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MOREHEAD, Ky.– Riding a three-game winning streak, the Morehead State softball team returns to University Field for the final time in the 2018 campaign to face off with in-state and Ohio Valley Conference foe Murray State in doubleheader action on Tuesday afternoon.
 
The Eagles come into the weekday matchup with a 26-16 overall record while sporting a 7-9 mark in OVC play. The Racers enter with a 15-33 record for the season and a 5-13 conference clip. Last season, the teams split games at Racer Field in Murray, Ky., with Morehead State winning the opener 5-1 before being bested 4-2 by the Racers in the day's final game.
 
Morehead State is coming off a conference road swing that saw the team win 3-of-4 games. Following a split with one of the OVC's best teams, Jacksonville State, on Saturday the Eagles put everything together offensively, in the pitcher's circle, and in the field on Sunday to come away with a two-game sweep of Tennessee Tech. The game two victory at Tech also marked the 100^thwin for the eight seniors, which were honored last Sunday at University field prior to a matchup with UT Martin.
 
The Racers are coming off a weekend that saw them lose 3-of-4 OVC home games against Eastern Illinois and SIUE, with the single win coming Sunday against the Cougars. Despite the tough weekend at home, Murray State has played well on the road recently, winning all four games of two doubleheaders with Belmont and Tennessee State in Nashville on April 20 and 21.
 
For Morehead State offensively, the senior duo of Taylor Wheeler and Ellen Barrett have been the team's leaders at the plate. The utility player Wheeler has started all 42 games of her senior campaign and leads the team with a batting average of .326 to go along with a team-best 45 hits. Barrett, who has also started all 42 games at third base, follows closely behind in the batting average category with a .315 batting clip while having smacked five home-runs and achieved a team-high in walks with 18.
 
The Eagles also boast one of the best 1-2 punches among the OVC in the pitcher's circle with senior Chelsea McManaway and junior Allison Rager. McManaway, a left-handed ace that has twice been named OVC Pitcher of the Week this season, has struck out a conference-best 229 batters and is 15 strikeouts away from tying her single-season record for strikeouts in a season that she set in her junior campaign of 244. The left-handed ace from Wellston, Ohio, is 16-7 in her final season and has an ERA of 1.81 in 159 innings of work. Rager, a utility player that splits time between first and the circle, is 9-8 with an ERA of 2.73 and 64 strikeouts in 112.2 innings. Rager also provides a reliable bat in the Morehead State batting order, batting .287 while being tied for the team-best in RBI with 19.
 
Murray State's batting order sports three hitters with averages eclipsing .300 as Brenna Finck (.313), Lillie Goetz (.309), and Jensen Striegel (.304) have all achieved the feat. Finck and Goetz also top the team in hits with 47 apiece. Lexi Jones has also been a threat at the plate for the Racers' with nine homers and a team-best 29 RBI.

While Murray State has used five separate pitchers in the circle the season, the mainstay has been Haven Campbell who is 10-10 with an ERA of 2.79 in 130.2 innings pitched. Olivia Suski, Grace Vaughn, and Amber Van Duyse are the other arms for the Racers and have each tossed at least 55 innings.
 
FOLLOW & WATCH
 
The final home conference twin bill will get underway at 1 p.m. ET at University Field. Both games will be streamed live on the OVC Digital Network and Eagles' fans can follow along with the in-game action by following @msueagleslive on Twitter.