Tulsa Heads to Lone Star State for North Texas Invitational This Weekend

Tournament Notes

TULSA, Okla. — The University of Tulsa softball team will be back in action this weekend, March 2-4, when it travels to the Lone Star State for the North Texas Invitational.

The Golden Hurricane (7-7) will face Nicholls State, UT Arlington and host North Texas during the event. TU will face Nicholls State and North Texas on Friday before matchups against UT Arlington and another against the Colonels on Saturday. The event will close with one more contest against UT Arlington on Sunday morning.

TU is 21-14 all-time against the tournament field: 3-1 vs. Nicholls State, 8-5 vs. North Texas and 10-8 vs. UT Arlington.

Schedule
Friday
11 a.m. — Tulsa vs. Nicholls State - Stats
1:30 p.m. — Tulsa at North Texas - Stats

Saturday
10 a.m. — Tulsa vs. UT Arlington - Stats
12 p.m. — Tulsa vs. Nicholls State - Stats

Sunday
9 a.m. — Tulsa vs. UT Arlington - Stats

Notes
TU at the North Texas Invitational This Weekend
• Tulsa will head south to Denton, Texas, to play five games in three days, March 2-4, at the North Texas Invitational.
• The Golden Hurricane will play two games against Nicholls State and UT Arlington along with one matchup against host North Texas.
• TU is 21-14 all-time against the tournament field: 3-1 vs. Nicholls State, 8-5 vs. North Texas and 10-8 vs. UT Arlington.

Watson Named The American Pitcher of the Week
• For the 10th time in her career, senior Emily Watson was named American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 26.
• Watson went 3-0 last weekend at the FAU "Strike-Out Cancer" Tournament with a pair of shutouts, 30 strikeouts and no runs allowed in 20 innings of work.
• She started the weekend with six scoreless innings against UIC before a season-high 13 strikeouts against Columbia. Watson closed the tournament with a one-hit shutout of FAU on just 84 pitches.

Look Who's Back
• Tulsa returns 13 letterwinners, including six position starters, the designated player and three pitchers, from last year's team which went 41-17 and won its first American Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 15-3 league mark.
• The TU offense will bring back all of its home runs, 79.3-percent of its extra-base hits, 76-percent of its runs scored, 74.3-percent of its RBIs and 71.1-percent of its hits from last year's squad.
• The lineup will see the return of NFCA All-Region picks Julia Hollingsworth (OF) and Haley Meinen (DP), while the pitching staff will see the return of second-team NFCA All-American Emily Watson.

It's Elementary, Watson
• The Golden Hurricane pitching staff is anchored by NFCA All-American Emily Watson. The senior nearly set a program single-season record with 348 strikeouts, while her 14 shutouts set a new program standard and led the nation last season.
• Watson also set single-season records with 30 wins, 36 starts, 29 complete games and 246.2 innings pitched.
• The senior was recently announced as one of 50 players across the nation on the "Watch List" for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award.

The Schedule
• Tulsa's 2018 schedule will see the team play 10 games against teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament a season ago.
• The schedule also will have the Hurricane matched-up with teams that started the season either ranked or recieving votes. McNeese State is ranked 23rd and Texas A&M is 7th in the NFCA Coaches Poll, while TU also will face No. 4 Oklahoma (April 17) and RV Oklahoma State (March 21, April 4).
• Meanwhile, Texas State (Feb. 24) and St. Francis (Pa.) (March 17) also started the season receiving votes.

Tulsa Picked to Repeat as American Athletic Conference Champs
• Tulsa garnered six first-place votes and the squad was picked to repeat as American Athletic Conference champions by the league's coaches.
• TU earned 48 points in the poll, while Houston picked up a pair of first-place nods and 44 points to rank second.
• The duo was followed by USF, UCF, Wichita State, Memphis, UConn and ECU.
• Last season, TU won both the regular-season and tournament titles, sweeping those championships for the first time since 2014 when the Hurricane accomplished the feat in its final season as a member of Conference USA.

TU Success Under Coach Bargfeldt
• Now in his 13th season at Tulsa, head coach John Bargfeldt is the program's longest-tenured head coach and has the most wins and highest winning percentage in school history.
• Prior to Bargfeldt's arrival, the program had just four winning seasons in 13 years and did not win a conference title or appear in an NCAA Regional.
• Since his hiring prior to the 2006 season, the Golden Hurricane has had a winning record in all 12 campaigns with six regular-season and six conference tournament titles. In addition, TU has advanced to nine NCAA Regionals, including a spot in the postseason for six of the last seven years.

Up Next
• Tulsa will host Drake at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, in its home opener before heading to the Jayhawk Invitational, March 9-11, in Lawrence, Kan.

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Tulsa Heads to Lone Star State for North Texas Invitational This Weekend

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Players Mentioned

Julia Hollingsworth

Emily Watson