April 25, 2016
Missouri State at Wichita State
Wilkins Stadium - Wichita, Kan.
SIU Edwardsville at Missouri State
Killian Stadium - Springfield, Mo.
Notes | Live Stats | Bears All-Access (SIUE Game) | Listen (SIUE Game) | Follow @MSUSoftball
With just two weeks left in the regular season, the Missouri State softball team (17-27, 6-12) looks to build momentum down the stretch beginning with a strenuous midweek slate. On Tuesday, the Bears travel to league-leader Wichita State (28-18, 14-5) for the series finale with the Shockers. MSU turns right around and wraps up the non-conference schedule with a 5:00 p.m. contest at Killian Stadium on Wednesday versus SIU Edwardsville (21-20). The game at Wichita State will mark the ninth-consecutive matchup for the Bears against an MVC team at the top of the league standings.
The Missouri State offense put up 19 runs in the three-game series at Northern Iowa last weekend. MSU also hit a home run in each game thanks to Kaitlin Beason, Elena Gambill and Mary Stephens. The last time MSU hit a home run in each game of an MVC series was last season against Wichita State and the 19 runs are the most in a road MVC series since the Bears plated 19 at Wichita State in 2013.
Junior pitcher Erin Struemph struck out three Panthers at UNI on Saturday to move past Kellie Becher for fifth in school history. Struemph enters the week with 451 career strikeouts.
Senior Erin Duewel hit her team-leading eighth home run of the year on April 16 and tops the squad with 32 RBI. She now has 21 career blasts taking sole possession of second in MSU homer history. She has hit 15 of her 21 home runs against MVC teams. Duewel also ranks second in school history with a .491 career slugging percentage.
Missouri State's defense remains among the best in the nation. The Bears top the MVC with a .973 fielding percentage, a figure that ranks MSU 15th in the country entering this week. It is the ninth-consecutive week that the Bears have been in the top-15 nationally.
QUICK HITS
- The Bears scored 19 runs in the three-game series at UNI last weekend. It is the most in a road MVC series since MSU scored 19 at Wichita State in 2013. The Bears also hit a home run in each of the three games against the Panthers. The last time MSU hit a home run in each game of an MVC series was last year against the Shockers.
- With her three strikeouts at UNI on April 23, junior pitcher Erin Struemph passed Kellie Becher for fifth in school history. She now has 451 career strikeouts.
- Struemph struck out a career-high 13 Ramblers in game one at Loyola on April 3. It was the most strikeouts in a game by an MSU pitcher since 2011 and tied for most in MVC this season.
- Struemph added a pair of honors to her resume after being named MVC Pitcher of the Week on April 18 and MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on April 19. She is the first MSU hurler to earn both awards in the same week since Melissa Porche won both the week of March 24, 2008.
- Senior Erin Duewel slugged her eighth home run of the season on April 16 at Drake. It was her 21st career long ball, giving her sole possession of second in MSU history.
- Missouri State's defense enters the week ranked 15th in the country with a .973 fielding percentage. It is the ninth-straight week MSU is ranked in the top-15 nationally.
nbsp;- Sophomore Erika Velasquez Zimmer picked up MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors on April 12 after three-straight multi-hit games against SIU the prior weekend.
- All six of sophomore Kaitlin Beason's home runs have come in the same game in which she has been the pitcher of record.
- Redshirt sophomore Allie Alvstad singled to right against Omaha on March 11, her first hit since returning to the team after beating leukemia.
SCOUTING REPORT
Wichita State Shockers: The Shockers sit in first place in the MVC after winning five-straight league games including a sweep of then-league leader Drake over the weekend. The Shockers offense is rolling along at .309 clip led by junior Macklin Hitz's .377 average. Hitz is one of three Shockers with nine or more home runs. The WSU staff includes two pitchers with double-digit wins this season, junior Jenni Brooks with 15 and junior Katie Malone with 10. The Shockers took both games in Springfield last week, but trail MSU in the all-time series 58-49.
SIU Edwardsville Cougars: SIUE enters the midweek game winners of eight of the last nine contests. Head coach Sandy Montgomery won her 978th at SIUE over the weekend. Between the lines, pitcher Baylee Douglass holds a 1.78 ERA with 14 of the Cougars' wins. Offensively, Jordan LaFave is the lone SIUE hitter batting .300 or better. SIUE holds a 6-3 series advantage after winning last year's meeting, 3-2, in Edwardsville. MSU has won three of the four matchups in Springfield, each by a single run.
700 AND COUNTING
Head coach Holly Hesse is second in all-time wins by an MVC coach with 721. 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 (974 wins in MVC).
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 Remaining Broadcast Schedule
Wednesday, April 27 vs. SIU Edwardsville [KBFL]
DUEWEL LANDS IN RECORD BOOK
Senior Erin Duewel belted her 21st career home run in the fourth inning at Drake on April 16. That total lands the Lee's Summit native in second on the all-time career homers list. Duewel's blast against the Bulldogs was her team-leading eighth long ball of the year and fourth in MVC games. In her career, Duewel has hit 15 of her 21 home runs against MVC teams.
MILESTONE STRIKEOUT
Junior Erin Struemph is already making waves in the MSU annuls. She picked up three strikeouts in the March 29 start at Arkansas. With her strikeout of UA's Lauren Archuleta to end the second inning, Struemph became just the sixth pitcher in MSU history with 400 career strikeouts. On April 23, Struemph struck out UNI's Anna Varriano for career strikeout number 448 passing Kellie Becher for fifth in school history.
Struemph began conference play with three-consecutive complete-game three hitters. In her fourth start following the start of MVC play, she held Arkansas to four hits in another complete game effort. Then on April 16 and 17, she fired a three-hit shutout and a five-hitter in complete game wins over Drake en route to MVC Pitcher of the Week honors.
SCHOLARLY HONORS
Struemph earned the second-straight MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week nod for an MSU softball player when she picked up the award on April 19. The St. Thomas, Mo., native notched the laurel for the first time in her career just a day after being named MVC Pitcher of the Week. She held a measly 0.39 ERA over three outings during the week of April 11-17, including a complete game three-hit shutout to deal Drake its first MVC loss of the season.
Sophomore Erika Velasquez Zimmer was the first Bear this season to be awarded the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors. The Coppell, Texas, native earned the accolade for the first time in her career on April 12. She led MSU with nine hits during the week of April 4-10, including a scorching .727 batting average over the three games against SIU. She had multiple hits in all three games against the Salukis, tying a career-high with three hits in two of those games.
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. On Feb. 19, she drove in her first run of the season with a pinch-hit ground out at Western Kentucky. Alvstad registered her first hit since returning with a single to right field on March 11 versus Omaha in Lawrence, Kan.
TAKE YOUR BASE
This season, the Bears have drawn 95 bases on balls and have been hit by a pitch 23 times. MSU received a free pass to first base by one or both of these means in 40 of the 44 games this season. In the Feb. 13 game versus Northern Colorado, MSU drew 12 walks, one shy of the single-game program record set in 2004.
