St. Joseph, Mo. - The Missouri Southern Softball Lions are headed to St. Joseph this weekend for a regional crossover hosted by Missouri Western.

The Lions will face six teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) as the open the Apple Market Classic with Northern (S.D.) State Friday morning at 10 a.m. from the Griffon Softball Field. The Lions will travel to Heritage Park for the remaining five games starting with Minnesota State-Mankato at 4 p.m. on field four. On Saturday, Southern starts off with the University of Mary (N.D.) at 10 a.m. before facing off with NSIC perennial power Augustana (S.D.) at 2 p.m. In the final day of action the Lions will face 16th ranked Winona State at 11 a.m. before closing the crossover out with Concordia-St. Paul at 3 p.m.

Northern State enters the weekend with a 9-9 record, Minnesota State-Mankato is currently 13-5, Augustana sits at 8-8, while U Mary enters at 5-9, #16 Winona State leads the NSIC with a 14-4 record and Concordia-St. Paul enters the Apple Market Classic with a 6-8 record.

Senior Alana Hester continues her assault on the Missouri Southern career stolen base record, she leads the MIAA with 22 swipes this season and for her career has tallied 90 stolen bases just nine shy of tying Erin Turner (1999-2002). Hester already has the single game record with five stolen bags against Southern Nazarene on February 17, 2013. Hester is second on the team in batting average this season at .314 (27-of-86) while sophomore Abi Corbett leads the team in average (.385), hits (40), and doubles (5) while being tied for third with freshman Ashley Caldarella with 12 RBIs. Senior Sarah Williams leads the teams in RBIs with 25 and home runs with seven while freshman Angel Badalamenti is second on the team in RBIs with 14.

Senior Ashley Lutz is leading the Lions in the circle with an ERA of 2.82 and a record of 7-8. She has appeared in 26 games with 16 starts and 10 complete games with 111.2 innings pitched while tallying 78 strike outs.

Live stats links for all six games can be found at mssulions.com and updates will be provided twitter at both @mososports and @mososoftball.