PHOENIX – Following the Texans midweek domination of the Lady Panthers of Prairie View A&M on Tuesday 15-1 (5), the Purple and White are set to return to action with a three-game conference series with the Lopes from Grand Canyon.
Last time the two teams met, the Lopes took the three-game series in Stephenville 9-7, 15-2 (5) and 11-3 (5). The year before in 2023 the two programs met in Phoenix for the first time as the Texans took Game 1 5-2.
Grand Canyon holds the all-time series lead over Tarleton State 6-2 as the Lopes have outscored the Texans 63-22. The largest margin of victory for the Stephenville squad came on May 1, 2021, in Stephenville when Tarleton State allowed just one run and run-ruled the Lopes 11-1 (6) in the two teams first ever meeting all-time. Katy Schaefer homered to left with Jordan Dickerson and Georgia Capell on to take the first meeting.
The trip west for the visiting Purple and White marks the third trip to the home of the Lopes with one of the trips for the 2023 WAC Tournament.
Through four weeks, the Texans have multiple athletes leaving their mark nationally. Austin German currently sits 28th in the nation in doubles with 10 on the season and leads the WAC. With her 10 doubles through 28 games, she ranks 58th in doubles per game. With lots of doubles come lots of hits and she currently ranks 24th in the nation in hits with 41. With all the offensive power from Germain, she is the toughest to strike out on the Texans roster as she strikes out once every 45.5 plate appearances.
Other Texans top in the nation include Kalyn Hill who has caught 10 base runners stealing which puts her eighth in the nation and leads all of the WAC. Fox sits sixth in the nation in sac bunts per game at 0.35 as the nation's leader is at 0.48 in Elle Carter of ULM. Jaelynn Duke is 29th in sac flies with three thus far, just three behind the nation's leaders in Hazyl Gray of Santa Clara and Madison Petty of Furman who each have six.
On the pitching side of things, Alexa Rehmeier and Sadie Beck are currently tied for 36th in the nation in saves with two each. Shelby Schultz continues to pound the strike zone as she sits 34th in the nation in strikeouts with 83 thus far and leads the WAC. She also ranks 27th in strikeouts per seven innings at 9.0 and leads WAC.
In the WAC, the Purple and White continue to hold four of the top-12 spots in batting average as Germain leads the Texans ranking second in the conference. As a team, Tarleton State is in the top-three of 22 different statistical categories in the WAC. The Texans lead the WAC in team strikeouts per seven innings at 6.82 and are first in walks with 115, 16 ahead of the next closest WAC foe in UT Arlington.
First pitch on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and 9 p.m. CT. The rubber match is set for a 2 p.m. CT first pitch on Saturday. The entire three-game series will air live on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available. Tickets are available for Texan Nation making the trip out west and can be found here.
Following the Texans trip to the Lopes, Tarleton State will head home for a three-game conference series with Seattle U Friday-Saturday.
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