ALVA, Okla.- The Rangers will take on the Muleriders of Southern Arkansas this upcoming weekend for a battle for first place. Southern Arkansas enters the weekend one game in front of the Rangers for first place in the Great American Conference. The schedule for the weekend will include a doubleheader Friday afternoon into the evening, followed by a single Saturday game. The first Friday game will begin at 3:00 PM, with the second game 30 minutes following the final out. The Saturday game will start at 2:30. That afternoon will also be senior day as the senior day activities will begin approximately at 2:00 PM.
 

The Rangers enter the weekend series with a 25-12 record overall on the season with a 20-10 Great American Conference record. The conference record is a three-way tie for the second spot with Arkansas Tech and Oklahoma Baptist. 
 

Northwestern, coached by Ryan Bowen, continues through his fourth season with the Rangers baseball program. Bowen holds an 83-76 record with Northwestern.
 

The Red-and-Black offense has six batters over the .300 mark, entering the final weekend of the regular season. Blake Hoffman leads the Rangers, but his .437 batting average leads the Great American Conference as a whole. Hoffman has 15 extra-base hits on the season with eight home runs and seven doubles. His.793 SLG% is also a GAC lead. Hoffman will as enter the week coming off the GAC player of the week award. Grant French is second on the team with a .371 batting average with seven home runs on the season with 17RBI. He has the team-high in OBP% with an even .500, after drawing 17 walks. Third on the team is Daschal Johnson hitting .356 on the team, second on the team in home runs with nine on the year, and second with 38RBI. He leads the team in hits on the season with 53 and runs scored, as he has crossed the plate 38 times in the year. Preston Lonadier is next with a .330 average on the season, second on the team with 11 doubles on the year. Marques Paige comes into the game hitting .326 on the season, 11th in the nation in home runs with 15, which is the first in the conference. His 42 RBI on the season are first on the Rangers and third in the Great American Conference. Yugo Hamakawa is the sixth and final hitter with a .324 average on the season with five home runs with 25 RBI and ten doubles. The Rangers as a team are fourth in the conference hitting .311 as a team and are second in the conference in team total home runs with 57. 
 

The Rangers pitching staff is fourth in the conference this season with a 5.22 team ERA on the year and fourth in strikeouts with 292. The Rangers are tied for first, with the most batters picked off. Scott Creedon is the number one starter of the year for the Rangers, with a 3.80ERA holding a 6-3 record in 10 starts made, including two complete games. Ethan Swanson is second, making ten starts as well on the season, striking out 42 hitters in 43 innings of work for the Rangers. Kaleb Honea leads the Northwestern bullpen with a 1.71ERA holding a 4-1 record and a nation-leading ten saves on the season out of 13 total for the Rangers. He has struck out 38 batters in 31 innings of work. Austin Thomason is tied for second for most appearances on the team, along with Koby Spicer. Thomason holds a 4.46 ERA in those appearances, including having made five starts on the year. Connor Gibson is second on the team in ERA in his nine appearances on the season with a 3.24 ERA. 

Southern Arkansas: 
 

The Muleriders come into this weekend with a 25-12 record on the season with a 21-9 conference record. They go into the weekend coming off a series loss to Arkansas Monticello after sweeping Southern Nazarene the previous weekend. 
 

Southern Arkansas is led by Justin Pettigrew, who is currently in his fifth year as the Muleriders head coach. Pettigrew is 153-71 in his career with Southern Arkansas. 
 

The Muleriders have four hitters hitting over the .300 mark to this point in the season, led by Austin Baker with a .388 average and a .503 SLG%. Kobe Morris is second, hitting .361 on the year, second on the team in home runs with seven on the year. Riley Orr is third on the team with a .310 batting average with 27 RBI. The fourth and final hitter is Brett McGee, who leads the team in home runs with ten on the season and leads the team in RBI with 34. As a team, Southern Arkansas is eighth in hitting by batting average with a .293 team total. They are second in runs scored with 294 on the season. 
 

Southern Arkansas pitching is second in team total ERA on the season with a 4.32 team total, with opponents hitting a third-best .256 off their pitching. Their staff is led by Jacob Womack with a team-leading 3.66ERA on the season with a 6-1 record in 12 appearances on the year with 66 strikeouts through 64 innings of work. Zach Smith holds a 3.70ERA with a 4-2 record in 11 starts made: a team-high for Southern Arkansas. Last is Remy Bilodeau with a 4.85 with a 5-1 record on the year. Their top reliever has been Santos Sosa with a 2.12 ERA, including a 4-2 record making one save on the season tied for the team lead with three other players. 
 

History: 

Southern Arkansas leads the series history between the two teams 20-4 overall along with winning nine of the last ten against the Rangers. The most recent series between the two teams came in the shortened 2020 season, where the Rangers took one game in the three-game series with a 2-1 win. 
 

The links to follow the game are: 

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoKcZJvC933E6fN0l9er_kA

Stats:https://riderangersride.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary