Tulsa to Host ECU in Three-Game Series This Week

Weekly Notes

TULSA, Okla. — The University of Tulsa softball team will return to Collins Family Softball Complex for a three-game American Athletic Conference series against ECU, March 29-31.

Thursday's series opener will start at 6 p.m. before a 5 p.m. contest on Friday. The series will conclude with a 12 p.m. contest on Saturday.

There are several promotions and events with the series this week. Thursday is TU Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day where university faculty and staff can get in free by showing their TU ID at the gate. On Friday, the program will host a canned food drive to benefit the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. Fans who donate a can of food will receive a $2 ticket. Following Saturday's game, there will be an egg hunt in the outfield and children 13 and under can run the bases.

The Golden Hurricane (19-14, 0-3) will look to bounce back after dropping its first three conference games by a total of three runs. Morgan Neal will enter the series on an eight-game hitting streak and the junior was named to the conference's weekly honor roll on Monday after she hit .462 and tied a school single-game record with a pair of triples in Tulsa's win over No. 23/24 Oklahoma State.

Meanwhile, the Pirates (15-18, 1-2) opened conference play with a win at Houston before the Cougars took the final two games of the series. ECU is hitting .238 as a team and is led on offense by Tate McClellan's .307 batting average with eight homers and 25 RBIs. Meredith Burroughs checks in with 10 homers and 23 RBIs, while the pitching staff is led by Erin Poepping, who has a 3.07 ERA and 62 strikeouts in 100.1 innings.

Tulsa leads the all-time series against ECU, 25-11, including a perfect 10-0 mark since joining The American for the 2015 season.

Schedule
Thursday, March 29
6 p.m. — Tulsa vs. ECU – Stats/Video

Friday, March 30
5 p.m. — Tulsa vs. ECU – Stats/Video

Saturday, March 31
12 p.m. — Tulsa vs. ECU – Stats/Video

Notes
Tulsa Returns Home to Face ECU This Weekend
• Tulsa will return home to face ECU in a three-game series, March 29-31, at Collins Family Softball Complex.
• TU leads the all-time series against the Pirates, 25-11. The Hurricane swept ECU last season in Greenville, outscoring the Pirates 17-1 (12-0, 3-1, 2-0).
• TU is 10-0 against ECU since joining the American Athletic Conference for the 2015 season. The Pirates' last win against Tulsa came in 2013, when both were members of Conference USA.

Trending
• Emily Watson leads the team and ranks 10th in the nation with 143 strikeouts this season. Watson has struck out at least 10 batters in a game eight times, including three of her last four appearances, with a season-high 15 Ks against Saint Francis (Pa.).
• In six career appearances against ECU, Watson is 6-0 with a 0.52 ERA and she has struck out 50 batters in 40.0 innings of work.
• In nine career games against ECU, Shelby Estocado is hitting .519 with 11 runs scored, a pair of doubles, three homers and 10 RBIs.
• Morgan Neal will enter the series against the Pirates with an eight-game hitting streak. Neal is hitting .423 (11-for-26) with five runs a double, two triples, a homer and two RBIs during the stretch.

Ahead Early
• Tulsa has gotten off to a quick start with runs in the first inning in 18 of its 33 games.
• The Hurricane has outscored its opponents 32-8 in the first inning and has only allowed its opponent to score in the first inning of six games during the campaign.
• TU has capitalized on the early lead this spring, going 13-5 when scoring in the first inning. The Hurricane also is 16-6 when the team scores first.
• The early run support has been a big part of the team's success as TU is 15-2 when leading after four innings, 14-1 when leading after five innings and 9-1 when leading after six innings.

TU Sweeps Weekly Awards
• TU swept the American Athletic Conference weekly awards as Tori Stafford and Emily Watson were named the league's Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, on March 19.
• Stafford hit .412 with two doubles, a triple, a homer and 10 RBIs to lead Tulsa in six games. She hit a three-run homer and drove in a career-high-tying four runs against Iowa State.
• Watson went 3-0 with a 0.67 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 21.0 innings. She recorded a season-high 15 strikeouts in a win over Saint Francis (Pa.).

Career Numbers Update
• Emily Watson ranks in the program's all-time top 10 in several categories, including ERA (2nd, 1.74), opposing batting average (2nd, .204), strikeouts (2nd, 740), shutouts (2nd, 27), wins (3rd, 59), complete-games (t-4th, 59), games started (5th, 90), saves (6th, 4), innings pitched (6th, 567.0) and appearances (7th, 107).
• Shelby Estocado is tied for fourth in program history with 29 homers, including six round-trippers this season. She also ranks sixth with 114 RBIs and seventh with 297 total bases.
• Julia Hollingsworth currently owns the program-record with a .457 on-base percentage, while her career .363 batting average ranks second. She ranks sixth with 39 stolen bases and her six triples are tied for eighth. Hollingsworth tied a single-game record with a pair of triples in Tulsa's win over Nicholls State (March 3).

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 and she is one of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award.
• So far in 2018, she has compiled an 11-6 record with a 1.74 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 108.2 innings pitched.

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.

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 receiving votes. Texas A&M is 12th in the NFCA Coaches Poll, while TU also will face defending national champion No. 2 Oklahoma (April 17) and No. 25 Oklahoma State (March 21, April 4).
• Meanwhile, McNeese State (Feb. 9-10), Texas State (Feb. 24) and St. Francis (Pa.) (March 17) also started the season receiving votes.

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
• Following the three-game set against ECU, Tulsa will take to the road for a matchup at Oklahoma State on Wednesday, April 4, before a three-game series at Wichita State (April 6-8).

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Tulsa to Host ECU in Three-Game Series This Week

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Players Mentioned

Shelby Estocado

Julia Hollingsworth

Morgan Neal

Tori Stafford

Emily Watson