The Teams: Tarleton Texans (11-7, 0-0 WAC) vs. Lamar Cardinals (3-15, 0-0 SLC); SD State Jackrabbits (9-6, 0-0 Summit); Tulsa Hurricanes (7-8, 0-0 American); #4 Oklahoma State Cowgirls (13-1, 0-0 Big XII); Maine (4-5, 0-0 America East)
Where: Stephenville, TX (Wednesday); Tulsa, OK (Friday); Stillwater, OK (Saturday-Sunday)
Stadium: Tarleton Softball Complex; Collins Family Complex; Cowgirl Stadium
Times: 6 p.m. CT (Wednesday);  12 / 2:30 p.m. CT (Friday); 12 / 5 p.m. CT (Saturday); 10:30 a.m. CT (Sunday)
Video: ESPN+ (Wednesday); ESPN+ vs. Tulsa (Friday)
 
TEXAN SOFTBALL GAME DAY
Tarleton is back home for a midweek game against a familiar foe from south Texas. The Texans will host Lamar at 6 p.m. Wednesday night before heading back out for tournament play north of the Red River. Tarleton will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma for two games Friday at the University of Tulsa before heading to Stillwater for the final three games of the weekend at the co-hosted Tulsa-Oklahoma State Invitational.
 
There will be live stats for all games through the week. Broadcasts against Lamar and Tulsa will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
SERIES HISTORY

• Tarleton will start its three-city tour over five days, beginning Wednesday night in Stephenville against Lamar with a 6 p.m. single game. The Texans will then begin tournament play in Tulsa, Okla. with two games on Friday before spending the rest of the weekend in Stillwater for the second leg of a co-hosted tournament between Tulsa and Oklahoma State.
• When the Texans square off with Lamar, it will be a reunion of former WAC rivals. The Texans and Cardinals were conference opponents last season before Lamar chose to return to the Southland Conference after one WAC season. The Texans won the final two games of the series by a combined scored of 12-4. Tarleton is 3-4 all-time against Lamar and 2-1 in Stephenville.
• The meetings against Tulsa and Maine will be the first meetings in program history.
• Tarleton and South Dakota State will meet for the first time since playing twice at the Washburn (KS) Invitational in 2002. The Texans topped the Jackrabbits twice in that tournament and hold an all-time lead 2-0 in the series.
• Tarleton will square off with its final Power 5 opponent of the season when they take on the No. 4-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls. OSU won the first meeting against Tarleton when the teams met in Tarleton's inaugural D1 season.

 
QUICK HITS

• Jordan Dickerson has returned to form at the plate. After missing all last season to injury, Dickerson has come on with a .467 batting average over the last six games including her first home run since April 24, 2021 against Seattle U. She has a team-high 11 total bases in that span.
• The Texans are off to a 14-for-14 start in stealing bases, led by Tristyn Trull with a 3-for-3 slate. Tarleton is on pace for its first 30-steal season as a team since 2018 when they went 34-40 on the base paths.
• Austin Germain has been one of the best in the nation at collecting two-base hits. The sophomore from San Antonio leads the team with nine doubles in the 16 games she's played. Her average of 0.56 doubles per game would rank her No. 17 in the nation. She leads all reclassifying players in that category.
• It doesn't matter where she's been in the lineup, Germain keeps hitting. She has a .556 average in the leadoff spot, a .529 average in the No. 2 spot, and a .353 average in the No. 5 spot. She enters the week as the team's leading hitter with a .465 average and a .744 slugging percentage.

 
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.
• On Feb. 20, 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 363 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	363
	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.
• 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 482 games and have a record of 284-200 (.587)  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 202-120 for a win percentage of .627, 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).
• THAT EPIC SUNDAY WIN: On Sunday, Feb. 19, Tarleton enjoyed quite the afternoon. 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. 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. 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.
• EATING UP INNINGS: Tristan Bridges is moving closer to becoming the seventh Texan in school history to have thrown at least 500 innings in her career. She enters the week with 497.2 innings for her career thus far.

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will return home for four games before starting WAC play. The Texans will host a three-game series against the University of Houston Friday-Sunday before a Wednesday showdown with UTSA.