Illinois-Springfield (4-2) at #15 Fort Hays State (9-4) Friday, February 28, 2014 Hays, Kan. - Tiger Stadium - 11 am (DH) Live Stats

After having the weekend tournament in Joplin, Missouri wiped off the schedule, the Tiger softball team will now play a home doubleheader at Tiger Stadium against Illinois-Springfield on Friday (Feb. 27), starting at 11 am. Fort Hays State enters the weekend at 9-4 overall and ranked No. 15 in the nation.

Fort Hays State is coming off a 2-3 weekend at the Minnesota-Duluth Dome Tournament last weekend in St. Paul, Minn. FHSU slipped one spot in the national rankings to No. 15, but now has a run of 12 straight home games from February 28 through March 15.

Sophomore transfer Rilee Krier leads the Tigers in hitting so far with a .405 batting average for the season, while true freshman Kylie Strand is right behind her at .395 for the season. Strand and Amanda Vaupel are tied for the team lead in home runs, each with two, while Danie Brinkmann leads the team in RBI with 10.

Starting pitchers Paxton Duran and Kelsey Kimminau have nearly identical earned run averages, Duran at 3.53 and Kimminau at 3.54. Duran is 5-2 in the circle, while Kimminau is 3-1. Katlyn Kern has two saves this year in relief and has a 0.66 ERA in 10.2 innings of work.

Following the doubleheader with Illinois-Springfield, the Tigers are slated for one more non-conference doubleheader with Southwestern Oklahoma State on March 5 before starting up conference play two days later hosting Central Missouri and Southwest Baptist in conference play on March 7-8.