Fort Hays State Softball seeks its first conference win going into a pair of weekend conference match-ups with Lincoln and Lindenwood. The doubleheader with Lincoln is set to begin at 2 pm on Friday and then the twin bill with Lindenwood begins at 12 pm on Saturday. Lincoln enters the weekend at 3-13 overall, 0-4 in the MIAA, while Lindenwood (13-9 overall, 2-2 MIAA) plays Nebraska-Kearney on Friday before taking on FHSU a day later. The Tigers enter the weekend 4-18 overall, 0-4 in the MIAA.
 
All four teams will play in Hays this weekend. The weather forecast is forcing Nebraska-Kearney to play its doubleheaders with Lindenwood and Lincoln this weekend in Hays as well. While FHSU plays Lincoln on Friday, Nebraska-Kearney will be facing Lindenwood at the Dusty Glassman Ballfields. Then on Saturday, the Lopers will play Lincoln while FHSU is facing Lindenwood.
 
Fort Hays State dropped all four of its conference games last week, dropping doubleheaders at Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma. The Tigers struggled to score runs over the stretch, getting shutout in three of the four games. The Tigers scored five runs in the final game of the week, but gave up 10 in a loss to UCO.
 
Grace Philop leads the Tigers with a .362 batting average for the season, while Bailey Boxberger is not far behind at .354. Veronica Knittig hit .417 over the four conference games last weekend. Hailey Chapman posted a 2.42 ERA in two starts and two relief appearances last week, lowering her overall ERA to 4.47 for the season.
 
The Tigers have struggled to find extra-base hits so far this season at the plate. Even with a team batting average of .277, only 19 percent of Fort Hays State's hits this year have gone for extra bases. The team has 30 extra base (22 doubles, 2 triples, 6 home runs) hits through 22 games, averaging just 1.4 extra base hits per game. FHSU averaged only one per game last week, producing four over four games.