ALVA, Okla. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team will head down to Durant, Okla. to take on the Southeastern Oklahoma State Savage Storm this weekend.

The Rangers (8-7, 3-3 GAC) will enter the series losers of three straight games, but will have a great opportunity to improve their 3-3 conference record against a Southeastern (4-10, 1-5 GAC) squad that has been limited to just one conference victory on the season. Despite the current losing streak, the Rangers have been electric at the plate as of late, and will have four different batters enter the season with a batting average of .400 or higher.

Junior Justin Bundy returned from an illness that sidelined him for four games earlier in the year, and has recorded 13 hits in his last 23 events for a .565 average during the last five contests. Bundy has four of the 14 homeruns that the club has hit during those past five games while posting a team average of .364 over the stretch.

Redshirt sophomore Daschal Johnson and senior Jorin Van Amstel have also recorded batting averages over .400 for the season, and have continued to provide support to Bundy at the top of the line-up. Van Amstel has knocked in seven runs over the past five games while Johnson has scored eight runs himself. Both bats will look to take advantage of a pitching staff that currently sports an ERA of 7.97 and has surrendered a league-high 28 homeruns on the year.

Senior left-hander Walker Wharton will look to continue his hot start to the season and ranks in the top five in nearly every major statistical category in the country. The Frank Phillips, Texas native has earned four wins in his first four starts of the season and leads the nation across all collegiate divisions with 32.1 innings pitched.

Wharton figures to be joined in the starting rotation this weekend by fellow senior Cole Jackson, who like Wharton sat out last season recovering from Tommy John surgery and has slowly been working his way back into playing shape. The Iowa native has recorded an ERA of 2.08 during his 8.2 innings of work this season and will look to provide head coach Ryan Bowen with a reliable arm to move into the starting rotation.

That starting rotation will look to work deep into games over the weekend to provide some rest for a Ranger bullpen that has struggled as of late. The red-hot Ranger bats will need some support if they are to take the series over Southeastern, as the Savage Storm will be led at the plate by Easton Elliott and Austin Ferguson, who will enter the series with averages of .333 and .313 respectively.

Games for the weekend are set for a 2 p.m. start on Friday and a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday.