FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations

SOMERS, Wis. (Apr. 18, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside softball team opens up its final road swing of the season, taking a breathier from Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a midweek doubleheader against non-league foe Saginaw Valley State University on Tuesday.
 
The Rangers and Cardinals hit the diamond at 1 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Tuesday in University Center, Michigan with live stats available at parksiderangers.com.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (8-35, 5-21 GLVC) heads to Michigan having split its last three GLVC doubleheaders, including last weekend's twinbills against Kansas City based William Jewell College and Rockhurst University.
 
The Rangers opened the weekend with an emphatic 5-1 win over William Jewell, piling on three runs in the sixth inning before ending up on the wrong end of a 15-1 decision in game two. On Sunday against Rockhurst, UW-Parkside pushed across five runs in the opening inning and did just enough to hold on for the 5-3 victory before succumbing 5-1 to the Hawks in game two.
 
Carly Dundee paces the Rangers at the plate, owning a .313 batting average with seven doubles, five home runs, and 21 RBIs. Rachel Seefeldt has scored a team-high 22 runs with five doubles and five home runs while Ragean Fingerman has 14 RBIs.
 
Dundee is the staff ace, pitching 151 innings with a 3.89 earned run average with 70 strikeouts and 16 complete games. Amber Ramos has logged 79 innings inside the circle with 66 strikeouts while Bridget Jost has 23 punchouts in 2016.
 
About the Cardinals: Saginaw Valley State (24-12, 10-8 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) heads into Tuesday's tilt having dropped four of its last five games. The Cardinals' struggles began with a 2-0 setback to Grand Valley State University in game two of a twinbill on April 13.
 
SVSU was swept 7-3 and 3-2 by Hillsdale College on Saturday before earning a split on Sunday, downing the University of Findlay 7-5 in game one before falling 1-0 in the nightcap.
 
Madison Burgess sports a team-best .390 batting average with nine doubles while Shelby Weeks is hitting at a .381 clip with a team-best 34 RBIs, collecting 18 extra base hits, including eight home runs. Danielle Hamilton is hitting .361 at the dish with Meredith Rousse boasting a .325 average with 30 RBIs.
 
Samantha Willman owns a team-best 1.67 earned run average with 70 strikeouts in 63 innings of work. Sarah Appold is the workhorse, logging 87 1/3 innings inside the circle with 99 strikeouts with eight complete games and four saves.
 
Early Opener: UW-Parkside's home opener on March 19 against Quincy University was the earliest the Green and White have played at the Case Complex since the 2011 season. In 2011, the Rangers faced the exact same foe on the exact same day, falling 2-1 and 5-1 to the Hawks on Mar. 19. UW-Parkside hasn't played any earlier in March at home since at least the 2002 campaign.
 
Hot Start: Six of the Rangers' eight wins this season have come when striking first. Of those six triumphs, five featured UW-Parkside piling on runs in the opening two innings. The Rangers pushed across four runs in the first inning in an 8-1 victory over the University of Findlay on Feb. 26 while piling on three runs in the first inning in a 5-0 shutout of Lewis University on Mar. 29 while adding three runs in the second inning of game two in a 10-7 thriller. UW-Parkside's latest exploits included a five-run first inning in Sunday's 5-3 win over Rockhurst University.
 
Hitting Streaks: Raegan Fingerman owns the longest hitting streak of the season, collecting base hits in 11 consecutive contests. Fingerman's streak began against Saint Cloud State University on Feb. 13 and came to a close on Feb. 28 as the junior had just one opportunity at the plate as a pinch hitter. Highlighting the streak was a three hit, three-RBI effort in the squad's win over the University of Findlay.
 
More Streaks: Madison Manders owns the longest streak this season for safely reaching base, doing so in 14 consecutive games. Raegan Fingerman and Carly Dundee are the other two Rangers with double digit streaks of reaching base with Fingerman doing so in 11 straight games while Dundee touched first in 10 consecutive games.
 
3x10: UW-Parkside has gone into extra innings on four occasions this season with three of those contests extending to the 10th inning. International tiebreaker rules went into effect in two of the three games with a runner placed on second to start the 10th-inning. The Rangers fell 7-6 to Rogers State University in the first 10-inning affair on Feb. 20 before taking down Northeastern State University 9-7 two days later. UW-Parkside's most recent 10-inning escapade was a 6-5 defeat to host Saint Joseph's College on Mar. 25.
 
12x15: A total of 12 Rangers have experienced multiple hit games during the 2016 season with Carly Dundee leading the way by accomplishing the feat on 13 occasions, including three outings with three hits. Additionally, 15 different Rangers have experienced multi-RBI games with Dundee and Courtney Ellingson leading the team by achieving the feat four times while Raegan Fingerman and Alexis Simone have a trio of multi-RBI games on their 2016 resumes.
 
Road Warriors: The Rangers played 20 road games prior to the March 19 home opener against GLVC rival Quincy University. UW-Parkside's road odyssey involved games in four different states, logging indoor contests in both Minnesota and Illinois along with outdoor games in Missouri and Oklahoma.
 
Preseason Prognostications: The Rangers received 24 points in the poll to slot 16th in the annual GLVC preseason coaches' poll. Three-time defending league champion University of Missouri-Saint Louis secured the top spot with 10 of the 16 first place votes and 220 total points while the University of Indianapolis was picked second with the remaining six first place endorsements and 216 points. Truman State University was picked third with Bellarmine University rounding out the top four.
 
The GLVC will conduct a true round-robin schedule for the second consecutive season with every team facing the other 15 GLVC schools in a doubleheader. The top eight teams by winning percentage will qualify for the GLVC Tournament held from April 29-May 1 in East Peoria, Illinois.