ALVA, Okla. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State softball team will honor four seniors this weekend during the team's final Great American Conference home series versus Ouachita Baptist.

Seniors Amber Mills, Morgan Lewis, Alexis Hayes and Megan Sanders will suit up for the final time in the Ranger black-and-red for arguably the most critical series of the year for head coach Jill Webb's squad. The Rangers dropped their first series since coach Webb took over at the beginning of March to Southern Nazarene this past weekend, creating a log-jam in the heart of the GAC standings. The Rangers currently stand at 11-19 in a tie with both Henderson State and Southern Nazarene in a tie for sixth place. Southeastern Oklahoma State and Ouachita both sit one game back at 10-18, making the last few spots in the post-season tournament anybody's to take.

"I think this is going to be a pivotal series for us hopefully beating Ouachita," said coach Webb, "It's going to be a series we need to make that final push into the playoffs, it will put us in a better position as far as not being so close (in the standings) going down the stretch."

Coach Webb said her team simply got caught not playing their own game this past weekend against Southern Nazarene and that can't happen if they are to win crucial games down the stretch. The attacking mentality the Rangers have had at the plate wasn't put on display in the series against Southern Nazarene in the first three games, and the pitching that has been so crucial to the turn-around also stalled.

Despite everything seemingly going in favor of the Crimson Storm all weekend, the Rangers still battled all the way until the last inning in the final game of the series in which they posted 14 hits and nearly came back in the bottom half of the final inning. Junior Peyton Garrett blasted her first homer of her career in the bottom half of the seventh inning to bring the margin down to just one run, showing the resilience coach Webb's team has shown all season.

The Rangers will look to move forward this weekend while paying their tributes to their four seniors in a showdown with an Ouachita Baptist team that has had a similar up-and-down type year. The Tigers (16-26, 10-20 in GAC) have dropped their past two series to Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello and will look to go on the road to Alva and pick up a desperation-type win over the Rangers. Ouachita will lean on a deep pitching staff that has seen three different pitchers earn starts throughout the year in Macy Nantz, Marissa Butler and Kelsey O'Brien.

That staff will be tasked with slowing down Ranger slugger Madison McGraw, who has been on fire throughout the month of April, hitting .471 in the heart of the Ranger line-up. Nantz and freshman Macy Wilson will spear-head the offensive attack for the Tigers, entering the contest with averages of .316 and .302 respectively.

The action will begin weather-depending at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 12 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Both days are scheduled for doubleheaders and are subject to time changes depending on the rain that is forecasted for Alva this weekend.