Feb. 18, 2016
Holiday Inn Hilltopper Classic Notes 
Missouri State at Holiday Inn Hilltopper Classic
WKU Softball Complex - Bowling Green, Ky.
Live Stats | Tournament Central | Follow @MSUSoftball
The Missouri State softball team (3-2) heads to the state of Kentucky for the first time in program history as MSU will play five games at the Holiday Inn Hilltopper Classic beginning on Friday. The Bears will face host Western Kentucky twice while in Bowling Green, the second-straight weekend to face a 2015 NCAA Tournament appearance opponent to open the season. MSU defeated Texas Southern to open the season and earned shutout wins over Northern Colorado on Saturday and Sunday at the UT Arlington Invitational last week.
Junior pitcher Erin Struemph began her season with a pair of complete game victories in the circle. She downed NCAA Tournament squad Texas Southern in the season opener and returned on Saturday to fire a three-hit shutout of Northern Colorado. Sophomore Kaitlin Beason also pitched two complete games on opening weekend, tossing her own three-hit shutout of UNC on Sunday. Senior Jessie Van Es pitched one of the best games of her career against host UT Arlington, but took the tough-luck loss despite allowing a single earned run against in 5.1 innings pitched.
Junior Mary Stephens turned in another spectacular weekend in her home state of Texas. She hit .400 over the five games, slugging both MSU home runs. Stephens is tied for the MVC lead with two homers and tied for the team lead with four RBI.
Beason set career highs in a number of different categories over the weekend. In the season opener, she went 3-for-4 with a career-best 4 RBI. In game two of opening day, she pitched all nine innings, besting her longest previous outing by three innings. Then on Sunday, Beason drew three walks against UNC, her first career multi-walk game.
Redshirt sophomore Allie Alvstad made her much anticipated season debut on Saturday against Northern Colorado. In her first plate appearance since being diaganosed with acute myeloid leukemia, Alvstad drew a four-pitch walk in front of a standing ovation at Allan Saxe Field in Arlington, Texas.
QUICK HITS
- Missouri State pitchers Erin Struemph and Kaitlin Beason tossed complete games in each of their first two starts of the year last weekend at the UT Arlington Invitational.
- Beason set a career-high with her nine inning start against Detroit on Friday. She also had career bests with four RBI against Texas Southern and three walks drawn versus Northern Colorado.
- Junior Mary Stephens is tied for the MVC lead after she belted two home runs in her home state on opening weekend.
- Freshman Hannah Heinrichs had a memorable Opening Day, registering a hit in each of her first two at-bats, including an RBI double in the first inning. She also scored a run and stole a base in her collegiate debut.
SCOUTING REPORT
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers: The WKU Lady Toppers began the 2016 campaign with three wins over four games played last weekend at the Plainsman Invitational in Auburn, Ala. WKU's lone loss was a 19-1 drubbing by No. 4 Auburn. Junior pitcher Kathryn Downing and sophomore hurler Hannah Parker picked up the WKU wins and both have 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratios. Offensively, Parker and freshman Bryce Holmgren combined for nine of WKU 14 RBI on the weekend and were two of the three Lady Toppers hitters to bat better than .300 on opening weekend. WKU mustered just six extra-base hits, no home runs, for a .333 team slugging percentage. Missouri State won the only previous meeting between the programs in 2000.
Murray State Racers: Murray State split its opening weekend at the KSU Kickoff Classic at Kennesaw, Ga. The Racers dropped both games on opening day and rebounded for a pair of wins on Sunday. All four of MSU's games were decided by five runs or more, including a split with MVC's Loyola. The Racers hit just shy of .300 over the opening four games. Junior catcher Jocelynn Rodgers led the way with a .600 batting average with one of MSU's two home runs. Fellow junior Jessica Twaddle hit .462 with a pair of doubles and was 4-for-4 on stolen base attempts. This weekend's games will mark the first-ever meetings between Murray State and Missouri State.
