SPEARFISH, S.D. – BHSU Softball heads to Las Vegas, New Mexico has they look to continue their early RMAC success. BHSU has won two straight series versus conference opponents, which is only the second time they've done that in their time in the RMAC. The now 9-5 (7-1 RMAC) Yellow Jackets will take on New Mexico Highlands, who is 7-11 (1-7 RMAC).

GAME DETAILS
•    Location: Las Vegas, N.M. (HU Softball Field)
•    First Pitch Saturday: 12 PM and 2 PM MST
•    First Pitch Sunday: 11 AM and 1 PM MST

BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES
•    Black Hills State enters their first home series of the year 9-5 (7-1 RMAC) after winning three out of four versus CSU Pueblo for only their second back-to-back conference wins in the team's D2 history. BHSU is currently second in the RMAC behind Colorado Christian and is 7-1 in the conference.
•    The Yellow Jackets had two walk-off wins in their games against CSU Pueblo and were able to hit a late home run in game one to give them the win. BHSU's starters combined for complete games in each of the first three games while only allowing five total runs. 
•    Black Hills State enters this season ranked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll and is coming off the best season in the program's D2 history after going 15-32 (14-28 RMAC) last season. They are currently in solo second after winning seven of their first eight conference games.  
•    Head Coach Ashlyn Englehorn enters her second season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, she has a record of 24-37 with BHSU and a career 44-86 record as a head coach after spending two years with Crown College. 
•    Freshman catcher Desi Hernandez is now leading the team in batting average with a mark of .386. She is tied for second in runs with 11, while being second on the team in on base percentage with a .463 clip. She also is second on the team in hits with 17. She is coming off a weekend where she went 5-13 with a team leading seven RBIs. Hernandez had both of BHSU's walk-off hits, and had her first perfect batting average game, where she went 4-4 from the plate and tied the BHSU D2 record of five RBIs in a game. 
•    Junior Infield Audrey Fouras had a huge weekend versus the ThunderWolves, where she hit .556 (5-9), while having a 1.111 slugging percentage and .636 on base percentage. She had four RBIs with ten total bases and two runs. She is now second on the team in batting average with .381, which equals a team leading OPS of 1.116. She is the team leader in slugging with a .667 clip and has six doubles this season. She also has added ten RBI, 16 hits, and ten runs.
•    Senior first baseman Ashlynn Pauwels is third on the team in batting average with .375 clip, she is leading in hits (18) and total bases (30), while also being second on the team in OPS (1.017), slugging percentage (.625), and RBIs (13). Pauwels is a one-time RMAC Player of the Week (2-18-25). She tied the BHSU D2 record for RBIs in a game with 5 against Adams State. She has a hit in all but three games this year including seven of the last eight. She is coming off a quiet series versus CSU Pueblo, where she went 3-10 and had two RBIs. 
•    Alyssa Wong has had a great start to the season. She has a .292 batting average with a team leading .528 on-base percentage and 11 walks. She is third on the team in OPS (.986) and is fourth in slugging percentage (.458). She has six RBIs, and one home run this season. She is coming off a series versus CSU Pueblo, where she went 1-8 with three walks.
•    Sophomore Pitcher Laci Peskey has been one of the best pitchers in the country this season, ranking sixth in complete games (7), ninth in stikeouts (59), and shutouts (2). She is ranked 14th in win (6), 25th in strikeout-to-walk ration (8.43), and 30th in innings pitched (49.2). Peskey is a two-time RMAC Pitcher of the Week this season (2-3-25, 2-18-25), which is the second time in BHSU history that a pitcher has won conference players of the week twice in the same season. She is coming off another dominant weekend versus the ThunderWolves, where she pitched 12 innings, both complete games, and only allowed eight hits, three earned runs, and had nine strikeouts. She also had her first hit of the season on the offensive side. 

NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS STORYLINES
•    New Mexico Highlands is entering this series versus BHSU with a 7-11 (1-7 RMAC) record. New Mexico Highlands has lost seven of their first eight conference games by a combined score of 25-84. They have been outscored all season by a score of 44-133
•    Pueblo was mercy ruled seven times this season, including a five-inning no-hitter Monday versus Chadron State. They have been held to three or less hits in seven games this season and have been shut out seven times as well.
•    New Mexico Highlands was picked to finish 11th of 12 RMAC teams in the preseason coach's poll. So far, they are last with a 1-7 conference record. 
•    New Mexico Highlands Interim Head Coach Scott Peterson is in the middle of his interim season and has a 1-7 record at NMHU. He was announced as the interim two weeks ago after previous head coach Marc Benjamin resigned from the position. Peterson spent 15 seasons as the Head Coach of UCCS from 2001-2015 having a 374-367 record during his time with the Mountain Lions. 
•    Senior catcher Heaven Merida has been a major bright spot for the Cowgirls this season. She is batting .424, with a 1.285 OPS, both of which lead the team, and she leads the team in almost every category, including slugging percentage (.727), on-base percentage (.558), hits (14), RBIs (10), total bases (24), home runs (2), and walks (8). She is coming off a really good weekend versus Chadron, where she went 5-12, with nine RBIs, three runs, and homers in back-to-back games to begin the series.
•    Jazmyn Griego is the only other player on Highlands with an OPS of over .900. She has a 1.023, which is second behind Merida. She is also second in RBIs (6), slugging percentage (.630), and on-base percentage (.393). She is also their second-best pitcher with a 10.28 ERA with 27 ER in 23.2 IP, but a lot of those numbers are inflated by two really bad games versus Colorado Christian and Eastern N.M., where she gave up 20 ERs. She has been mainly a relief pitcher for the Cowgirls and pitched 5.2 innings versus Chadron State, only giving up two earned runs and eight hits. On the offensive side, she went 6-11 with two runs, two home runs, and four RBIs.
•    Sophomore outfielder Shaylene Saladin is the only other player with a .300 or better batting average on NMHU. She is batting .343 with a .825 OPS. She has a .457 slugging percentage and a .368 on-base percentage, while being second on the team with 12 hits, and also adding three RBIs. She is coming off a 5-11 series versus Chadron State, where she had three runs scored.

SERIES HISTORY
•    BHSU is 11-23 all-time versus the Cowgirls, but they have won three of the last five games.  The Yellow Jackets split the season series versus NMHU last season winning the first game in a 10-0 run rule game, before losing the second 0-3. 
•    In that run rule game, BHSU was led by Ashlynn Pauwels, who went 2-4 with three RBIs, and Alyssa Wong, who went 2-4 with two RBIs.