The Teams: Tarleton Texans (9-3, 0-0 WAC) vs. North Texas Mean Green (7-2, 0-0 C-USA); CSU-Bakersfield (2-8, 0-0 Big West); Kansas City Roos (3-6, 0-0 Summit); UTEP Miners (4-5, 0-0 C-USA); Creighton (3-6, 0-0 Big East)
Where: Stephenville, TX; El Paso, TX
Stadium: Tarleton Softball Complex; Helen of Troy Field
Times: 6 p.m. CT (Wednesday);  10 a.m. / 1 p.m. CT (Friday); 10 a.m. / 4 p.m. CT (Saturday); 9 a.m. (Sunday)
Video: UTEP Athletics on Youtube
 
TEXAN SOFTBALL GAME DAY
Tarleton is set to host one of its biggest games of the young season Wednesday night when the Texans welcome Conference USA power North Texas to Stephenville for a single, 6 p.m. showdown. This game will also mark the first home game in program history to air on ESPN+.
 
Following Wednesday's home stand finale, the Texans will hit the road once again for five games in El Paso at the UTEP Invitational. There will be live stats and a video broadcast for all games through the week.
 
SERIES HISTORY

• Tarleton will host North Texas for a single game Wednesday at 6 p.m. before venturing to west Texas for five games in the UTEP Invitational Tournament.
• When the Texans square off with North Texas, it will pit Mark Cumpian against former Lone Star Conference coaching rival Rodney DeLong, who spent three seasons at Cameron. DeLong was the head coach of the Aggies in 2015 when the Texans defeated Cameron in the South Central Region 1 Finals. Delong is 7-10 as a head coach against Tarleton.
• The meetings against CSU-Bakersfield and UMKC will be the first meetings in program history. Also, those two schools are the two programs who left the WAC the same year (2020) that Tarleton and Utah Tech joined the conference.
• Tarleton will quickly rematch against Creighton, who took part in the Whataburger Invitational in Stephenville last weekend. The Bluejays went 1-4 in Stephenville, including a 3-1 loss to Tarleton on Friday.
• The Texans and Miners have met four times over the last two seasons with Tarleton holding a 3-1 edge in the series. Tarleton defeated the Minders twice in Lubbock in their debut Division I season before splitting a home doubleheader in Stephenville last year.

 
QUICK HITS

• Last Sunday, Mark Cumpian became just the seventh head coach of any sport in Tarleton State Athletics history to win 200 games for Tarleton. He notched career win No. 200 in his 316th game at the helm of Texan Softball.
• In Sunday's game, Grace Garcia became the second pitcher in program history to throw a perfect game. She went 18 up and 18 down over six innings to defeat Texas A&M-Commerce 8-0. She joins Caryn Holbrook (3/29/97) as the only Texans with a perfect game in program history.
• Katy Schaefer and Grace Garcia were named the WAC Hitter and Pitcher of the Week. Schaefer couldn't be stopped at the plate and led the Texans with a .650 (13-20) batting average while driving in nine RBI, including one home run and four doubles. Garcia threw 13.2 innings and went 3-0, including her perfect game.
• Not to be lost in the shuffle of Cumpian's milestone win and Garcia's perfecto, the Texan offense set a new school record with seven doubles in Sunday's game. The previous record of six was set in 1997 and has been matched five times since, most recently in 2017.

 
BROADCASTING ON THE WORLD WIDE LEADER

• Part of the latest renovations to the Tarleton Baseball Complex and Tarleton Softball Complex included the capability to match ESPN standards of multiple camera angles on the broadcast. With that, Tarleton will stream select 2023 baseball and softball home games on ESPN+.
•  Over the last two years and this past week, Tarleton has broadcast all of their baseball and softball home games on WAC International, formerly called WAC Digital Network. Due to specific renovations in regard to the ability to have added camera angles, Texan games can now reach a larger audience on the ESPN platform.
• Of the remaining 20 Tarleton Softball home games, 15 of them will be broadcast on ESPN+, beginning Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT when the Texans host North Texas.

