The Teams: Tarleton Texans (5-0, 0-0 WAC) vs. Syracuse Orange (5-0, 0-0 ACC); Prairie View A&M Panthers (0-4, 0-0 SWAC); Alabama State Hornets (2-2, 0-0 SWAC); Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (0-0, 0-0 SLC)
Where: Stephenville, TX
Stadium: Tarleton Softball Complex (Friday-Sunday)
Times: 5 p.m. / 7:30 p.m. CT (Friday); 5 p.m. / 7:30 p.m. CT (Saturday); 11 a.m. CT (Sunday)
 
TEXAN SOFTBALL GAME DAY
Tarleton is off to its best start as a Division I program and since 2018 after opening the season with five straight victories. The Texans will look to bring that momentum home to their brand-new home field with five games as part of the Whataburger Invitational.
 
Live stats and video will be available for all games of the tournament. Video can be found at wacdigitalnetwork.com/Tarleton. Specific links are available on the softball schedule at TarletonSports.com.
 
The tournament will play host to 12 games played by five teams over three days from February 18-20 at the newly renovated Tarleton Softball Complex. Tarleton will open its season on Friday, Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. against ACC member Syracuse. The Texans will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Alabama State, and Prairie View A&M twice throughout the remainder of the weekend. In addition to the 12 softball games, the tournament pass will also grant free admission to the Tarleton Baseball series against UTSA also happening in Stephenville this weekend. The passes will also come with a coupon at the Stephenville Whataburger location for a free meal. Tournament passes are $30 for the entire weekend. Tickets will also be available for $20 per day, which includes only the softball games for the day of purchase.
 
Tournament passes and individual game tickets are available for purchase at TarletonSports.com/tickets.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUPS

• Tarleton will be hosting its first home tournament since 2014 when the Texans welcome four other schools to Stephenville for the Whataburger Softball Invitational.
• Tarleton will open its tournament against ACC member Syracuse Friday at 5 p.m. It will be Tarleton's first game against an ACC opponent. The Texans played 10 games against Power 5 opponents last year with their lone win coming on March 20 against Texas Tech. It will also be Tarleton's first meeting against Alabama State.
• Prairie View A&M and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi are familiar opponents for the Texans after being a part of their inaugural schedule last spring. Tarleton dropped all three meetings against Corpus Christi and boast a perfect 6-0 mark against the Panthers since the first meeting in 1997.

 
QUICK HITS

• Tarleton has opened the season 5-0 for the first time since 2018. The 5-0 start to a season is the second-best for Tarleton under head coach Mark Cumpian. That 2018 season saw the Texans start a school-record 12-0.
• Tarleton enters the weekend with four players that played in all five games last weekend hitting over .400. Georgia Capell boasted a dominant first outing by leading the way with a .467 batting average and 1.662 OPS. Morgan Medford (.438), Ashlee LaRue (.429), and Brady Rowland (.400) also topped the .400 plateau last weekend.
• Mark Cumpian has been quite successful in scheduling his early season tournaments. Tarleton is 48-20 (.706) under Cumpian in non-postseason tournaments, including 16-6 outside the state of Texas. Cumpian's Texans have swept five tournaments over that time span, including last weekend's 5-0 trip to Greenville, S.Cl. Tarleton has finished .500 or better in 12 of the 14 tournaments they've played under Cumpian since 2017.
• Capell, a three-time All-American at the Division II level, prepares for the final year of a Hall of Fame-worthy career. The Midlothian native is the only player in Tarleton softball history to hit 50 home runs (53).

 
WAC UPDATES

• LEAGUE STANDINGS: After the opening weekend, Tarleton sits alone atop the WAC Southwest and overall standings as one of only two unbeaten teams in either division. Seattle also went 5-0 in the West Division.
• FOUR NEW MEMBERS, TWO ON THE WAY: Just a year after welcoming two schools to the league in Dixie State and Tarleton, the WAC has opened its arms once again by bringing in the 'Texas 4'group of Abilene Christian, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, and Lamar. Tarleton will also bring in Southern Utah next year and Incarnate Word in 2023 to grow by eight members over a four-year span. Incarnate Word recently accepted an invitation to join the league.
• OWNING THE LONE STAR STATE: With the addition of the four Texas schools, the WAC now boasts the largest presence of any conference in the nation at the NCAA Division I level in the state of Texas.
• LEAGUE DIVISIONS: With the addition of the four Texas schools, the WAC has gone into two divisions for the first time since 2004. The Texans are a part of the Southwest Division that includes all six of the league's Texas schools – Tarleton, ACU, SFA, Sam Houston, Lamar, and UTRGV.
• LEAGUE DIVISIONS: With the addition of the four Texas schools, the WAC has gone into two divisions in softball for the first time. The Texans are a part of the Southwest Division that includes all five of the league's Texas softball-playing schools – Tarleton, ACU, SFA, Sam Houston, and Lamar.
• PRESEASON POLL: Tarleton was picked to finish fourth in the Southwest Division of the Western Athletic Conference. With eight points, the Texans were picked behind SFA (16), Sam Houston (13), and Abilene Christian (9) in a division that includes all five of the league's Texas schools.
• NEW COMMISH IN TOWN: The Western Athletic Conference Board of Directors has announced Brian Thornton as the seventh commissioner in the 60-year history of the conference. Thornton replaces Jeff Hurd, who will be ending a 10-year run as commissioner and 37 years overall at the conference on December 31, 2021.

