Wichita State at No. 1 Oklahoma
Tuesday, March 28 at 6 PM
Norman, Okla. | Marita Hynes Field
TV: Bally Sports Oklahoma

QUICK HITS
• Wichita State is 7-3 in its last 10 games.
• Wichita State is coming off a 2-2 weekend at the OSU Mizuno Classic in Stillwater, Okla. The Shockers defeated Kansas City twice and dropped both matchups vs. No. 10 Oklahoma State.
• Addison Barnard has 35 career home runs, placing her in a tie for 4th on the Wichita State home run list.
• Barnard is 4th in the nation with 13 home runs.
• Barnard is 10th in the country in stolen bases with 21. Her 21 steals already surpass her total from 2021.
• Barnard is the only player in the country with 10+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases.
• Sydney McKinney ranks 1st nationally in batting average, 2nd in hits, 3rd in runs per game and total bases and 5th in slugging pct.
• Neleigh Herring is tied for 9th on the career home run list with 28.
• Wichita State claimed the first two American Player of the Week honors of 2022: Addison Barnard (Feb. 14) and Sydney McKinney (Feb. 21). Zoe Jones (Feb. 28), Lauren Lucas (Mar. 7 & 21) and Lauren Mills (Mar. 14) have been named to the weekly honor roll.
• Wichita State ranks in the Top 30 nationally in home runs per game (2nd), scoring (3rd), slugging percentage (4th), on base percentage (7th), doubles (8th) and batting average (8th).
• Sydney McKinney cracked the top 10 hits list at Wichita State. With her 227 hits, she sits in 4th all time. McKinney set the single season record a season ago with 87.
• Sydney McKinney and sophomore Addison Barnard were named preseason All-Americans by Softball America, becoming the first Shocker duo to earn preseason All-American honors in school history.
• Wichita State was ranked No. 25 (NFCA, USA Softball, Softball America) in three of the four major polls entering the season.
• Wichita State was picked by the league's coaches to repeat as American Athletic Conference Champions in the preseason coaches poll.
• The Shockers garnered four first place votes and finished with 33 points in the preseason coaches poll. South Florida was picked second with 31 total points, followed by UCF (29).
• Wichita State has only 11 home games on the schedule for 2022, which is tied for the fewest in school history (1983).
• Head Coach Kristi Bredbenner is just 11 wins away from becoming Wichita State's all-time winningest coach. Jim Maynard sits in first with 313 career wins.
• Bredbenner recorded her 300th career win at Wichita State on March 14 vs. Kansas.

SCOUTING OKLAHOMA
The unanimous No. 1 team in the country is 29-0 this season. The defending National Champions lead the nation in batting average, home runs and team ERA. Jocelyn Alo, the NCAA all-time home run leader, is hitting .529 with 15 home runs and 38 RBI. Oklahoma has six different players hitting .396 or higher. True freshman Jordy Bahl is 12-0 with a 0.80 ERA in 69.2 innings with 116 strikeouts. Hope Trautwein is 8-0 with an ERA of just 0.15 in 47.2 innings of work.

SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma is 51-5 all time against Wichita State with the first meeting coming all the way back in 1978. The Sooners have won 40 straight in the series with Wichita State's last win coming in 1990. The two teams have played each other at least once every season since 2012.

LAST MEETING WITH THE SOONERS
Oklahoma ended Wichita State's season in 2021 when the two teams met in the NCAA Norman Regional. Oklahoma defeated Wichita State 24-7 in the Regional Final on May 23, 2021.

LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State went 2-2 in Stillwater, Okla., at the OSU Mizuno Classic. The Shockers defeated Kansas twice by scores of 16-2 (5 innings) and 10-5, but were run-ruled in both games against No. 10 Oklahoma State. Wichita State broke the school record for hits with 22 against Kansas City on March 18 and followed that with a hitless game against Oklahoma State.

RED-HOT LUCAS EARNS SPOT ON HONOR ROLL
Sophomore Lauren Lucas earned her second American Athletic Conference weekly honor roll on March 21 after hitting .560 in seven games for the Shockers. She had a triple, four doubles, three home runs, 10 RBI and scored six runs in games against Iowa, Kansas, Omaha, Kansas City and Oklahoma State.

ALL WE DO IS HIT
In Wichita State's 16-2 win over Kansas City on March 18, the Shockers broke the single game school record for hits with 22. The bested the previous record of 21 which was set on April 20, 2016 at Missouri State. Sydney McKinney and Addison Barnard went a combined 8-for-8 in the game.

BREDBENNER REACHES MILESTONE
Head Coach Kristi Bredbenner recorded her 300th career win at Wichita State on Monday, March 14 vs. Kansas. She is just the second coach in program history to record 300 wins.

MILLS HOMERS WAY TO HONOR ROLL
Junior Lauren Mills earned a spot on the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on March 14. The Topeka native was a perfect 4-for-4 in two games with three home runs and six RBI. She recorded her first multi-home run game of the season vs. SEMO on March 13.

ANOTHER HOME RUN RECORD FALLS
Wichita State broke the single game school record with eight home runs in its 14-0 win vs. Southeast Missouri on Sunday, March 13 in Lawrence, Kan. Seven different Shockers recorded a homer, including two from Lauren Mills.

LUCAS GRABS SPOT ON HONOR ROLL
Lauren Lucas was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on March 7. The Little Elm, Texas, native hit .455 (5-for-11) against Nebraska and SDSU with a double, two home runs, three walks, four runs and six RBI. Lucas homered in back-to-back games vs. Nebraska and South Dakota State. She recorded a career-high three hits and drove in a career-high three runs in the March 4 game vs. South Dakota State.

