HARROGATE, Tenn. — When non-conference play slows down and the conference opener rolls around, some coaches say, "Now, this is when the real season starts."
 
Not Ritchie Richardson.
 
"I try not to separate the two," he said.
 
And there's a good reason for that, too.
 
In his opening season under the helm of the Lincoln Memorial University softball team a year ago, he could sense the tension among the Lady Railsplitters once South Atlantic Conference play jump-started.
 
"One of the things I noticed about last year was the conference season was so built up in the minds of our players," Richardson said. "Our players have the idea, 'Wow. Our conference is really, really tough.' … It was almost like they had it built up that we were going to get shelled. And guess what? We did.
 
"It's because they thought that was going to happen. It was like the conference is so much better. And what I thought was that Newberry, Wingate and all the other teams in the conference look just like all the other teams that we play, but we had them on a pedestal as such. I felt we had games where we were beat before we even went out there."
 
The second-year head coach and his staff hope that mindset is washed away now and the Lady Railsplitters can keep the passion and fire they've been playing with through the first 26 games, heading into the conference opener versus the visiting No. 20-ranked Wingate Bulldogs for a Saturday 1 p.m. doubleheader at Dorothy Neely Field.
 
It's been like night-and-day in Richardson and his staff's second year as the trio sported a 15-6 record leading up to their first SAC opener a year ago. This season, led by seasoned veterans and a handful of impactful freshmen, the Lady Railsplitters have a 22-4 record to show for plus the program's longest Division II winning streak since the 2010 team opened the season with its 12-game winning streak.
 
"I didn't think the turnaround would take very long, "Richardson said, "but I don't think you ever think you'd be 22-4, knowing that you've played good people and teams."
 
But, the Lady Railsplitters, who are two wins away from matching last season's win total (24), are and the stats speak for themselves.
 
Last season, LMU totaled 116 walks in 46 games and with 20 less so far this year, the Lady Railsplitters already have 103 with five players having double-digit free passes. It's the same with hit-by-pitches, where LMU had 34 last season and go into the SAC opener with 22 thanks to the advanced hitting plan that stretches past just making contact at the plate and into the approach taken.
 
"Really, it's the idea of getting on base than hitting," Ritchardson said. "Runs scored is the most important stat in the game. Why? Because it determines the outcome. You have to get on base to score runs, and most people think getting on base, in our sport, is hitting your way on base and putting hits together. And you can score that way, but you can reach base via the walk, hit by pitch and error. So, our idea is to be good at every way there is to get on base.
 
"Those are big things that nobody sees, but they are a part of our plan and they allow you to score runs when you're not hitting well. And we do run the bases well, which allow you to be a pretty good offense."
 
The Lady Railsplitters can hit the ball, too. LMU already has more triples this year with nine compared to last season's seven. The Lady Railsplitters are 21 doubles away from last year's 77 and nine from the home run total (31) to put them atop the conference in first (doubles), second (homers) and triples (third), while being first in hits (222), RBI (169) and extra-base hits (87).
 
Those feats are thanks to the stacked LMU lineup and freshman catcher McKenzie Henry, who leads the SAC in RBI (33) and home runs (8), good for fifth and 11th, respectively, in the nation.
 
"I'm not surprised she's a really, really good player," said Richardson of Henry's collegiate start. "It's just good to see her doing what she's doing. She works hard every day in practice and hard work pays off — besides just being really talented — she's a hard-working kid. She's a hungry hitter and a hungry hitter wants to get a hit every time at-bat, and they are a little disappointed when they don't."
 
Wingate (17-7) is 1-6 in its last six games and will use its two-armed attack of Aubrey Reep (64 IP, 2.08 ERA) and Rachel Weidner (71 IP, 2.56 ERA) to do all it can to slow down the conference's best offensive attack.
 
The pair lead the conference in strikeouts as Reep (7-2) has a SAC-leading 86 swipes while Weidner (9-4) isn't too far behind with her 82. Those high KO numbers also have them in the nation's top-20 as Reep is 14th and Weidner is 19th.
 
"They look like bookends and two good throwers, so we'll have our hands full trying to score runs off of them," Richardson said. "They were on a five-game losing streak, but it was to North Georgia and West Florida — two really good teams — so they didn't score a lot of runs, but nobody scores a lot of runs against those teams. I'm sure they are thinking, 'We've been seeing good pitching so just because we haven't won doesn't mean we won't be ready to go.'"
 
The Lady Railsplitters have a solid pitching staff of their own in Bailey Griffith (68.2 IP, 3.67 ERA), who also has a SAC second-best three saves behind her 9-2 record, while Faith Howe and Justice Smith have pitched an identical 49.1 innings with Howe (7-2) having the same number of strikeouts (42) as Griffith, which is one less than Smith (6-0).
 
From a far, these two squads are a lot alike as their batting averages are nearly the same: LMU (.330) and Wingate (.332). The Lady Railsplitters have three more home runs than the Bulldogs' 19, which is led by Emma Swenson's five, good for fifth in the conference. Wingate also has 130 RBI to the Lady Railsplitters' 169, but the biggest difference is the conference's second-best 39 stolen bases from LMU to the worst in the Bulldogs' five.
 
"I know from playing them last year, and seeing where they were at, they are probably a lot like us," Richardson said, "and that the coach is in a couple years in and they are building a program. I think they will be a lot better than they were last year when we played them over there when they beat us twice."
 
The Bulldogs' 5-6 and five inning, 1-9, victories over LMU last season were two of the 13 losses the Lady Railsplitters surrendered in a tough conference slate, which resulted in them missing the conference tournament for the second season in a row behind a 7-13 record.
 
Now, in the second time around, Richardson just wants his team, which was picked eighth in the preseason, to lock in on what they can control and that's playing the style of softball he saw in the first 26 games and not to get caught up in the logistics.
  
"For us, what we are trying to develop is have a great respect for every opponent," Richardson said. "We know we can beat anybody we play if our effort is good and we can do the things that we do well and that anybody on our schedule can beat us if we don't. But it's that consistency of Wingate will be really, really tough but will they be better than King, North Greenville or Lee, or some of the other good teams we've played? I don't think they will.

"We just focus on what we can control: our effort, trying to execute our hitting plan and pitching plan well, control what we can and we know if we do a good job there, we have a chance at winning. I know the importance of winning conference games, but I don't want us overthinking it."