Wichita State at South Florida
April 8-10 (5:30 pm CT/3:30 pm CT/11:00 am CT) | Tampa, Fla.
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QUICK HITS
• Wichita State heads to Tampa, Fla. for a crucial league series at South Florida, April 8-10.
• Wichita State is 7-3 in its last 10 games.
• Wichita State is coming off a conference-opening series sweep of Tulsa at Wilkins Stadium. Wichita State hit 12 home runs in three games and scored 38 runs.
• Addison Barnard has 40 career home runs, placing her in 2nd on the Wichita State home run list.
• Barnard is 1st in the nation in 18 home runs and RBI per game.
• Barnard is 14th in the country in stolen bases with 22. Her 22 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 1st nationally in batting average, hits and runs per game, 3rd in total bases and 11th in slugging pct.
• Neleigh Herring is in T-8th on the career home run list with 30.
• 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) and Lauren Mills (Mar. 14) have been named to the weekly honor roll.
• Wichita State ranks in the Top 20 nationally in home runs per game (2nd), scoring (2nd), home runs (3rd), slugging percentage (3rd), batting average (6th), on base percentage (6th), doubles per game (16th) and doubles (20th).
• 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 8 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 SOUTH FLORIDA
South Florida is 31-10 and 3-3 in American Athletic Conference play after the first two weekends of league action. The Bulls are receiving votes in both the NFCA and USA Coaches Poll. Alexis Johns paces the offensive attack, hitting .361 with a nation-leading 38 stolen bases. Josie Foreman has 6 of the team's 15 home runs to go with 21 RBI. South Florida is spearheaded by its All-American pitcher in Georgina Corrick. Corrick is 25-3 with a 0.42 ERA and an NCAA best 280 strikeouts in 182.0 innings. She has walked only 17 batters all season and has 21 complete games.

SERIES HISTORY
Wichita State and South Florida have played each other 14 times with the two teams splitting the series at 7 games apiece. The first-ever meeting came in 1990, a Wichita State 5-4 win. Wichita State won the first three games in the series, but South Florida has won four of the last five. The Bulls won the season series in 2021.

LAST MEETING WITH THE BULLS
South Florida came into Wichita a season ago and took three of four games against Wichita State. South Florida won games No. 1 (2-1), No. 3 (3-0) and No. 4 (8-1). Wichita State's lone win came in game two, a 14-3 run-rule. South Florida All-American pitcher Georgina Corrick gave the Shocker hitters fits all weekend.

LAST TIME OUT
Wichita State completed a series sweep of Tulsa to open conference play. The Shockers defeated Tulsa 10-8, 13-4 (6) and 15-7 (5) in the three games, two of them via walk-off run-rules. Wichita State hit 12 home runs and scored 38 runs over three games. Addison Barnard hit 5 home runs and drove in 14 runs over the weekend. Barnard and Neleigh Herring both homered twice and drove in 5 runs in the finale on Sunday. Wichita State is 3-0 to begin conference play for the second straight season.

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 30 games in 2022 Barnard has 18 home runs, 22 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 30. She is one of just two sophomores in the nation with 40 career home runs. The top 30 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 16th in the nation with 22 steals. That is the second most in a season at Wichita State. The single season record is 25.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 at home vs. Tulsa where they hit 12 homers in three games. Through 31 games Wichita State has 66 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.

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 13th on the active list for career batting average in NCAA DI. She is only three percentage points from moving into the top 10.

RPI - WEEK FIVE
Wichita State checked in at No. 45 in the fifth RPI rankings on March 28. The Shockers have already faced seven teams in the Top 50, including No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Arkansas, No. 31 Charlotte, No. 33 Nebraska, No. 38 Minnesota, No. 43 Illinois and No. 49 South Dakota State. Wichita State still has games against No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 13 UCF, No. 40 South Florida, No. 81 Houston and No. 87 Kansas.