RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas Tech softball begins the quest for its first conference tournament championship on Thursday, as the third-seeded Golden Suns take on sixth-seeded Southern Nazarene in the opening game of the Great American Conference Softball Championships in Bentonville, Ark. Play is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. at Bentonville West High School.
 
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Live statistics and video for the first-round contest, as well as every other tournament game for the Suns, are available at www.arkansastechsports.com.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
Arkansas Tech has won 18 of 22 all-time meetings with Southern Nazarene. The Suns took three of four games from the Crimson Storm earlier this season, and Tech also defeated SNU, 2-0, in the first round of the 2016 GAC Softball Tournament behind Jalissa Gum's no-hitter.
 
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN SUNS
Arkansas Tech (35-20, 29-14 GAC) ended the 2017 regular season last weekend with a three-game sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma. The series victory secured Tech the third seed for the tournament, and the Suns enter postseason play having won five straight contests.
 
The Golden Suns hit .273 as a team this season, fourth-best average in the GAC. Sydnie Henson finished the regular season batting a team-high .370, followed by Megan Goodnight's .349 average. Goodnight also leads the Suns with eight home runs, 38 runs batted in and 67 runs scored. Gaby Vasquez leads Tech and is tied for 12^th in the GAC with a .418 on-base percentage. During Tech's five-game win streak, the Suns are hitting .296, led by Goodnight's .438 average.
 
Defensively, the Suns rank second in Division II in fielding percentage and 16^th with 15 shutouts this season. Over the last five games, Gum has earned all five wins, pitching every inning for Tech. Gum's 1.42 ERA is third-best in the GAC, and she currently leads all of Division II with 336 strikeouts, which is an Arkansas Tech and GAC single-season record.
 
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON STORM
Southern Nazarene (22-32, 18-24 GAC) enters postseason play after taking two games from Henderson State last weekend to jump the Reddies and take seventh in the GAC regular season standings. The Storm ended the regular season ranked 11^th in the conference in both batting average and earned-run average.
 
Mahina Sauer leads the Storm with a .378 batting average and 34 runs batted in this season. Sauer ranks second in the conference with a .510 on-base percentage. Katelyn Brown is batting .324 at the plate this season, and she also leads the Storm in the circle with a 3.32 earned-run average.
 
In four games against Arkansas Tech earlier this season, SNU hit just .051 with four hits in four games. Arkansas Tech's Morgan Vaughan earned two complete-game shutouts over the Storm, including a five-inning perfect game in which she struck out six batters.