COLUMBIA, Ky. – The Mid-South Conference tournament is at a new home in 2025. After being held at South Warren High School in Bowling Green since 2022, the postseason moves to Cathi Maynard Park in Clarksville, Tennessee on the campus of Austin Peay University. It will be the third time in the conference's history that the softball tournament is hosted outside of Kentucky. In each of the previous two instances, Lindsey Wilson emerged as the champion.

The Blue Raiders are the winningest program in Mid-South tournament history with eight titles, including most recently in 2019. Last season, Lindsey Wilson finished third in the conference tournament as the fifth seed. This year, the Blue Raiders enter as the No. 4 seed after posting a 23-19 overall record during the regular season and winning four out of six conference series.

Offensively, Lindsey Wilson sports a 0.288 batting average, which is up from last year by 0.027. The Blue Raiders actively lead the Mid-South with 78 doubles and rank third with 22 home runs. Junior Sam Hartman and freshman Nora Epley are two names at the forefront of Lindsey Wilson's efforts at the plate. The duo is tied for the team lead in total hits with 45, apiece. Meanwhile, Hartman paces the lineup in runs batted-in and is knotted with Natalie Wandrie for the team-high in home runs. Epley, on the other hand, boasts a conference-high 17 doubles and 25 walks.

Another key for the Blue Raider offense has been the significant drop in team strikeouts from a year ago. Last season, six different players had at least 17 strikeouts. This season, zero. In fact, total team strikeouts are down 37.3 percent.

As far as throwing strikeouts, Lindsey Wilson has had no problem in the circle. Sophomore Kayden Murray has led the conference in total strikeouts for most of the season. She is currently the only Mid-South pitcher with more than 80 strikeouts (133) and is ninth on the program's all-time career strikeout list (317). Freshman Hallie Roberts ranks fourth in the league in strikeouts, while junior Grace Adams and sophomore K'Asia Palmer are both up in their strikeout and win totals from a season ago.

The first opponent the Blue Raiders will face at 11 a.m. CST on Thursday is Cumberland (Tenn.). The fifth-seeded Phoenix were in Columbia last week for the regular season finale, during which Lindsey Wilson outscored the visitors 20-1 to clinch a three-game sweep. A win on Thursday morning sets up a meeting with third-ranked Cumberlands (Ky.), who eliminated the Blue Raiders from the playoffs last year.

Live coverage of this week's Mid-South Conference tournament will be provided at mid-southconference.org. Fans can also purchase tickets on the conference website.