Fort Hays State Softball returns to action on Friday (Feb. 14) in Shawnee, Oklahoma at the Raising Cane's Softball Festival. With less than ideal weather forecasted for the Oklahoma City area this weekend, adjustments have been made to the original schedule. FHSU was originally scheduled to play five schools from the Great American Conference, but will now play just two games on Friday due to forecasted weather for the remainder of the weekend. The Tigers will take on Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Arkansas.
 
VENUE CHANGE
With Oklahoma Baptist's home field being a natural surface, midweek weather has forced a venue change in Shawnee. The games will now take place at the FireLake Ball Fields at the south end of Shawnee, Okla. The facility has all-turf fields. Both of FHSU's games are scheduled on Field 1.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Live stream and stats will be available for both of Fort Hays State's games on Friday. Oklahoma Baptist University will be providing the stream and stats.
 
LAST WEEK IN TEXAS
Fort Hays State is coming off a 2-2 week at the Mustang Round Up, hosted by Midwestern State University. The Tigers split games each day they played, notching wins over Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southwest Baptist, but fell to Cameron and Southwestern Oklahoma State. The Tigers scored 16 runs for the weekend and surrendered 15, but they held the opposition to three or less in three of four games which included a shutout.
 
Madison Pierce led the Tigers in the first week of play with a .500 batting average. Paige Thexton and Lilly Mohr also finished at .400 or better. Lilliana Ramirez-Johnson tied for the team lead in hits with Pierce, each with five. Morgan Schmidt had a strong first weekend with a 2.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 14 innings of work.
 
THE OPPONENTS
Oklahoma Baptist
Record: 4-6
Series History: OBU leads 8-3
Series Notes
- Fort Hays State and Oklahoma Baptist have split the last four meetings with each other.
- All 11 meetings with Oklahoma Baptist have occurred since the 2018 season. Eight of the 11 games have been in neutral towns/citites. This will be the second time FHSU meets OBU in Shawnee, even though it is not on OBU's home field.
- OBU won last year's meeting with FHSU 5-2 in Bethany, Okla. at Southern Nazarene's home venue.
- OBU was a participant in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament last year.
 
Southern Arkansas
Record: 7-3
Series History: SAU leads 5-1
Series Notes
- SAU has won five-straight meetings with FHSU.
- FHSU won the first-ever meeting between the teams in 2013 by a score of 7-0.
- SAU won last year's meeting in Bethany, Okla. by a score of 3-2 in 8 innings.
- SAU was a participant in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament last year.
 
TIGER NOTES
- Morgan Schmidt is averaging a strikeout per inning through a pair of games this year. She has 14 over a pair of complete games she has thrown.
- Madison Pierce leads the Tigers in extra-base hits (2) and batting average (.500) so far this season. She is the active career leader for FHSU in home runs (9) and RBIs (68).
- Lilly Mohr, Lexi Mohr, and Gracie Johns all have 3 RBIs to lead the Tigers.
- The Tigers have seven players hitting at least .300 for the season. The team batting average sits at .306 through one week of play.
- Tiger pitchers are averaging nearly a strikeout per inning as a team with 24 through 24.2 innings of work.