RUSSELLVILLE — Welcome to the Show. The soundtrack has not changed for Jordyn Merrett in seven years. As her walk-up song by Cody Johnson echoes through the speaker at Langston Field, the junior country music fan approaches the batter's box to the same tune she has since her high school days in Wylie, Texas.
Merrett was named the Great American Conference Player of the Week after a phenomenal stretch that propelled Ouachita into the conference tournament for the first time since 2022. Her weekly slash line would be difficult to replicate on the video game, MLB The Show. Merrett finished 9-for-11 at the plate, piling up 24 total bases, 13 RBI, and nine runs scored. She launched five home runs across five games, ultimately posting a staggering .818 batting average and a 3.040 OPS.
That kind of production doesn't just shift the momentum in games, it's flipped the Tigers' season. Ouachita has six wins in the last seven games as the Tigers have claimed five consecutive series. After getting scratched from a start 10 days ago in the middle of the series against Northwestern Oklahoma State, Merrett returned to the lineup with a renewed mindset.Â
"I think that it was good to be present and to be in the place that I was against Northwestern," Merrett said. "Talking to my teammates and talking to Coach (Jeff) Jackson had a lot to do with that too. Just remembering that my worth is so much bigger than this, but this is something that I get to do and I get to do with people that I love a lot."
Merrett was flawless in a midweek sweep over Central Baptist, going a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with four runs scored, three RBI, and a towering home run to left-center that helped ignite a five-homer outburst from her teammates and herself.Â
It was under the brightest lights of the rivalry series that her defined her presence in the lineup. In last Thursday's opener of the Battle of the Ravine series against Henderson State, Ouachita found itself in a tough hole after surrendering a grand slam and falling behind 10-6 in the fifth inning. With the bases loaded and no outs just moments later, Merrett stepped up to the plate to seize the moment and launched a no-doubt grand slam over the left field wall to instantly tie the game at 10-10, igniting an emphatic eruption out of the dugout. The Tigers rallied back to secure a 11-10 victory, a turning point in perhaps the most critical game of the season.
In Saturday's doubleheader, Merrett added three more home runs, including an opposite-field shot to give the Tigers an early lead before she led off the seventh inning with a towering blast to dead center. She capped her remarkable performance in the series finale with a three-run homer that helped secure a 9-0 run-rule victory and clinched the Tigers' tournament berth. Merrett hit for the rare home run cycle against the Reddies, spraying four total homers while driving in 10 runs across the rivalry series.
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It was a feat she didn't even realize was within reach until it was accomplished.
"No, I didn't know until after the game," Merrett said. "I didn't even know that that was a possibility. I thought that was really cool and everyone was super excited, so that was fun."
Merrett was just as reliable in the field and tallied 34 putouts with four assists at first base, anchoring the diamond beyond her offensive explosion. For Merrett, the timing of it all couldn't have been better.
"It's ideal. It's perfect timing," she said. "We have been working for this point of our season for a long time. Winning the last five series is a big testament of how hard we've been working and how excited we are to go to the tournament to showcase ourselves a little differently than we have in the past."
There is no doubt that Merrett's bat has sparked a softball team surging at the right moment. As the stars light up the night underneath that sky, just know the show is getting started.