 
A LOOK AT THE WAC

• After splitting into divisions for one year, the WAC has returned to a non-divisional league platform. Tarleton was part of the Southwest Division last year.  This year, the WAC will consist of 12 schools all vying for the title of regular season champion.
• Tarleton was chosen to finish sixth in the WAC Preseason Poll released on February 2. The Texans received 62 total votes, which was two votes ahead of ACU. Grand Canyon was picked at the top of the conference with Seattle U (2), SFA (3), California Baptist (4), and Utah Valley (5) finishing ahead of the Texans.
• Morgan Medford returns to her shortstop position as a reigning second-team All-WAC selection from last spring. The junior from Denton hit .323 with 48 runs scored, including a school record five runs against Sam Houston on April 9.
• Katy Schaefer was tabbed to the Preseason All-WAC team on Feb. 2. The junior from Sweeny is coming off a .359 season with nine home runs and 49 RBI.
• Katy Schaefer and Grace Garcia were named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter and Pitcher of the Week for their dominant showings last week. This is the first WAC Player of the Week award for both players. Schaefer couldn't be stopped at the plate and led the Texans with a .650 (13-20) batting average while driving in nine RBI, including one home run and four doubles. Garcia went 3-0 with an ERA of 0.00 over 13.2 innings, allowing zero runs on five hits, with 10 strikeouts and zero walks. She pitched two shutouts and improved to 4-0 on the season. She capped off her week with a six-inning perfect game on Sunday against Texas A&M-Commerce. It was the second perfect game in program history and first since 1997.

 
BRIDGES CLIMBING THE ALL-TIME STRIKEOUT LIST
Tristan Bridges begins the season among the Tarleton top-10 list for strikeouts. The senior enters the week with 349 career strikeouts. She now has her sights set on Caryn Holbrook at No. 4 with 384.
 

Strikeouts
#	Player	Seasons	Total
1.	Jordan Withrow	2017-20	676
2.	Carla Geeslin	2001-04	521
3.	Randi Fentress	2011-14	445
4.	Caryn Holbrook	1997-00	384
5.	Tristan Bridges	2019-22	349
	Samantha Swanda	2011-12	349
7.	Haley Freyman	2015-18	333
8.	Brooke Saulters	2007-08	320
9.	A.J. Bristow	2003-05	280
10.	Jill Ratliff	1999-02	276

 
TURNING THINGS AROUND QUICKLY
The Texans' 30 wins in 2022 highlighted an incredible turn of events for Tarleton, who won only 17 games in its debut Division I season in 2021. The Texans enjoyed a 12.0 game improvement, which was the 17th best in NCAA Division I from 2021 to 2022. The programs with at least an 11.5 game improvement are as follows:
 

Biggest Turnaround from 2021 to 2022
Rank	School	Head Coach	'21 W-L	'22 W-L	Imp.
1.	Penn St.	Clarisa Crowell	7-34	32-22	18½
2.	Boise St.	Justin Shults	20-25	40-10	17½
3.	Grand Canyon	Shanon Hays	19-30	39-16	17
4.	Murray St.	Kara Amundson	22-29	40-18	14½
	South Dakota	Robert Wagner	13-39	28-25	14½
6.	Belmont	Laura Matthews	15-26	33-17	13½
	Louisiana Tech	Josh Taylor	22-30	39-20	13½
	North Florida	Marcie Higgs	21-23	42-17	13½
9.	Fla. Atlantic	Joan Joyce	12-35	29-26	13
	Georgia Tech	Aileen Morales	20-26	38-18	13
	Omaha	Mike Heard	20-28	32-14	13
	USC Upstate	Chris Hawkins	29-17	48-10	13
13.	Nebraska	Rhonda Revelle	22-22	41-16	12½
	New Mexico	Paula Congleton	10-36	26-27	12½
	Presbyterian	David Williams	15-19	36-15	12½
	UNCW	Kristy Norton	15-23	32-15	12½
17.	Akron	Meaggan Pettipiece	8-46	18-32	12
	Samford	Kimball Cassady	18-27	34-19	12
	Tarleton St.	Mark Cumpian	17-36	30-25	12
20.	Oregon St.	Laura Berg	20-26	39-22	11½
	Rutgers	Kristen Butler	8-36	25-30	11½
To determine games improved, add the difference in victories between the two seasons to the difference in losses, then divide by two. Ties not counted. This includes postseason play.

