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

SOMERS, Wis. (Apr. 21, 2016)-- The University of Wisconsin-Parkside softball team loads the bus for the final time this season, heading west to Missouri for a weekend slate against a pair of rivals from the Show Me State. The Rangers opened the weekend in Springfield against Drury University before closing the season on Sunday against Missouri University S&T.
 
The Rangers and Panthers open the weekend on Saturday at 12 p.m. with a twinbill at Thompson Field. UW-Parkside caps off the trip and the 2016 season on Sunday, facing the Miners in a 12 p.m. doubleheader at the S&T Softball Field in Rolla, Missouri. Live stats for all four games can be found at parksiderangers.com.
 
About the Rangers: UW-Parkside (8-37, 5-21 GLVC) earned a pair of doubleheader splits last weekend to cap off the squad's slate at the Case Complex before dropping a pair of games in walkoff fashion to non-league foe Saginaw Valley State University on Tuesday.
 
UW-Parkside opened last weekend with a 5-1 win over William Jewell College before ending up on the wrong end of a 15-1 affair in game two. On Sunday, the Rangers took down Rockhurst University 5-3 before succumbing 5-1 in the home finale. On Tuesday, a walkoff home run in the eighth inning gave SVSU a 3-1 win in game two while claiming the nightcap 3-2 courtesy of a walkoff hit in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Carly Dundee paces the Rangers at the plate with a .301 batting average with 21 RBIs and 12 extra base hits. Rachel Seefeldt carries a .296 average into the weekend, having scored a team-high 23 runs while collecting six doubles and five home runs. Raegan Fingerman has 14 RBis with Courtney Ellingson and Cassie Walek driving in 13 and 10, respectively.
 
In the circle, Dundee leads the team in earned run average (3.87), appearances (28), complete games (17), innings pitched (161), and strikeouts (72). Amber Ramos has 70 strikeouts in 83 innings or work while Bridget Jost has seen 51 innings inside the circle with 23 punchouts.
 
About the Panthers: Drury (15-31, 8-18 GLVC) split its last six games on the road, beginning with a split against non-conference foe Southwest Baptist University on April 12. The Bearcats claimed the opener 5-4 before Drury tallied the lone run in a 1-0 win in the nightcap.
 
Last weekend, the Panthers swept McKendree University 6-1 and 1-0 in Lebanon, Illinois before ending up on the wrong end of two games at the University of Illinois Springfield, succumbing 3-2 and 1-0 to the Prairie Stars.
 
Kaelie Smith has driven in 24 runs and owns a .322 batting average to lead the Panthers while Grace Hargadon has 17 RBIs and five doubles.
 
Drury pitchers Shelby Weissenbach and Jessica Kjeldgaard have combined to toss all but 14 2/3 innings this season with Weissenbach owning a team-best 3.19 earned run average with 124 strikeouts in 177 2/3 innings of work. Kjeldgaard has logged 118 innings in the circle with 103 strikeouts.
 
About the Miners: Missouri S&T (13-34, 3-23 GLVC) heads into the final weekend of the season having dropped its last eight games, including 12 consecutive GLVC contests.
 
The Miners last tasted victory on April 6 with a 15-4 and 7-6 sweep of Lincoln University. Since then, S&T has dropped twinbills against Maryville University on April 9 (2-6 and 1-3), University of Missouri-Saint Louis on April 10 (0-1 and 4-8), Illinois Springfield on April 16 (0-8, 0-1), and McKendree on Sunday (4-8 and 0-9). Missouri S&T's last GLVC win came against travel partner Drury, claiming a 5-1 victory on the road in game two on Mar. 29 to salvage a doubleheader split.
 
Four Miners are hitting above .300 on the season, led by Savannah Fedorchak who owns a .345 average with eight doubles and a team-high 28 RBIs. Monica Weiss boasts a .329 average with 11 stolen bases while Kyra Slemp has a .306 average while scoring a team-high 29 runs.
 
Kati Viets has been the workhorse inside the circle, appearing in 141 innings with 66 strikeouts and 17 complete games along with a team-best 3.67 earned run average while Courtney Jackson has pitched 88 innings with 48 strikeouts.
 
Juda Connection: The Rangers announced on Thursday the signing of Juda High School standout Jessica Crull to a National Letter of Intent. Crull will become the second Panther to suit up in the Green and White under the tenure of Head Coach Scott Wachholz, following in the footsteps of senior Amber Ramos.
 
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 five 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.
 
13x15: A total of 13 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.