CHADRON, Neb. -- April 24, 2019 -- The regular season Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference softball schedule has one final weekend remaining, and for Chadron State College, it is a big one.

Rival Black Hills State University visits on Friday and Saturday for a four-game series that could potentially determine the postseason fate of either team, as intrigue looms around every series around the league this week.

As the regular season comes to a head, the top six teams in the RMAC standings, already locked into conference tournament bids, each play one of the bottom seven in the league, who are all still eligible for the two remaining bids.

The Eagles and Yellow Jackets, however, have both completed their series against Colorado Mesa, Colorado Christian, Dixie State, Colorado School of Mines, MSU Denver, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. CSC (13-32, 10-25 RMAC) has only a single win against Dixie, out of that group, while BHSU (10-27, 7-22 RMAC) picked up one win each against Mines and MSU Denver. 

That leaves the two teams on the outside looking in, with the hope that the deck reshuffles as the leaders jockey for seeding in next week's championship bracket. 

For the Yellow Jackets, the path is straightforward. Black Hills needs a sweep in Chadron this weekend to make up the near four-game distance between itself and eighth-place Adams State. It also needs to gain three games against CSU-Pueblo's record and two against Fort Lewis.

Chadron State has a little more flexibility, though not much. A sweep for the Eagles means they could potentially pick up four games on any of the four teams ahead of them. They would need all four of those to catch seventh-place Regis, while also passing the other three aforementioned teams. A three-game pickup would get them past Adams, with CSU-Pueblo requiring two to lap, and Fort Lewis just one.

On paper, the Eagles rank higher than the 12th-place Yellow Jackets in both team batting average (.292 to .274) and team earned runs average (6.32 to 6.77).

Both teams have a batter over .400 for the season, in CSC freshman phenom Haleigh Hoefs and BHSU's Kindall Bethke.

The Eagles have more depth in their batting order, however. After Bethke, only one other Yellow Jacket batter is over .300 for the season, while CSC has Bailey Marvel, Kayla Michel, and Ellie Owens. In addition, Michel and Owens are both slugging better than any of the Yellow Jackets aside from Bethke.

Black Hills freshman pitcher Crystal Amaral leads her team in the circle, and has acquitted herself well as a rookie, striking out 93 batters in just over 100 innings pitched. That figure ranks seventh in the league. Amaral has occupied the circle for her team for nearly half their total innings, giving up an average of 5.35 earned runs.

CSC has utilized four pitchers in roughly equal measure, although Peyton Propp, a junior transfer from Western Nebraska Community College, has been a workhorse lately. She started five of the last eight games and pitched nearly half of two others. In that span her ERA has been 2.91, dropping her season overall number by nearly five runs per game and her opponent batting average by .03.

Freshman Cassidy Horn has the most total appearances, most total innings pitched and most wins for the Eagles' pitchers, while senior Dallas Magnusson boasts the best season ERA (4.41) on the staff and sophomore Gabby Russell leads the team with 11 starts in the circle.

Heading into the weekend, Black HIlls is on an eight-game losing streak while Chadron State has won three of its last eight, including a 2-2 weekend most recently, in Pueblo.

Per RMAC rules, the season's final weekend of games are to be scheduled on Friday and Saturday conference-wide. Doubleheaders begin at noon on Friday and 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Seniors on both teams are to be honored on Saturday. CSC's seniors are Alyssa Geist, Magnusson, Haylee McKeehan, Michel, and Kendyl Moody.