Austin Peay Lady Govs: Austin Peay split a doubleheader at Gardner-Webb on a weather-shortened opening weekend in North Carolina. APSU's pitchers allowed four home runs over the two games and racked up a 9.15 ERA. Redshirt freshman Kacy Acree hit the Lady Govs lone home run, belting the long ball in her first collegiate at-bat. She hit .429 with five RBI. Junior Rikki Arkansas had a team-high four hits and had the only successful stolen base for APSU. Missouri State has won all three previous meetings, the last of which was in 1996.
700 AND COUNTING
Head coach Holly Hesse is second in all-time wins by an MVC coach with 707. She entered 2016 with the 37th-most wins among active Division I head coaches. With a 4-0 victory over Illinois State on April 18, 2015, Hesse earned milestone win 700. She trails only current Illinois State coach Melinda Fischer (960 wins).
BEARS SOFTBALL IS ON THE AIR
The Missouri State softball team will see all of its home games live streamed through Bears All-Access on MissouriStateBears.com.
Some MSU home games will air on KBFL (1060 AM) and can be heard online via RadioSpringfield.com.
2016 Broadcast Schedule
Friday, March 25 vs. Bradley (G1) [KBFL]
Wednesday, April 13 vs. Tulsa [KBFL]
Wednesday, April 20 vs. Wichita St. (DH) [KBFL]
Wednesday, April 27 vs. SIU Edwardsville [KBFL]
TRIUMPHANT RETURN
The Bears eagerly anticipated the inspirational return of redshirt sophomore Allie Alvstad. She missed the entire 2014-15 academic year to battle through acute myeloid leukemia. She received a bone marrow transplant in December 2014 and returned to the team in 2015-16. In her first plate appearance of the season, Alvstad drew a four-pitch walk against Northern Colorado on Feb. 13.
PRESEASON PICK
Missouri State received more first-place votes than any other Valley squad, but finished second in a top-heavy Missouri Valley Conference preseason coaches poll released by the league office on January 27. The Bears also were well represented on the preseason All-MVC team with senior Erin Duewel, junior Erin Struemph and sophomore Erika Velasquez Zimmer earning nods. All three players were All-MVC first team members in 2015.
FROM START TO FINISH
Missouri State saw its starting pitcher toss a complete game in four of the Bears' first five games on 2016. Struemph opened the season with a complete game against Texas Southern. Beason tossed a career-long nine inning game later in the day against Detroit. Struemph and Beason returned later in the weekend with identical three-hit complete game shutouts of Northern Colorado.
LONE STAR STUD
Sachse, Texas-native Mary Stephens had yet another fantastic weekend in her home state on opening weekend. She blasted a seventh-inning game-tying home run against Detroit on Feb. 12. The next day, she hit another home run, a two-run shot in the first inning of a win over Northern Colorado. After recording a single against host UT Arlington, she ran her hitting streak to four games with a 3-for-4 outing on Feb. 14 versus UNC.
On the weekend, Stephens hit .400 with a team-leading two home runs and four RBI. She also drew three walks, scored four runs and had a .800 slugging percentage.
BEASON'S BEAST WEEKEND
Sophomore Kaitlin Beason had a breakout weekend in Texas to open the season. The Webb City, Mo.-native notched three career-best on the weekend. In the season opener versus Texas Southern, she drove in four runs for the first time in an MSU uniform. That same day, she took to the circle and pitched all nine innings against Detroit, three innings longer than her previous long outing. Then on Sunday (Feb. 14), Beason drew three walks against Northern Colorado, her first career multi-walk game.
CATCH US IF YOU CAN
Aided by a season-high six-run first inning in the season opener against Texas Southern, the Bears have out-scored opponents 8-0 in the first inning of games this season. It is a trend that held over from last year when MSU out-sccored opponents 50-34 in the first inning in 2015.
FOLLOWING UP RECORDS
Missouri State set team records in home runs (48), walks drawn (181) and double plays turned (22) in 2015. In the first weekend of the season, the Bears belted two home runs, turned two double plays and drew 22 walks. In Saturday's (Feb. 13) game versus Northern Colorado, MSU drew 12 walks, one shy of the single-game program record set in 2004.
