The Teams: Tarleton Texans (13-11, 0-0 WAC) vs. Houston Cougars (10-11, 0-0 AAC)
Where: Stephenville, TX
Stadium: Tarleton Softball Complex
Times: 5 p.m. CT (Friday);  2 p.m. CT (Saturday); 12 p.m. CT (Sunday)
Video: WAC International
 
TEXAN SOFTBALL GAME DAY
For the first time in program history, Tarleton Softball will play a three-day single game series when the Texans play host to the Cougars from the University of Houston this weekend. Tarleton and Houston will square off Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at noon.
 
There will be live stats for all games through the week. Live video broadcasts can be found at WACInternational.tv. The WAC broadcasts are free of charge, but do require fans to create an account.
 
SERIES HISTORY

• Tarleton will welcome the University of Houston to Stephenville for the first time this weekend when the Texans and Cougars play a three-game series stretched out over the entire weekend (Friday-Sunday), beginning Friday at 5 p.m.
• The Texans and Cougars have met one time previously. Tarleton visited Houston for a three team, round robin doubleheader on Feb. 22, 2021. The Texans played No. 1 Oklahoma in the first game that day and then squared off with the Cougars, who won 8-0 in five. The last meeting between Tarleton and Houston was the Texans' sixth game as a Division I program.
• This series marks the first time in Tarleton Softball history to play a three-game series with all single games. Tarleton has never played a series against the same team that has not included at least one doubleheader.

 
QUICK HITS

• Over the last 10 games, Tarleton has used 10 different starting lineups. Despite the lineup shuffling, there have been three consistent faces: Kelci Hill, Katy Schaefer, and MacKenzie Peterson. Those three Texans have played and started each of the last 10 for Tarleton. Hill is hitting .303 over that span with a team-high six RBI.
• The Texans are off to a 15-for-16 start in stealing bases, led by Tristyn Trull with a 3-for-4 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. There are currently seven different Texans with a stolen base this season, including six with at least two stolen bags.
• 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 10 doubles in the 22 games she's played. Her average of 0.45 doubles per game would rank her No. 18 in the nation. She leads all reclassifying players in that category.
• Germain isn't just hitting doubles, she's hitting everything. She enters the weekend leading the team with a .464 batting average, which is second in the nation among reclassifying players. She is one of 42 players in the nation hitting over .460 this week.
• Grace Garcia leads the team and is third in the WAC with seven pitching wins this season. She enters the weekend with a 7-2 record in the circle. Only GCU's Hailey Hudson and SU's Stefanie Madrigal (8) have more in the league.

 
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 368 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	368
	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

• 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 488 games and have a record of 286-204 (.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 204-124 for a win percentage of .622, 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.
• ECLIPSING 500 INNINGS: Tristan Bridges has been a mainstay in the pitching circle for Tarleton since day one. The senior surpassed the 500-inning plateau. She reached her 500th inning with a swining strikeout to lead off the bottom of the third inning against Tulsa on March 3.
• TRIO OF TEXAN TWIRLERS: Three of the most consistent pitchers in program history now sit as the top three in program history for complete games. 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 277 of the 437 games (63%) Tarleton has played in the last eight years. With her 51^st career complete game, Bridges moved into No. 3 on the all-time list. She trails only Freyman (67) and Withrow (65).

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will host UTSA Tuesday night at 6 p.m. for a midweek before jumping on a plane and heading to the Pacific Northwest to begin conference play against Seattle U. The Texans and Redhawks will play a Friday night doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. PST and the series finale Saturday at 3 p.m. CT / 1 p.m. PST.