Wichita State at Houston
April 14-16 (6 pm/6 pm/12 pm) | Houston, Texas
ESPN+ | StatBroadcast.com

QUICK HITS
• Wichita State continues American Athletic Conference play with a road series at Houston, April 14-16.
• Wichita State is 5-5 in its last 10 games.
• Wichita State is coming off a 1-2 weekend at South Florida. The Bulls won the first two games of the series before Wichita State avoided the series sweep with a win on Sunday.
• Addison Barnard has 40 career home runs, placing her in 2nd on the Wichita State home run list.
• Barnard is 2nd in the nation in home runs and RBI per game.
• Barnard is 17th in the country in stolen bases with 23. Her 23 steals already surpass her total from 2021.
• Barnard is the only player in the country with 15+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases.
• Barnard was the NFCA National Player of the Week on April 5.
• Sydney McKinney ranks 5th nationally in runs per game, 6th in hits and 7th in batting average and total bases.
• Neleigh Herring is in T-7th on the career home run list with 31.
• Wichita State has claimed three American Player of the Week honors in 2022: Addison Barnard (Feb. 14, Apr. 4) and Sydney McKinney (Feb. 21). Zoe Jones (Feb. 28), Lauren Lucas (Mar. 7 & 21), Lauren Mills (Mar. 14)  and Alison Cooper (April 11) have been named to the weekly honor roll.
• Wichita State ranks in the Top 30 nationally in home runs per game (2nd), home runs (4th), scoring (4th), slugging percentage (5th), on base percentage (8th), batting average (10th) and doubles per game (27th).
• Sydney McKinney cracked the top 10 hits list at Wichita State. With her 235 hits, she sits in 3rd 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 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 7 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 HOUSTON
Houston is 23-16-1 overall and 7-1-1 in conference play, which has them in second place after three weekends. The Cougars are riding a six-game win streak after sweeps of Memphis and ECU to open league play. Amanda Carden hits a team-best .347 with six doubles and 14 RBI. Becca Schulte paces the Cougars in doubles (7), home runs (11) and RBI (38). Houston has three different players with 8 or more home runs. Hannah Todd and Kenna Wilkey are both 8-5 in the circle. Todd has thrown 82.1 innings, while Wilkey leads with 91.1 innings and 86 strikeouts.

SERIES HISTORY
Wichita State is 8-4 all-time vs. Houston with 11 of the 12 meetings coming since the Shockers' move to the American Athletic Conference. The series was tied entering last season's series, but a four-game sweep gave Wichita State the advantage. The first-ever meeting was on Feb. 26, 2006.

LAST MEETING WITH THE COUGARS
Wichita State completed a four-game series sweep in 2021 vs. Houston in Wichita. The Shockers run-ruled Houston in two of the four games, winning by scores of 13-5 (6), 8-3, 11-2 (5) and 10-7. Wichita State hit two grand slams in the opening game and three for the series. In total, Wichita State hit 12 home runs over the four games.

LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State dropped its first conference series of the season, going 1-2 in Tampa last weekend against South Florida. The Bulls grabbed wins in the first two games by scores of 7-3 and 5-3. Wichita State was able to avoid the series sweep with a 2-1 win on Sunday. In the win Sunday, freshman Alison Cooper threw a complete game, allowing just a single run on four hits. Jessica Garcia and Zoe Jones each hit a solo home run in the finale. Jones hit two home runs over the weekend, driving in three runs.

ADDIE THE BADDIE
Addison Barnard is putting together a season for the history books... again.
» Speed & Power: Barnard is in a league of her own when it comes to combining speed and power. The Nebraska native is the only player in the NCAA to have at least 15 home runs and 20 or more stolen bases this season. Through 34 games in 2022 Barnard has 18 home runs, 23 stolen bases and 48 RBI.
» Active HR List: She needed only 54 career games to crack the top 10 home run list at Wichita State. Barnard now has 40 career home runs, placing her in 2nd all time at Wichita State. To put that in perspective, among active players in NCAA Softball, Barnard is already in the Top 32. She is one of just two sophomores in the nation with 40 career home runs. The top 32 active home run leaders by age: 30 seniors and 2 sophomores.
» Running to the Record Book: 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.
» Wanted for theft: Barnard stole a career-high three bases in the season 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 two months of play Barnard ranks 17th in the nation with 23 steals. That is the second most in a season at Wichita State. The single season record is 25.

COOPER CLAIMS HONOR ROLL SPOT
Freshman Alison Cooper was named to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll on April 11. The Granbury, Texas, native threw a complete game in a Sunday win at USF on April 10. Cooper allowed just one run on four hits and a walk, while striking out a pair. She recorded her third complete game of the season and the four hits allowed tied a season low.

BARNARD'S BIG WEEKEND EARNS POW HONORS
Sophomore Addison Barnard racked up multiple Player of the Week honors on April 4-5, highlighted by Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Player of the Week honors. Barnard is the first Shocker to be named National Player of the Week. In four games during the week of March 28-April 3, Barnard hit .500 with 5 home runs and 14 RBI. She finished the series vs. Tulsa with back-to-back two-home run games. She opened the week earning her second American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor and was also named the D1 Softball Player of the Week on April 5.

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.

A GRAND WEEKEND
Entering the 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.

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 at home vs. Tulsa where they hit 12 homers in three games. Through 34 games Wichita State has 70 home runs.

ELITE COMPANY
Junior Sydney McKinney has a career batting average of .409. That number places her among the elite in all of college softball. She ranks 20th on the active list for career batting average in NCAA DI. She is only 13 percentage points from moving into the top 10.

RPI - WEEK SIX
Wichita State checked in at No. 45 in the sixth RPI rankings on April 11. The Shockers have already faced nine teams in the Top 50, including No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 12 Arkansas, No. 29 Charlotte, No. 32 Nebraska, No. 34 Illinois, No. 36 Minnesota, No. 43 South Florida and No. 45 South Dakota State. Wichita State still has games against No. 13 UCF.

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 34 games in 2021, Wichita State had hit 71 home runs. Through 34 games in 2022... Wichita State is at 70 - just one off the record-breaking Shockers had at this point a year ago.

UP NEXT
Wichita State and Kansas meet for a second time this season in a midweek matchup Wednesday, April 20 at Wilkins Stadium.