CONWAY — As the Central Arkansas softball program has enjoyed the most wins in a season in its history by notching 33 thus far in 2012, much of the success the Bears have enjoyed this season has been on their home field.
At 14-3 at Farris Field this season, an .824 winning percentage, the Bears are tied for second in the Southland Conference in home victories this season – trailing Texas State by just one.
This week will serve as the Bears' swan song at Farris Field for 2012 as UCA hosts UT Arlington for a doubleheader on Tuesday starting at 4 p.m. before wrapping up their home schedule on Saturday with No. 7 Oklahoma.
In the final home conference series of the season, the Bears (33-18, 9-7 Southland) will face the Mavericks (13-21, 3-9) riding a four-game winning streak in league play after sweeps of Nicholls and Stephen F. Austin. UT Arlington has dropped its last three.
With four league games remaining, UCA can all but assure itself a spot in the league tournament for the first time depending on Tuesday's results. The Bears currently hold the sixth spot in the league standings, good for the final berth in the tournament. At 9-7, they hold a four-win lead and the tiebreaker over seventh-place Nicholls (5-7), and are three games ahead of eighth-place Northwestern State (6-10).
A pair of wins over the Mavs would leave Nicholls as the only team with a mathematical chance to leapfrog the Bears, depending on the outcome of the Colonels' doubleheader at McNeese State on Tuesday. Nicholls must still play the league's third, fourth and fifth-place teams and have six road games in six days this week with trips to UTSA and UT Arlington this weekend following Tuesday night's trip to McNeese.
Historically, the Bears have struggled with the Mavs – going just 3-13, with all the wins coming in Conway. Last season UCA dropped the series two games to one, and last took a series from UTA back in 2009, winning two games to one.
UTA is just 2-11 on the road this season, including 1-5 in conference games. The Bears are 5-3 at home in league play.
The Mavs rank next to last in the league in batting average at .229, while the Bears top the list at .317 – the lone team in the league batting above .300 for the season. The matchup pits two of the league's best pitching units against one another, with UCA ranking first in team ERA at 2.00 and the Mavs third at 2.46. UCA has the third-best opponent batting average at .235, with UTA just behind them in fourth at .238.
The Bears received a boost over the weekend with the return of leading hitter Kasey Britt, who had been out for more than a month with a broken index finger on her throwing hand. In her return, she was 1-for-5 over the weekend and drew a pair of walks. Despite having played in only 28 of the team's 51 games, Britt is tied for the team lead with six home runs and is fourth with 28 RBI – six off Ashley Boswell's team-leading total of 34.
Junior pitcher Kelsie Armstrong enters the week with 214 strikeouts for the season, needing 10 more to set the UCA season record she set last season. She is enjoying her best season in terms of ERA, sporting a 1.63 – third best in UCA history. Her previous best was 2.20 last season.