 
CUMPIAN JOINS ELITE TEXAN COACHING COMPANY
It hasn't taken long, but Mark Cumpian has already climbed to the elite status of Tarleton Athletics coaches. With his 200th career win last Sunday, Cumpian is the eighth head coach in Tarleton Athletics history (seventh with NCAA wins during their tenure) to reach the 200-win milestone. He is the fourth-fastest coach at Tarleton to reach the milestone and the fastest among baseball or softball coaches to reach the plateau.
 

Fastest Tarleton Coach to 200 Wins
#	Coach	Sport	Games to Reach 200
1.	Jan Lowery (all NAIA)	W. Basketball	277
2.	Ronnie Hearne	W. Basketball	299
3.	Lonn Reisman	M. Basketball	307
4.	Mark Cumpian	Softball	316
5.	Jack Allen	Baseball	330
	Julie Mata	Softball	330
7.	Mary Schindler	Volleyball	339
8.	Bryan Conger	Baseball	350

 
NOTABLES

• REPLACING A LEGEND: When the Texans take the field against Texas A&M on Feb. 9, it will be the first game since April 28, 2018 that Georgia Capell's name won't be on the lineup card. Tarleton's all-time leader in home runs, runs scored, total bases, hits, etc. wrapped up what is certain to be a Hall of Fame career last May at the NISC. She had played in 186 consecutive games at Tarleton since that 2018 regular season finale at UT Permian Basin in Odessa.
• TRIO OF TEXAN TWIRLERS: Since 2015, Tarleton has developed three of the top pitchers in the history of the program. The combination of Haley Freyman, Jordan Withrow, and Tristan Bridges have combined to start 271 of the 425 games (64%) Tarleton has played in the last eight years.
• BETTER TOGETHER: Mark Cumpian and Stefanie Phillips have reached the decade mark of time spent together. The two joined forces as assistants under former head coach Julie Mata in 2014. They spent three seasons as assistant coaches together before Cumpian took over as head coach and Phillips became the top assistant. The coaching duo have been together for 476 games and have a record of 282-194 (.592)  together.
• CUMPIAN AMONG THE BEST: While reclassifying programs are not counted among the national records and yearly record books, Tarleton head coach Mark Cumpian would be considered among the elite coaches in the nation. The seventh year head coach enters the week with a career record of 200-116 for a win percentage of .633, which would rank him among the top 50 active coaches in the country for win percentage.
• WELCOME TO TARLETON, KELCI HILL: Kelci Hill made quite the impression on Tarleton's lineup in the opening weekend of the season. Hill led the team with four RBI, 10 total bases, seven hits, and a .588 slugging percentage. The junior outfielder also had a walk-off double for Tarleton's first win of the season against Northern Kentucky.
• WALK-OFF FOR NO. 1: Kelci Hill's walk-off double for Tarleton against Northern Kentucky marked the first time since 2015 that Tarleton's first win of the season came on a walk-off. Tarleton went on to win 33 games in 2015 and advance to the Division II Super Regional Series. The Texans got a walk-off single by Kady Crow to defeat Southwestern Oklahoma 15-14 for their first win of 2015.
• EYEING 30 AGAIN: Tarleton is coming off its first 30-win season as a member of NCAA Division I. The Texans reached 30 wins by winning the second game of the National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC) in Fort Collins, Colo. last May. The Texans' invitation to compete in the NISC marked the first postseason invitation for any program at the Division I level for Tarleton State University.
• WALK-OFF QUEEN: For someone who walks to the plate to the tune of Johnny Cash, Jordan Dickerson might want to consider renaming the song "Walk the Line" to "Walk It Off". Jordan Dickerson was at the plate for the third walk-off victory of her Tarleton career Sunday afternoon when she drew the game-ending, bases-loaded walk against Texas A&M-Commerce. She has walk-off hits against CBU (4/9/21), UNT (4/21/21), and Commerce (2/19/23).

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will be back in Stephenville on Wednesday March 1 when they host Lamar in a single game at 6 p.m. in Stephenville on ESPN+.