Fort Hays State Softball opens its 2023 season this weekend (Feb. 10-11) at the Midwestern State Round-Up Tournament held in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Tigers play two games on both Friday and Saturday, facing three teams from the Great American Conference and one from the Great Lakes Valley Conference. On Friday, FHSU faces Oklahoma Baptist and Rockhurst, then closes their weekend on Saturday with Southwestern Oklahoma State and Northwestern Oklahoma State.
 
Live video and stats will be available throughout the weekend at the following links.
 
Live Video ($10 per day through the Lone Star Network)
Live Stats
 
Friday Schedule
9 AM - Fort Hays State vs. Oklahoma Baptist
11:30 AM - Fort Hays State vs. Rockhurst

Saturday Schedule
11:30 AM - Fort Hays State vs. Southwestern Oklahoma State
4:30 PM - Fort Hays State vs. Northwestern Oklahoma State

Fort Hays State is coming off a 21-30-1 season in 2022. The Tigers went 10-12 to start the 2022 campaign before playing their first conference games. FHSU reached the .500 mark for the first time with a win over Newman on April 22, but dropped its final seven games of the season. Four of those final seven games were against teams ranked in the Top 10 of the NFCA national poll.
 
The Tigers are still young with only one fourth-year player on the team, that being Loren Beggs. She still has another year of eligibility if she chooses to use it as the only member of the Tigers that was on a college roster during the 2020 COVID season. Beggs led the Tigers in extra-base hits with 18 last year and hit .312. Also among four juniors on the roster is Sarah Tiffany, who led the Tigers with a .352 batting average last year and earned All-MIAA honors. The rest of the squad consists of a combination of 17 sophomores and freshmen.
 
Madison Pierce tied for the team lead in home runs last year as a freshman with seven, while Regan Curry had 30 RBIs as a freshman last year, best among Tiger returners this year. Beggs, Tiffany, Pierce, and Curry combined for 110 of the team's 203 RBIs last year.
 
Savanah Egger led the Tiger pitching rotation in ERA (3.17), wins (9), complete games (17), saves (4), innings pitched (157), and strikeouts (143) last season. Bailey Carlson (8), Morgan Schmidt (4), and Erika Flynn combined for 14 Tiger wins and 160 strikeouts in the circle last year. The Tiger pitching staff as a whole last year had 303 strikeouts, which was third best in the MIAA.
 
 
The Opponents
Oklahoma Baptist (5-0)
2022 Record: 33-22 overall (19-14 GAC)
Series History: OBU leads 7-2
- FHSU and Oklahoma Baptist met three times during the 2022 season. OBU took two of the three meetings, winning a neutral site contest in Oklahoma City 5-0 on February 21. The teams played a doubleheader in Hays on March 16. FHSU took the first game 16-9 before OBU took the second 2-0. Regan Curry had four RBIs in the 16-9 victory for FHSU.
-Kayleigh Jones of OBU has thrown four consecutive shutouts against FHSU (two in 2022, two in 2021). She is off to a 3-0 start this season with an 0.37 ERA.
-Five of the last six games between FHSU and OBU have ended in shutouts. The aforementioned Jones had all four of the shutout performances for OBU over the last two seasons, while Michaelanne Nelson of FHSU threw an eight-inning no-hitter against OBU in a 1-0 win in Oklahoma City during the 2020 season.
-Oklahoma Baptist claimed wins over Delta State (Miss.), Texas A&M-Kingsville, Midwestern State (Texas), Union (Tenn.), Mississippi College last weekend in Lafayette, La. to open the season 5-0.
-All nine meetings with Oklahoma Baptist have occurred since the 2018 season.
 
Rockhurst (0-0)
2022 Record: 23-24 overall (15-13 GLVC)
Series History: FHSU leads 4-2
-This game will be the first of the season for Rockhurst.
-All 3 of Rockhurst's pitchers that threw at least 50 innings last season return this year.
-The last meeting between FHSU and Rockhurst occurred in 2020 in Topeka, Kan. The Hawks took that contest 3-2 in eight innings.
-Fort Hays State won the first four meetings in the all-time series before Rockhurst took the last two. FHSU's last win over Rockhurst was in 2015 in the first game of a doubleheader in Kansas City.
-Two of the six games in the all-time series went to extra innings with each team winning one.
 
Southwestern Oklahoma State (1-3)
2022 Record: 12-30 (11-22 GAC)
Series History: Tied 3-3
-FHSU and SWOSU will meet for the first time since the 2013 season, when FHSU took a contest 8-0 in five innings in Bentonville, Ark.
-The teams have met on neutral fields twice in history with both taking one contest.
-SWOSU went 1-3 last weekend in Lubbock, Texas. The lone win for the Bulldogs came against Newman University, while they scored just one run in each of their losses to Nebraska-Kearney, Washburn, and Lubbock Christian.
-FHSU and SWOSU are scheduled to meet in a doubleheader at SWOSU in Weatherford, Okla. next Thursday.
 
Northwestern Oklahoma State (1-2)
2022 Record: 14-33-1
Series History: FHSU leads 2-1-1
-FHSU and NWOSU will meet for the second-straight season after the teams played a doubleheader at NWOSU in Alva last year. FHSU won the first game 6-1 and then the teams had to settle for a 6-6 tie in the second game due to a storm with lightning entering the area in the sixth inning.
-Both Sarah Tiffany and Regan Curry had 3 RBIs in the doubleheader at NWOSU last season.
-All four previous meetings between the teams have been in Alva, so this will best the first-ever neutral site meeting between the teams.
-Last weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the Rangers went 1-2. They lost to Missouri Southern 7-1, defeated Northeastern State 7-0, then lost to Arkansas Monticello 10-6.