutouts away from tying Hall of Famer Carla Geeslin for the most goose eggs in Tarleton history.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES: UT PERMIAN BASIN
Tarleton and UT Permian Basin have a 20-game history that dates back to 2010 and the Texans have an unblemished record against the Falcons. Tarleton is 20-0 all-time against UTPB, including a 9-0 mark since UT Permian Basin joined the Lone Star Conference for the 2017 softball season. The Texans are 10-0 all-time in Odessa and have shutout the Falcons in five straight games dating back to April 27, 2018.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES: WESTERN NEW MEXICO
Tarleton and Western New Mexico have met 15 times since 1999 and the Texans own the all-time series record 13-2. The teams met four times as non-conference opponents between 1999 and 2007 and have met 11 times since Western New Mexico joined the league for the 2017 season. Tarleton is 6-1 all-time in Silver City.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
After over one month straight on the road, Tarleton will finally make their home debut next week by hosting Midwestern State on Wednesday and UT Tyler on Friday in Stephenville. Both series will be 4 p.m. doubleheaders.