Ryan Shumaker, Athletic Communications 
ALVA, Okla. – Fresh off of one of their most impressive offensive performances all season, the Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team is focused and ready to continue to build their confidence at the plate during this weekend's home series.

That confidence should be on the upswing as the Rangers finally seemed to have settled in at the plate following a 16 run performance in Tuesday evening's contest with Fort Hays State. Northwestern managed 16 hits against the Tigers just a few days after a tough trip to Russellville, Ark. where the Rangers were defeated in all three games against the Wonder Boys.

The series against Arkansas Tech was not totally without promise however, as many names continued to emerge as leaders at the plate. Third baseman Steven Deckard produced a solid weekend, going 5-for-8 to raise his season batting average to .333. Center fielder Garrett Douglas also continued to manufacture quality at-bats from the lead-off spot in the line-up. As the Rangers continue to grow and develop confidence with the bats, head coach Sam Carel anticipates multiple other names will step up in the coming weeks and provide the offense that will propel the Rangers to conference series wins.

Tuesday night was a prime example of just what many of the Ranger batters are capable of, as designated hitter Pat Delano and first baseman Jorin Van Amstel exploded for seven RBI's in the heart of the Ranger line-up. Delano hit the second and third home runs of the season for the Rangers and Van Amstel began to show the potential he has to truly break out for Northwestern this season.

"Those guys have both been working really hard in practice and have been making some adjustments and you feel like they are both really close to breaking out and yesterday started to show that," Coach Carel said.

With the Ranger bats on the verge of a break-out showing heading into this weekend's home stand against the Savage Storm of Southeastern, the Ranger bullpen should be put in a position to close out games in the late innings. Early on in the season, the bullpen has seen multiple arms head to the mound with varied results. Red-shirt freshman Brandon Nesseralla has proven to be one of the more reliable arms that pitching coach Aaron Gilbreath has been able to send out to maintain a lead, giving up just one earned run in his 7.2 innings of work this season.

That production similar to Nesseralla's work in the middle stages of the game will set-up standout closer David Sanchez for a chance at save opportunities. According to coach Carel, Sanchez has been working hard this season to develop multiple pitches that will make his mid-90's fastball even more effective.   

Southeastern (1-11, 0-6 in GAC) will make the trip to Alva after being swept in consecutive series by Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello. The Savage Storm have also started off slow at the plate, ranking at the bottom of the GAC along with Northwestern with a .223 batting average. Infielder Brett Akins currently leads the Storm with a .359 average and is also tied for the most RBI's on the team with five.
Southeastern will enter the series with a team ERA of 6.60 and a batting average against of .320. Senior Mike Ward sports the lowest ERA on the team at 3.21 despite losing all three of his starts.

GAC action will get started Friday evening at 6 p.m. and conclude with a double header on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m.

For the latest news and updates on Ranger Baseball, follow @NWOSUAthletics on Twitter or visit www.riderangersride.com