SB Weekly Preview: No. 25 DSU welcomes Hawaii Hilo

MEDIA INFORMATION
Date	Sat., Mar. 22 \| 12:00 p.m. (DH) Sun., Mar. 23 \| 12:00 p.m. (DH)
Location	Karl Brooks Field - St. George, UT (750)
Tickets	Purchase Tickets
DSU Live Stats	DSU Live Stats
Twitter	@DixieAthletics #DixieSB
DIXIE STATE RED STORM
Record	23-8/ 11-5 PacWest
Ranking	#22 (NFCA)
Head Coach	Randy Simkins
	Career: 222-69 (6th year)
	DSU Record: 222-69, .763 (6th year)
HAWAII HILO
Record	15-9, 10-5 PWC
Ranking	NR
Head Coach	Jaime Wallin
	Career Record: 211-191 (8th year)
	Record at UHH: 106-62, .631 (4th year)

ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Dixie State softball welcomes the Vulcans of the University of Hawaii at Hilo to Karl Brooks Field for a four-game series. The pair of doubleheaders will begin at 12 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Live stats of each game will be available via DixieAtheltics.com.

NFCA Rankings
After four weeks at No. 22 the Red Storm dropped out of the polls last week, but reemerged on Wednesday at the No. 25 spot. Fellow Pacific West member California Baptist maintained its presence at the top of the poll at No. 3 with a sweep of Humboldt State.

PacWest Breakdown
With the Azusa Pacific and California Baptist series out of the way, the Red Storm will try and maintain the pace with first place CBU (13-5) and stay ahead of third place Hawaii Hilo. Earlier in the year the Vulcans went 1-3 against CBU and if the Storm can sweep, will hold the much-coveted tiebreaker with the Lancers.

Dixie State (23-8, 11-5 PWC)
DSU just completed a 10-game road trip to the San Francisco Bay Area where they went 8-2. DSU went 3-1 in non-conference games and 5-1 in PacWest play. They had won six straight games, prior to a heartbreaking loss in the second game against Sonoma State.

The Red Storm offense remains as powerful as ever as they lead the conference in doubles per game (2.17) and batting average (.361). They are also number two in scoring (6.83) and slugging percentage (.512). Those numbers also rank the DSU offense at No. 8 in the NCAA in average, doubles, and No. 18 in scoring.

Bailee Freeland (Ogden, UT/Bonneville High School) leads the Storm in hitting at .431, followed by Courtney Hine (San Dimas, CA/San Dimas High School) at .406. Nicole Chavez (Chino Hills, CA/Ayala High School) (.398) and Courtney Sherwin (Mesa, AZ/Red Mountain High School) (.389) each are near the .400 mark. DSU has only one starter that is currently hitting under .300.

DSU has outscored its opponents 207-109, and has 17 home runs to 12. Marla Reiter (Rolinda, CA/Central High School) leads the team in RBI with 28, followed by Hine with 24 and Brooke Budge (Springville, UT/Springville High School) with 20. Chavez and Hine are tied for the home run lead with four each.

Veteran Michelle Duncan (Gilbert, AZ/Gilbert High School) has not pitched for almost a month but is a possibility this weekend. She leads the team with a 5-1 record and 1.54 ERA. Aryn Feickert (Lancaster, CA/Highland ) is 20^th in the NCAA in wins at 11-6, and has a 2.28 ERA. The Red Storm ERA is 2.73.

Simkins Era and Karl Brooks Field
The Storm are 124-41 (.760) in the D2 era at Karl Brooks Field, with their best season coming in 2011 when they finished 19-1. Coach Randy Simkins current record in six seasons is 222-69 (.763).

Hawaii Hilo (15-9, 10-5 PWC)
The Vulcans have won three in a row and nine of its last 11 games. As mentioned, UHH defeated CBU in the conference opener 4-0 to add a blemish to the Lancers resume.

UHH is lead in hitting by Rebecca Lee who is hitting a mind boggling .616 with seven home runs and 36 RBI. Her average leads the PacWest and is fourth in the NCAA. She really leads the NCAA, because the three players in front of her have not played in more than five games.

Emily Greene also helps the Vulcan offense tick; she is hitting .429 with four HR and 27 RBI. They are hitting .353 as a team.

In the circle, the Vulcans are led by Ashley Nelson who is 9-4 and a 2.43 ERA. She shares the circle with Hannah Peterson who is 5-4 with a 4.42 ERA.

UHH his lead by head coach Jaime Wallin who is in her 8^th year as a head coach and fourth at Hawaii Hilo. Her career record is 211-191 and her Vulcan record is 106-62.

DSU Series Record vs. Hawaii Hilo
Overall Series Record: 16-9 Dixie State
Current Streak: DSU, 2 games
DSU Record in St. George: 11-2
DSU Record in Hawaii: 5-7
DSU Record at Neutral Sites: 0-0
DSU Record under Randy Simkins: 9-4
Longest DSU Win Streak: 5, twice – last time (04/11-03/12)
Longest UHH Win Streak: 3 (04/07-03/08)
Largest DSU Margin of Victory: 9, three times – last time 14-5 (05/13)
Largest UHH Margin of Victory: 5, 5-0 (03/13)
Most Runs Scored by DSU: 14, (05/13)
Most Runs Scored by UHH: 7, twice (last time 03/10)

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