Tulsa at Wichita State
April 1-3 | Wilkins Stadium | Wichita, Kan.
ESPN+ | StatBroadcast.com

QUICK HITS
• Wichita State opens conference play with its home-opening series against Tulsa, Friday-Sunday at Wilkins Stadium.
• Wichita State is 6-4 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. Wichita State then dropped a midweek matchup at No. 1 OU on Tuesday.
• 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 11th 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 and hits, 3rd in total bases, 4th in runs per game and 6th 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 (3rd), scoring (4th), slugging percentage (5th), batting average (10th), on base percentage (11th), doubles (20th).
• Sydney McKinney cracked the top 10 hits list at Wichita State. With her 229 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 TULSA
Tulsa is 12-19-1 overall and 1-1-1 in American play. The Golden Hurricane opened conference play last weekend vs. Houston. Haley Morgan leads Tulsa with a .337 batting average to go with two home runs and 12 RBI. Celeste Wood has driven in a team-best 29 RBI. As a team, Tulsa hits .260 with just nine home runs on the season. The pitching staff is led by Samantha Pochop, who is 7-7 in 91.0 innings and a 2.85 ERA.

SERIES HISTORY
Wichita State is 31-27 all time vs. Tulsa with the first meeting taking place in 1994. Wichita State has won four of the last five meetings vs. the Golden Hurricane, including a series win a season ago. The Shockers took three of four games at Tulsa in 2021.

LAST MEETING WITH THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
Wichita State eliminated Tulsa from the 2021 American Athletic Conference Championship a season ago. The Shockers defeated Tulsa, 9-4, on their way to a tournament championship. Lauren Mills hit a grand slam to help Wichita State advance in the tournament.

LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State dropped its second straight game with a 10-1 loss in five innings at No. 1 Oklahoma on Tuesday night. Sydney McKinney went 2-for-3 with a run and Lauren Mills recorded the only other hit for Wichita State. The Sooners scored six runs in the bottom of the third to break the game open before a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth ended the game early.

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.

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.

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 27 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 27 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 11th 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 .418. 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 eight 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.

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.

TOP 50 WATCH LIST
Junior Sydney McKinney was named to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List on Jan. 26. McKinney is one of only two players from the American Athletic Conference on the prestigious list, joining South Florida's Georgina Corrick. McKinney is coming off an All-American campaign in 2021 where she ranked third nationally in hits.

PRESEASON TOP 100 LOVE
Junior Sydney McKinney and sophomore Addison Barnard were named to the Softball America Preseason Top 100 and the first-ever Extra Elite Top 100 College Player Rankings. McKinney checked in at No. 38 in the Softball America Top 100 and No. 40 in the Extra Elite Top 100 by Extra Inning Softball. Barnard was ranked No. 42 by Softball America and No. 64 by Extra Inning Softball.

MCKINNEY TABBED AAC PRESEASON POY
D1 Softball tabbed Sydney McKinney as the preseason AAC Player of the Year on Feb. 1. The publication predicts McKinney will repeat as the conference's top player in 2022 after earning the honor in 2021.

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 27 games in 2021, Wichita State had hit 53 home runs. Through 27 games in 2022... Wichita State is at 54 - one 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).

UP NEXT
Wichita State faces the Top 10 Oklahoma State Cowgirls for a third time season, this time in Wichita for a midweek contest on Wednesday, April 6 at 6 p.m.