NDSU Softball Release.pdf

North Dakota State (10-15) is scheduled to open play at the USF Spring Classic against No. 4/5-ranked Auburn (22-3) at 10 a.m. CT Friday, March 17, at USF Softball Stadium ... The Bison will play five games including a game at host USF (18-11) ... The tournament schedule:

USF Spring Classic
Tampa/Clearwater, Fla.
Friday, March 17
BISON vs No. 4/5 Auburn (22-3), 10 a.m. CT Live Stats | Live Audio
BISON at USF (18-11), 3 p.m. CT Live Stats
Saturday, March 18
BISON vs. Missouri (13-10), 11 a.m. CT Live Stats
BISON vs. Ohio State (12-6), 3:45 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 19
BISON vs. Rutgers (4-17), 8 a.m. CT Live Stats

The Series
This is the fourth meeting between North Dakota State and Auburn, members of the Southeastern Conference ... The Tigers lead the series 2-1 ... The Bison posted a 5-2 win ove Auburn at the 2014 NCAA Minneapolis Regional ... This is the second meeting between North Dakota State and USF ... The Bulls lead the series 1-0 ... This is the 11th meeting between North Dakota State and Missouri, members of the Southeastern Conference ... The Tigers lead the series 10-0 ... This will be the first meeting between North Dakota State and Ohio State and Rutgers, both members of the Big Ten.

Quickly Around the Horn
North Dakota State head coach Darren Mueller reached career win No. 550 with the 3-1 victory at Stetson University (3-10-17) ... Junior right-hander Jacquelyn Sertic had a pair of shutouts at the Ragin' Cajun Invitational on March 3-5 ... Sertic has four shutouts this season and 12 in her career ... Sertic has reached double-figure strikeouts five times this season and 11 times in her career ... Video highlight of catcher Tabby Heinz' throw to second and diving grab by Lauren Reimers to nab the runner against Abilene Christian (2-18-17) was nominated for #NCAATop10 and tweeted out by @NCAAsoftball ... Heinz has thrown out 14 of 26 baserunners attempting to steal this season ... In the NCAA statistics (March 13), individually, Jacquelyn Sertic is No.2 in strikeouts and No. 11 in shutouts ... Sophomore first baseman Zoe Stavrou leads the Bison with seven multi-hit games and four multi-RBI games ... Stavrou tied the NDSU single-game record for home runs in a game for the second time in her career with a pair in the 6-0 win against Ball State (2-18-17) ... Bre Beatty leads NDSU with seven two-out RBI, Julia Luciano is next with six ... Vanessa Anderson's first career home run was a grand slam in the 7-3 win over the College of Charleston (2-26-17) ... The Bison are 0-1 in extra innings this season and stand 43-31 in extra innings under head coach Darren Mueller since 2002 ... North Dakota State is 56-51 in extra innings overall ...  Collectively, the Bison are batting .209 with a 2.85 earned run average and are fielding at .957 ... NDSU opponents are batting .240 with an 2.13 ERA and are fielding at .968 ... The Bison are averaging 2.44 runs scored per game, while opponents are averaging 3.36 ... The big inning is the fourth for NDSU with 19 runs scored ... NDSU went 17-0 during the Summit League 2016 regular season, becoming the first team since DePaul in 1999 to go unbeaten in league play ... The Bison reached 30 wins for the 10th straight season in 2016 ... The Bison have won 27 straight Summit League regular season games and 33 in a row including the past two Summit League postseason tournaments ... Last Summit League loss was against South Dakota (G2, 4-3-15).

Sertic, Reina Take Aim at NDSU Career Charts
On the NDSU career charts, junior right-hander Jacquelyn Sertic is 6th in strikeouts/7 IP (7.23 avg.) and strikeouts (442), 8th in opponent batting average (.226) and batters faced (1806), and 9th in wins (43) innings pitched (427.2), complete games (49) and shutouts (12) ... Senior catcher Alyssa Reina is 5th in runners caught stealing (33), 6th in slugging (.584), 7th in home runs (29), fielding (.991), chances (1159) and putouts (1069), and 9th in walks (77)

Bison Projected as Summit League Preseason Favorite
North Dakota State University was selected as The Summit League preseason softball favorites in a poll of the league's seven head coaches released Feb. 2 ... The Bison won their third consecutive league tournament title in 2016 ... NDSU collected six first-place votes ... The Bison, who have won the last three Summit League tournament championships and five consecutive regular season crowns, return six all-league selections, including pitcher of the year Jacquelyn Sertic.

Former Bison Moreland to Play Professionally in Italy
Former North Dakota State University all-region shortstop Logan Moreland has signed to play professionally for Collecchio Softball of the Italian League ... Moreland (Woodland, Calif./Woodland H.S.) is the fourth NDSU softball player to compete professionally overseas, and joins former all-region pitchers and teammates Krista Menke (Italy/Netherlands) and Whitney Johnson (Netherlands), along with former All-American catcher Shelly Rhein (Italy) ... Menke won the Brewskeez Sports Cafe International Athlete of the Year Award last season.

The Mueller File
The North Dakota State head coach is Darren Mueller (16th season, 23rd overall) ... Mueller has compiled a 552-297 record (.651) including 164-34 (.828) vs. Summit League competition (including tournament) ... Mueller reached career win No. 550 at Stetson (3-10-17) ... The Bison have had 10 straight 30-plus win season ... Mueller became the program's all-time winningest coach with the 4-1 victory at Western Illinois (4-16-11) ... North Dakota State has won seven Summit League tournament championships (2009-10-11-12, 2014-15-16) to advance to NCAA regional play ... The Bison won the NCAA Norman Regional in 2009 and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional at Arizona State ... NDSU has won six Summit League regular season crowns (2008, 2012-13-14-15-16) ... Rounding out the Bison staff are assistant coaches Gerice Olson and Beth Spoehr, along with graduate assistant manager Cheyenne Garcia and volunteer assistant Kendall Grimm ... The NDSU coaching staff earned the 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Summit League Coaching Staff of the Year honors ... The NDSU staff earned 2009, 2015 and 2016 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Midwest Coaching Staff of the Year award ... Mueller was named the 2006 and 2007 Division I Independent Coach of the Year.