 
CAPELL LOOKING TO REWRITE THE RECORD BOOKS
Georgia Capell has put together a Hall of Fame worthy resumé. Capell enters the weekend as the program's all-time leader in home runs (53), runs (183), and total bases (436). She is also top 5 in program history in four other offensive categories: hits (218), RBI (172), doubles (55) and hit by pitch (44). She's also on pace to be among the all-time leaders in batting average and slugging percentage.
 

Hits
#	Player	Seasons	Total
1.	Melody Mayse	2013-16	260
2.	Nyka Wood	2015-18	258
3.	Georgia Capell	2018-22	218
4.	Arianna Rodriguez	2010-13	208
5.	Alicia Petersma	1999-02	192

 

Doubles
#	Player	Seasons	Total
1.	Nyka Wood	2015-18	56
2.	Georgia Capell	2018-22	55
3.	Alicia Petersma	1999-02	49
4.	Arianna Rodriguez	2010-13	47
5.	Katelyn Conlee	2013-16	40

 

RBI
#	Player	Seasons	Total
1.	Nyka Wood	2015-18	191
2.	Georgia Capell	2018-22	172
3.	Arianna Rodriguez	2010-13	149
4.	Alicia Petersma	1999-02	129
5.	Katelyn Conlee	2013-16	108

 

Hit By Pitch
#	Player	Seasons	Total
1.	April Gonzalez	2007-10	47
2.	Georgia Capell	2018-22	44
3.	Nyka Wood	2015-18	36
4.	Arianna Rodriguez	2010-13	29
5.	Tanna Huie	2018-19	20

 
NOTABLES

• ROAD WARRIORS: Since the 2019 regular season finale against West Texas A&M on April 27,Tarleton has been the very definition of weary travelers. Tarleton Softball has played 86 games since the beginning of the 2019 postseason and 71 of those have been away from Stephenville. The Texans are 34-37 in road games since May 3, 2019 and 10-5 at home. Tarleton went 713 days between home losses (April 27, 2019 to April 9, 2021).
• RARE FEBRUARY HOME GAMES: This weekend, Tarleton is scheduled to play five home games as part of their Whataburger Softball Invitational. That will be the most home games in the month of February for Tarleton since 2017 (5). Tarleton played just one, three-game series at home in 2018 and 2019 before not having a home game in the first month of the 2020 season. Last year, Tarleton only played a home doubleheader against Prairie View A&M before the calendar turned over. Tarleton is 8-5 at home in February under Mark Cumpian.
• CHASING CANTU: In the history of diamond sports (baseball and softball) at Tarleton State University, there has only ever been one person to hit over 50 home runs while wearing the purple and the white. Texan Baseball star Mike Cantu is the program's all-time home run leader with 58 roundtrippers from 1988-91. Capell (53) joins Cantu as the only Texans in university history to club 50 career long balls.
• FULLY-CHARGED BATTERY: After injuries decimated the Tarleton pitching and catching units last season, the Texans made a significant push in those areas this offseason. Tarleton has four catchers on roster with key transfers Brittany Coe (UTSA) and Brady Rowland (Memphis) coming in to join Miranda Pruitt and freshman Paige Nunes. In the circle, Tarleton relied heavily on Tristan Bridges and Julia Wernet last year but will boast the largest pitching staff in program history this season. Tarleton has eight pitchers on staff with the addition of transfers Hannah Mayo (Texas A&M), Reagan Chism (SFA), and Chyanne Ellett (Memphis).
• PITCHING DEPTH ON DISPLAY: Tarleton used six pitchers during last year's tournament sweep at Furman. The six pitchers tie the school record for the most arms used in a season in Tarleton history. The Texans used six different pitchers last year as well, which was a first. The 2022 version of the Texan pitching circle now boasts four different pitchers with a flawless 0.00 ERA and the entire staff has a team ERA of 0.88.
• IT'S A FAMILY THING: Newcomer Ashlee LaRue joins Tarleton after spending one season at Ole Miss. LaRue is a native of Blanco, Texas and has quite the family history with baseball and softball. Her father, Shaun, played professionally with the Cincinnati Reds system. Her aunt, Brooke, played three years for Tarleton from 2007-09. Her uncle, Jason, played 12 years in Major League Baseball for Cincinnati, Kansas City, and St. Louis.
• AGAINST P5s: Tarleton faced off against teams from the Power 5 conferences 10 times during their debut season in NCAA Division last spring. Tarleton earned its first and only win against those schools with an 11-9 win in extra innings. The Texans will play their 11th game against a P5 program when they welcome ACC-member Syracuse this weekend.
• SEASON-OPENING SHUTOUT: Tristan Bridges spun the first shutout in a season opener since Tarleton began the 2017 season – Mark Cumpian's first – with a 5-0 victory over Washburn. Tarleton's all-time wins leader Haley Freyman blanked the Ichabods with one hit over seven innings for Cumpian's first win as a head coach. Five years and 161 wins later, Cumpian began his sixth season and earned his 162nd career victory with a complete-game shutout from Tristan Bridges.

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton heads west for its final tournament of the season. The Texans will play five games as part of the New Mexico Lobo Classic Friday through Sunday in Albequerque.