WICHITA, Kan. - Wichita State opens American Athletic Conference play with a four-game series at home vs. ECU, March 26-28.

QUICK HITS
• Wichita State went 4-1 last week with wins over No. 8/6 Oklahoma State, UTSA (twice) and Kansas City. The lone came in the rematch with Oklahoma State.
• Home Run Watch: Madison Perrigan became Wichita State's all-time home run leader vs. Missouri State on March 5 with her 40th career home run.
• Perrigan became the program's all-time RBI leader on March 11 vs. Missouri State with 154 career runs batted in.
• Wichita State is 8-2 in its last 10 games.
• Wichita State has hit 38 home runs through 21 games, which ranks 9th nationally.
• Wichita State has six players in the lineup hitting .313 or better in 2021.
• Wichita State picked up where it left off at the end of 2020 at the plate. The Shocker bats have been busy through the first three weekends of play. Wichita State ranks in the top 25 nationally in home runs per game (9th), slugging percentage (14th), scoring (18th), on base percentage (25th) and batting average (28th).
• Sophomore Lauren Mills set the single game home run record vs. Lamar on Feb. 20 when she hit three home runs - two in the same inning.
• Wichita State is 19-25 in season openers and 7-3 under 10th-year head coach Kristi Bredbenner.
• Wichita State is 31-12 in home openers and 5-4 under Bredbenner.
• Wichita State is 3-5 in conference openers under Bredbenner.
• Wichita State returns nine starters from a season ago and 16 letterwinners in all.
• Wichita State was picked to finish fifth by the league's coaches in the 2021 preseason poll.
• Wichita State returns four All-Conference performers from 2019: Madison Perrigan (First Team), Ryleigh Buck (First Team), Sydney McKinney (First Team, All-Rookie Team) and Erin McDonald (Second Team).
• No postseason awards were handed out in 2020 due to the shortened season.

LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State is coming off a 4-1 week with wins against No. 8/6 Oklahoma State, UTSA and Kansas City. The Shockers opened the Mizuno Classic with a dominant 9-2 win over the top-10 ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Wichita State then won two games vs. UTSA, 4-2 and 3-1, and a 9-3 contest with Kansas City. In the final game of the tournament, Oklahoma State was able to avenge the loss on Thursday with a 5-2 win Saturday. The loss to Oklahoma State snapped a seven-game win streak.

SCOUTING ECU
ECU enters American Athletic Conference play at 9-13 overall. The Pirates started the season 9-2, but have dropped 11 straight games coming into the weekend. Rachel McCollum hits a team-best .424 with a home run, four doubles and 11 RBI. McCollum's .424 average ranks third in the American. Chandley Garner leads ECU in home runs (7) and RBI (17). Erin Poepping is 3-4 with a team-best 2.72 ERA. She has 40 strikeouts in 36.0 innings. Kama Woodall has pitched a team-high 77.0 innings and is 4-7 with seven complete games.

SERIES HISTORY
Wichita State and East Carolina have only met seven times prior to this weekend's series. Wichita State owns a 5-2 lead, having won three of the last four meetings. The Shockers are 2-1 vs. the Pirates in Wichita.

LAST MEETING WITH THE PIRATES
Wichita State and ECU haven't met since April 18-20, 2019 since COVID canceled the 2020 season right before conference play was set to begin. Wichita State won two of the three games in Wichita. The Shockers run-ruled ECU in six innings, 8-0, in game one. ECU bounced back to win a low-scoring game two, 3-2, before Wichita State clinched the series with an 11-5 win.

VOTE GETTERS
Wichita State is receiving votes in the latest NFCA Coaches Poll (March 23). It is the first time since 2018 that the Shockers have been on the brink of the Top 25.

SHOCKERS BOAST STRONG RPI
In the first release of the 2021 RPI, Wichita State sits at No. 20 after a 17-4 start to the regular season. Wichita State opponents that sit in the top 50 include: Arkansas at No. 10, Oklahoma at No. 22, Oklahoma State at No. 26, Texas at No. 27, UCF at No. 35, South Dakota State at No. 39 and Iowa State at No. 45.

SHOCKER DUO LANDS ON HONOR ROLL
For the second time this season, junior Neleigh Herring and redshirt senior Bailey Lange both earned spots on the American Weekly Honor Roll. Lange makes her fifth straight appearance on the honor roll after appearing in three games (two starts) and going 2-0 with a save in 16.1 innings. She recorded a season-high 10 strikeouts vs. UTSA and allowed just three earned runs in her three appearances.Herring was 7-for-15 (.467 Avg.) at the plate during Wichita State's five games last week, including a pair of doubles, four runs scored, an RBI and two walks.

PITCHERS BEWARE
Through the first 21 games of the season Wichita State has hit 38 home runs, a mark good enough to put them in a tie for ninth nationally with Tennessee. The school record for home runs in a single season is 59 set in 2018. At the current pace, the 2021 Shockers are not only going to break that record, but shatter it.

RANKED WINS
Wichita State has picked off two ranked teams over the first month of the season. The Shockers' upset of No. 8/6 Oklahoma State on Thursday, March 18 was the program's highest ranked win in program history. The win in Stillwater was just the fifth-ever win at OSU and marked the largest margin of victory over the Cowgirls. Wichita State's win over No. 23 Iowa State on March 7 in Arlington was its first victory over a ranked foe since May 2019 when the Shockers took two games of a weekend series vs. No. 25 USF. The Shockers are 2-2 this season against teams ranked in the top 25. The two losses were to No. 7 Texas and No. 8/6 Oklahoma State.

BARNARD TABBED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Freshman Addison Barnard was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on March 1. Barnard started all three games vs. Creighton at second base and went 5-for-9 (.556) at the plate with three home runs, a triple, three runs scored and eight RBI. Additionally, redshirt senior Bailey Lange recorded her second straight American Weekly Honor Roll nod. Lange made two appearances in the circle, both complete games, and went 2-0 with a 0.58 ERA on five hits and one earned run. She struck out 13 batters and allowed only four walks in 12.0 innings of work.

BOMB SQUAD
Wichita State belted 13 home runs last weekend in the series vs. Creighton. The Shockers hit five in game one, six in game two and two in the finale. The six home runs in game two were tied for the second-most in school history for homers in a single game. Addison Barnard (3), Madison Perrigan (2), Neleigh Herring (2), Lauren Mills (2), Ryleigh Buck (1), Jessica Garcia (1), Bailee Nickerson (1) and Sydney McKinney (1) all hit long balls in the three-game sweep.

BACK-TO-BACK 2X IN THE SAME INNING
In Wichita State's 13-3 run-rule of Creighton in game two of the series, Addison Barnard and Madison Perrigan hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same inning. Barnard started the third inning with a two-run shot followed by Perrigan's solo homer. After the lineup batted around, Barnard drove in three on a blast to left, immediately followed by Perrigan's second solo shot of the inning.

YOLO LOLO
No Shocker had ever hit three home runs in a single game... until Feb. 20, 2021. Sophomore Lauren Mills stamped her name into the record book in a big way vs. Lamar. The Topeka, Kan., native set a new school record with three bombs in the game, including two in the same inning, while also driving in a career-high six RBI.

STAYING IN THE LOOP
Follow the Shocker softball program on Twitter (@GoShockersSB) for content and in-game updates. You can also become a fan of Wichita State Softball on Facebook (GoShockersSB) and Instagram (goshockerssb).

UP NEXT
Wichita State travels to Memphis for its first American Athletic Conference road series, April 1-3.