CLINTON, Miss. --- Due to inclement weather in the Jackson, Tenn. area this weekend, the Mississippi College softball team will play their Gulf South Conference home opener a week earlier than expected as they will host Union University for a three-game series at the MC Softball Complex.

The two teams will play a doubleheader on Thursday beginning at 1:00 p.m. They will wrap up the series on Friday with a single game at 1:00 p.m. The series has previously been scheduled to be played at Union on Saturday and Sunday, but weather forced a change of date and venue.

The Lady Choctaws (5-4, 2-1 GSC) are led by head coach Brooke O'Hair, who is in her 9th season at the helm and collected her 200th career win last season. The Lady Bulldogs (7-2, 2-1 GSC are led by head coach Heather Hall, who earned her 250th win last week against Lee.

MC is coming off a series win over Christian Brothers in their first Gulf South Conference games since the 1997 season. Senior Karla Beth Hux helped give the Lady Choctaws a doubleheader sweep on Saturday with a pinch-hit, two-run home run to grab a 2-0 victory.

Senior Brooke Smitherman leads the team with a .565 batting average and has tallied a .676 on-base percentage over the first nine games. She also clocked her 25th career home run on Sunday against CBU.

Junior Madison Oliver pushed the offense to an 11-2 win over the Lady Bucs on Saturday, going 4-for-4 with three doubles, three RBI and two runs scored. She is now hitting .444 with a team-high five doubles and seven runs scored.

Junior Carlie Sargent tossed a complete game shutout in the 2-0 win over CBU last weekend, allowing just three hits and striking out six. Senior Lacie Patterson turned things around against the Lady Bucs, allowing just one hit over 5.0 innings in the 11-2 victory on Saturday.

The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a series win at Lee University where all three games were decided by two runs or less. They picked up wins in the first two games (4-3 & 5-3) before falling in the finale, 9-8.

Regan Schrader (.467) is the team's leading hitter with a team-high 10 runs scored, while Alex Williams (.400) is second on the team in hitting and leads the team with three doubles, two triples and 12 RBI. Emily Bennett is hitting just .080 on the season, but has a team-high seven stolen bases and has scored seven runs. She also leads the team with eight walks.

Kelly Robey has appeared in all nine games in the circle for Union, going 5-2 with a 2.84 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 44.1 innings pitched. Williams has pitched 16.2 innings this season, going 2-0 with a 4.20 ERA.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SERIES
The Lady Choctaws and Lady Bulldogs met for the first time last season in the National Christian College Athletic Association Tournament with Union taking both games (5-2 & 7-4). The first game was in the MidEast Regional in Clinton, while the other came in the national tournament in Virginia.

RECORD WATCH
Senior Brooke Smitherman is already MC's all-time leader in home runs (24), runs batted in (110), slugging percentage (.760) and walks (124). She ranks 2nd in school history in batting average (.428), just one points behind Renee Brown-Sumlin (.429). Smitherman and senior Macey Lee are MC's allt-ime leader in doubles (38).

Senior Shay Mickens set a school record with 44 stolen bases in 2014 and is currently third in school history in career stolen bases (48). Macey Lee ranks 2nd in school history with 61 career swipes, tallying at least 14 in her first three seasons. Both are chasing Jennifer Jones (2008-11), who stole an MC record 84 bases in her four-year career.