Softball coming off two-week rest for six games in Florida

CLERMONT, Fla. – Continuing their run of 15 consecutive road games this week the Western Oregon softball team heads to the PFX Athletics Tournament for six games in three days in central Florida.

Western Oregon (7-5) is coming off a 12-day break to enter the tournament, last playing at the Tucson Invitational where they went 3-2 over three days of play in Arizona. The tournament included an upset win over then No. 2 Texas A&M – Kingsville when WOU pulled out an 11-3 victory to start the weekend. The Wolves scored at least seven runs in three of their five games of the tournament while holding opponents to four or fewer runs on four occasions.

Through a month of non-conference play in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western currently sits in a tie for third place with Northwest Nazarene while the Concordia Cavaliers hold down the top spot with a 9-6 record.

Western is hitting .327 as a team through 12 games, including a .466 slugging percentage and .413 on-base percentage. In the circle, WOU holds a 5.39 team ERA while opponents are hitting .321 off them, striking out 29 in 76.2 innings of work. Chandler Bishop leads the pitching staff with a 4.48 ERA in 25 innings of work. She is 2-2 with a save, along with two complete games. Maddie Mayer is 3-1 with a 4.96 ERA in 29.2 innings of work. She also has a save to go along with three complete game efforts. Reilly Tidwell has two wins on the season as well, going 2-2 in 22 innings of work. She's thrown a complete game so far this season.

Individually, the Wolves' offense is led by the .465 batting average of outfielder Ayanna Arceneaux. The redshirt junior has 20 hits in 12 games including three doubles and three triples. Five qualified hitters hold a batting average above .300 for WOU with two eclipsing the .350 mark. Tyler Creach holds a .372 average, Zoie Recolan at .341, Sydney Bowers at .324 and Bishop holds a .316 average. Creach and Bishop have each driven in 10 runs through the first 12 games and seven players have at least a home run.

Arceneaux ranks first in the GNAC in triples, second in hits and fifth in batting average. She is tied for sixth nationally in triples. Mayer ranks third in the conference in complete games. WOU as a team leads the GNAC in fielding percentage (.978). Head Coach Lonny Sargent is approaching 250 career victories, currently at 241 entering play this week.

The six teams Western Oregon will play this weekend include Concordia College – New York, The College of Saint Rose, #12 Saint Anselm College, Davenport University, Wilmington University and Adelphi University. Of the six opponents, the Wolves will be facing five for the first time during their NCAA era, having played The College of Saint Rose once previously. The Wolves and Golden Knights met at this same tournament a year ago with Saint Rose coming away with a 3-1 win. In the 2019 edition of the PFX Athletics Tournament, Western earned a 4-3 record over four days, pulling in three wins of at least five runs along the way.

Concordia-New York will open their 2020 season against WOU in Florida. Last year, the Clippers went 13-23. The College of Saint Rose will also open their season in Florida, facing Notre Dame College (OH) first, before going against the Wolves. Last year, the Golden Knights went 14-24. Saint Anselm enters with a 6-0 record and No. 12 ranking in the latest NFCA Poll. Like WOU, the Hawks haven't played since Feb. 16 picking up a pair of wins that day over Millersville and West Virginia State. Maddi Leite leads the team with a .438 batting average, while McKenna Smith has a 0.00 ERA in nine innings of work and Morgan Perry has just a 0.74 ERA in 19 innings in the circle. Davenport is 2-5 so far this season and have been down in Florida since Feb. 24 when they faced Tampa and then played a pair of games against Embry-Riddle. Alexa Flores leads the team with a .381 batting average, while in the circle Ellie Muilenburg has a 1.84 ERA in 19 innings of work. Wilmington will be the third team WOU plays that will be opening their season in Florida. The Wildcats won't open their season until the Mar. 1 game against WOU. Last year, Wilmington went 39-15, advancing to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. To close the weekend, WOU will face Adelphi, as the Panthers will mark the fourth team to open their 2020 season in Florida. Adelphi will face Saginaw Valley State earlier in the day on Mar. 1, before later facing WOU that same day. Last year, the Panthers went 32-20 advancing to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament.

Western Oregon's games will run from Friday, Feb. 28 to Sunday, March 1 in the tournament with each day consisting of two games. Action on Feb. 28 begins at 9:15 a.m., Feb. 29 at 9 a.m. and March 1 at 7:15 a.m. PST. Several of the games will have live stats. The games listed below will have live stats and just click the link next to each game for the live stats for that contest.
Feb. 29 (9 A.M.)- Saint Anselm: Live Stats
Feb. 29 (11:15 A.M.)- Davenport: Live Stats
Mar. 1 (7:15 A.M.)- Wilmington: Live Stats

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Players Mentioned

#8 Ayanna Arceneaux: OF; 5' 4"; Redshirt Junior; S-R

#27 Chandler Bishop: P/INF; 6' 0"; Senior; R-R

#9 Sydney Bowers: INF; 5' 4"; Junior; R-R

#2 Tyler Creach: UT; 5' 3"; Junior; L-R

#33 Maddie Mayer: P; 5' 8"; Sophomore; L-L

#14 Zoie Recolan: IF; 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman; L-L

#19 Reilly Tidwell: P; 6' 0"; Sophomore; R-R

Players Mentioned

#8 Ayanna Arceneaux
: 5' 4"; Redshirt Junior; S-R
: OF

#27 Chandler Bishop
: 6' 0"; Senior; R-R
: P/INF

#9 Sydney Bowers
: 5' 4"; Junior; R-R
: INF

#2 Tyler Creach
: 5' 3"; Junior; L-R
: UT

#33 Maddie Mayer
: 5' 8"; Sophomore; L-L
: P

#14 Zoie Recolan
: 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman; L-L
: IF

#19 Reilly Tidwell
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; R-R
: P