SPEED AND POWER
Sophomore Addison Barnard is in a league of her own when it comes to combining speed and power. Barnard is the only player in the NCAA to have at least 10 home runs and 20 or more stolen bases this season. Through 26 games in 2022 Barnard has 13 home runs, 21 stolen bases and 34 RBI.

HONOR ROLL
Junior Zoe Jones was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on Feb. 28. Jones hit .400 in four games at the Niner Invitational, including three doubles and scoring seven runs.

A GRAND WEEKEND
Entering last weekend's Niner Invitational, Wichita State had hit 19 home runs on the season, but zero grand slams. That changed in a big way in Charlotte. The Shockers crushed three grand slams in three days - two of them belonging to Addison Barnard. The other came off the bat of freshman Cassie Passwaters. It was her first career home run.

MCKINNEY CLAIMS FIRST PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Sydney McKinney added her first American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor (Feb. 21) of the season following another stellar weekend. McKinney hit .438 (7-for-16) in four games to go with a double, two triples, two home runs, five runs, five RBI and a 1.125 slugging percentage. This is the third career Player of the Week honor for McKinney after picking up two a season ago.

THE BOMBS ARE BACK
Wichita State graduated four seniors in the every day lineup in 2021, including 44 of the team's 103 home runs. It would be natural to question the offense in 2022 with as much production that Wichita State lost. At the opening tournament in Huntsville (Feb. 11-13), Wichita State hit 11 home runs in the five games, which was six more than the Shockers hit on opening weekend a year ago. Wichita State is coming off a slugging weekend in Lawrence where they hit 12 homers in three games. Through 26 games Wichita State has 54 home runs.

BARNARD TABBED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore Addison Barnard took home the first American Player of the Week honor of the season on Feb. 14. The Beatrice, Neb., native hit .500 (8-for-16) over the weekend at the Bearkat Classic (Feb. 11-13). Barnard recorded 3 home runs, 7 RBI, 4 walks, 9 stolen bases and 11 runs.

WANTED FOR THEFT
Sophomore Addison Barnard stole a career-high three bases in the opener vs. Dayton (Feb. 11), becoming the first Shocker to swipe three bags in a game since Mackenzie Wright had 4 on Feb. 27, 2016. She added two more in both games vs. Sam Houston and Houston Baptist. Barnard finished opening weekend with nine steals in 10 attempts. After the first month of play Barnard ranks 10th in the nation with 21 steals. That is the second most in a season at Wichita State. The single season record is 25.

DOWN GOES ANOTHER SCHOOL RECORD
Sophomore Addison Barnard is making it a habit of putting her name in the record books. Barnard broke the single game school record for runs, scoring five at Sam Houston on Sunday, Feb. 13. She scored 11 runs over the weekend after previously setting a career high with four against Dayton on Feb. 11.

HOME RUN LIST
Sophomore Addison Barnard needed only 54 career games to crack the top 10 home run list at Wichita State. Barnard now has 35 career home runs, placing her in fifth all time at Wichita State. To put that in perspective, among active players in NCAA Softball, Barnard is already in the Top 50. She is one of just three sophomores in the nation with 35 or more career home runs. The top 50 active home run leaders by age: 45 seniors, 2 juniors and 3 sophomores.

ELITE COMPANY
Junior Sydney McKinney has a career batting average of .417. That number places her among the elite in all of college softball. She ranks 14th on the active list for career batting average in NCAA DI. She is only five percentage points from moving into the top 10.

RPI - WEEK FOUR
Wichita State checked in at No. 49 in the fourth RPI rankings on March 28. The Shockers have already faced seven teams in the Top 75, including No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 20 Charlotte, No. 21 Arkansas, No. 34 Minnesota, No. 36 Nebraska, No. 43 South Dakota State, No. 51 Illinois, and No. 71 Iowa. Wichita State still has games against No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 12 UCF, No. 50 South Florida and No. 86 Houston.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
Junior Zoe Jones didn't waste any time etching her name in the Wichita State record books. The Texas Tech transfer tied a single game record with three doubles vs. Sam Houston on Feb. 13.

PITCHERS BEWARE
Wichita State obliterated the school record for home runs in a single season in 2021. The Shockers crushed 103 - a mark that ranked second nationally behind only the defending National Champion, Oklahoma Sooners. Through 26 games in 2021, Wichita State had hit 51 home runs. Through 26 games in 2022... Wichita State is at 54 - three more than the record-breaking Shockers had at this point a year ago.

THE HITS KEEP COMING
Since Wichita State entered the American Athletic Conference in 2018, the Shockers have been the league's top offensive team in the league. Not counting the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, Wichita State has led the American in batting average (2021), slugging percentage (2018-21), on base percentage (2019-21), runs (2019-21), RBI (2019-21), doubles (2018, 2021), home runs (2018-21), total bases (2018-21) and walks (2019, 2021).

HERRING A SENIOR CLASS AWARD CANDIDATE
Senior Neleigh Herring was named one of 30 candidates for the 2022 Senior CLASS Award, it was announced on March 8. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior or graduate student and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot.

A PAIR OF PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Wichita State junior Sydney McKinney and sophomore Addison Barnard picked up All-American honors on Feb. 7. The duo were named Preseason Third Team All-Americans by Softball America after producing stellar, record-breaking seasons for Wichita State in 2021.

UP NEXT
Wichita State opens conference play with its home-opening series against Tulsa, April 1-3, at Wilkins Stadium.