THE GAMES
Fresh off a victory over the No. 1 team in the nation, Tarleton is headed north to Arkadelphia, Ark. Tarleton will play four games between Saturday and Sunday. The Texans will open the weekend against tournament co-host Henderson State on Friday at 12 p.m. before squaring off with Missouri-St. Louis Friday (2 p.m.), Mississippi College Saturday (2 p.m.) and the other tournament co-host Ouachita Baptist Saturday (4 p.m.).

ABOUT THE McGHEE/HAWKINS INVITATIONAL
The tournament will take place in Arkadelphia, Arkansas between the campuses of Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist. Tarleton will play Saturday's games at Henderson State and Sunday's games at Ouachita Baptist. Only the tournament finale at OBU will be live streamed.
 
GAME COVERAGE
Only one game of this weekend's will have a live video stream – the tournament finale against Ouachita Baptist Sunday at 4 p.m. All games of the series will have live stats available, courtesy of the home team. 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 took part in arguably the toughest Division II tournament in the country last week. The tournament field at the Arkansas Tech Winter Invitational at the Scrapyards in Conroe hosted eight of the nation's top 25 teams, including the No. 1 team Augustana. Tarleton closed out the weekend by knocking off the defending national champs 5-3 and escaped the weekend with a 4-2 record.
 
TARLETON IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Tarleton Softball opened the 2020 season ranked No. 21 in the nation by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. This is the fourth time in program history Tarleton has opened 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.
 
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: MCGHEE/HAWKINS INVITATIONAL
Tarleton will face off with four teams this weekend, including a familiar rival from a week ago in Henderson State. Tarleton has only seen Henderson and Ouachita previously. The other two games will be first meetings. Here's a look at how Tarleton has fared against the teams they will see this weekend:
 
Including a 12-5 win in Conroe last Friday, Tarleton now holds a 4-1 edge all-time against Henderson State since the series began in 2009.
 
Tarleton and Missouri-St. Louis have no previous history.
 
Tarleton and Mississippi College have no previous history.
 
Tarleton leads Ouachita Baptist 3-1 since the series began in 2004. The teams last met in 2014 when the Texans won 9-2.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
The Texans will head to San Angelo next weekend for six games at the George McCorkle Challenge at Angelo State. Tarleton will play a second straight against Ouachita Baptist to open the tournament, followed by two straight against New Mexico Highlands and Texas A&M International before closing with a single, non-conference game against Angelo State. For more information on Tarleton Softball program, follow @Tarleton_SB on Twitter.