April 28, 2016
Missouri State at Evansville
Cooper Stadium - Evansville, Ind.
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Down to the final seven games of the regular season, the Missouri State softball team (17-27, 6-12) heads to Evansville, Ind., to play a three-game set against the Purple Aces beginning with a 4:00 p.m. doubleheader on Friday (April 29). The Bears had their midweek games postponed and/or cancelled and take on Evansville (22-21, 10-10), winners of eight of the last 10 games, all in league play.
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 weekend with 451 career strikeouts.
Fellow junior Olivia Roark brings a five-game hitting streak into the weekend. She is hitting .432 in conference play this season, the third-best mark in the MVC. She has hit safely in 10 of the 13 league games she has played, five of which have been multi-hit performances.
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.
- Junior Olivia Roark is hitting .432 in conference games this season, the third-best batting average among league players.
- 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.
- 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
Evansville Purple Aces: Evansville has eight of its last 10 games, all in league play, to jump up to fifth in the current league standings. Freshman pitcher Morgan Florey is the back-to-back reigning MVC Newcomer of the Week, an award she has earned four times this season. Her 2.01 earned run average this year is the second-best in the Valley and she is holding opponents to a league-low .225 batting average. Junior Chandra Parr paces the Aces offense with a .333 average. She also leads the team with six home runs and 22 RBI. Last season, UE was swept in the three-game series in Springfield. MSU has won the last five series played in Evansville, going 11-4 in Indiana since 2006, and holds a 40-24 all-time series advantage over the Purple Aces.
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 (975 wins in MVC).
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.
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 five of the Bears' first eight games on 2016. Struemph opened the season with a complete game against Texas Southern (Feb. 12). 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.
MAD HITTING STREAK
Sophomore Madison Jones went on a career-best seven-game hitting streak beginning on Feb. 26 and hit safely in 11 of the next 13 games. Her torrid pace began with a two-hit performance against Austin Peay. The next day, she had a career-high four hits in the Bears' win over Mercer.
Jones had three-consecutive two-hit games to open the Cancer Awareness Tournament in St. Louis. During her seven-game hitting streak, Jones had five multi-hit games and a batting average of .609.
CLUBBING FOR A CAUSE
Sophomore Kaitlin Beason boasts a powerful bat in addition to a reliable arm in the circle. She put both aspects of her game together at the Cancer Awareness Tournament in St. Louis. On March 4, she earned the win in relief against UMKC. She also hit a three-run home run in the game against the Kangaroos.
She returned the next day and pitched 5.0 innings to earn the victory over SEMO. In the win over the Redhawks, Beason belted two home runs, her second career multi-homer game. One of her blasts was her first career grand slam, helping her own cause in the circle. Beason continued the trend with a home run against UNI on March 12. She pitched 6.0 innings in the start against the Panthers, striking out a career-high four batters.
WAITING IN THE WINGS
Head coach Holly Hesse has commitments from three players to join the 2017 squad. Joining the Bears for the 2016-17 academic year are Erin Griesbauer (Blue Springs, Mo.), Darby Joerling (Defiance, Mo.) and Carsten Warner (Nevada, Mo.).
