ALVA, OKLA- The Rangers will be opening their 2022 conference portion of the schedule Saturday afternoon against the Muleriders of Southern Arkansas who enter play ranked #4 in the NCBWA DII Top 25. Northwestern will open their road portion of the schedule as well. The series will open with a doubleheader Saturday with first pitch set for 3:00 PM with the second game scheduled for 6:00 PM. 

Northwestern (3-4 overall, and 0-0 GAC) is coming off a 2-1 weekend in the Ranger festival this past weekend winning over New Mexico Highlands behind impressive offensive performances scoring 10 runs in each of the three games. 

The Rangers offense has been led by Hayden Priest in batting average with a .438 average, one of two hitters above .400 joined by Shaughn Kelly at .406, and Blake Hoffman is hitting .323 for the three Rangers above the .300 mark. Northwestern has 14 home runs hit in the opening seven games of the season averaging two a game. They are led by Priest and Hoffman with three each with Kelly and Norsen hitting two. Norsen and Kelly led a ninth inning comeback with the previous time out after a Norsen home run tied the game Kelly would later hit a walk-off grand slam in the same inning. Hoffman has the team high in nine-RBIs hit with Priest having driven in eight. Kelly has a team high (qualified hitters) with a .457 OBP and is 2-2 in steal opportunities. 

The Red-and-Black pitching staff is led by Emilio Lovato through two starts having thrown the most innings at 15IP with a 2.40 ERA. He is 1-0 on the season with a team high of 17 strikeouts, while opponents are hitting .220 off him. Ethan Swanson has made two starts throwing 8.2 innings with six strikeouts. Opponents are hitting .167 off him on the season. Edwin Colon has made the most appearances this season out of the bullpen with four outings picking up two saves through four innings of work with seven strikeouts on the year. His ERA sits at 0.00 after allowing an unearned run with hitters hitting .200 off the reliever. Connor Gibson and Dylan Collins have picked up wins for the Rangers out of the bullpen each having thrown in three outings this season. 

Scouting the Muleriders:

Southern Arkansas enters play Saturday with a 5-1 record this season after sweeping the Henderson State Invitational. Their lone loss was to Northeastern State the opening game of the season. The Muleriders have now won five straight this season and will open their home part of the schedule along with their conference portion. 

Offensively the Muleriders have been led by Riley Orr hitting .429 on the season one of five players hitting above .300. Joining Orr is Ty Manning, Conner Allen, Jakob Machuca, and Brett McGee. As a team the Mulriders have seven home runs with Allen and Nicoll the team leaders with two. Nicoll, Orr, and Will Richardson lead the team with seven- RBIs on the season. 

Southern Arkansas brings in a team ERA of 2.52 on the year with Wyatt Marr leading the way making two starts throwing 11.1 innings not allowing an earned run while going 2-0 on the season to open. Santos Sosa, Kade Garmany both bring in 0.00 ERA's out of the bullpen as well. The next starter is Jeremy Adorno has a 0.69 ERA with a 2-0 record and one complete game on the season. 

History:

Overall the Muleriders lead the series history 22-5 since the series opened in 2013. The Rangers took the last meeting 19-18 at the end of the 2021 season after dropping the first two games of the series. Southern Arkansas has won three of the last five games against the Rangers.

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