May 11, 2016
Missouri State at MVC Softball Championship
Charlotte West Stadium - Carbondale, Ill.
Tournament Central | Notes | Live Stats | Watch | Follow @MSUSoftball
The Missouri State softball team (21-29) gets to set the tone in this year's MVC Softball Championship as the eight-seed Bears will take the first at-bats in Thursday's opening game against five-seed Bradley (18-29) at 11:04 a.m. The winner will advance to play host Southern Illinois (32-18) later in the day at Charlotte West Stadium in Carbondale, Ill.
MSU took care of its own destiny clinching a spot in the league tournament with a doubleheader sweep of Indiana State on Saturday. Junior Erin Struemph fired a two-hit shutout in a 1-0 game one victory. The lone run came in the form of sophomore Kaitlin Beason's second inning solo home run. Beason took the circle for game two and tossed a one-hitter.
The Bears have the most wins in MVC Tournament history with 70 all-time and are tied for the most titles with six. MSU head coach Holly Hesse has been at the helm for 48 of those tournament wins, tied for the most. Over the last 10 MVC Tournaments, MSU is 16-9, the only team with more than eight wins.
Junior Struemph continues her climb on the all-time strikeout list, currently with 464 career punch outs. She struck out three Panthers at UNI on April 24 to move past Kellie Becher for fifth in school history. Struemph threw eight complete games during conference play and gave up five or fewer hits in seven of those complete game performances.
Fellow junior Olivia Roark hit .404 in conference play this season, the fourth-best mark in the MVC. She hit safely in 15 of the 19 league games she played in, seven of which were multi-hit performances.
Senior Erin Duewel hit her eighth home run of the year on April 16 and tops the squad with 35 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 .479 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 the MVC Tournament. It is the 11th-consecutive week that the Bears have been in the top-15 nationally.
QUICK HITS
- Junior Olivia Roark hit .404 in conference games this season, the fourth-best batting average among league players.
- Missouri State's defense enters the tournament ranked 15th in the country with a .973 fielding percentage. It is the 11th-straight week MSU is ranked in the top-15 nationally.
- Sophomore Erika Velasquez Zimmer was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI First Team on May 5.
- Junior pitcher Erin Struemph fired a complete game two-hit shutout versus Indiana State on May 7. It was her eighth complete game of the MVC season and she allowed five or fewer hits in seven of those complete games.
- Sophomore Erika Velasquez Zimmer (April 12) and Struemph (April 19) picked up MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week in consecutive weeks for the Bears. Struemph also earned MVC Pitcher of the Week honors on April 18, the first MSU hurler to earn both awards in the same week since Melissa Porche won both the week of March 24, 2008.
- With her three strikeouts at UNI on April 23, Struemph passed Kellie Becher for fifth in school history. She now has 456 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.
- 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.
- Six of sophomore Kaitlin Beason's eight home runs this season 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.
COUNT THEM ON ONE HAND
Junior Erin Struemph has been on her game for much of the MVC season. On May 7, she tossed her eighth complete game of the Valley season. In seven of those, you can count on one hand how many hits she has allowed, five or fewer.
Struemph's MVC CG of five or fewer hits allowed
Date -- Opponent -- Hits allowed
March 19 -- Illinois State -- 3
March 25 -- Bradley -- 3
March 26 -- Bradley -- 3
April 16 -- Drake -- 3
April 17 -- Drake -- 5
April 29 -- Evansville -- 5
May 7 -- Indiana State -- 2
MILESTONE STRIKEOUT
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.
700 AND COUNTING
Head coach Holly Hesse is second in all-time wins by an MVC coach with 725. 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 (977 wins in MVC).
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.
Velasquez Zimmer continued to pull in honors when she was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI first team on May 5, the first year she was eligible for the award.
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.
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 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.
CRAZY EIGHTS
Duewel and Beason have each clubbed a team high eight home runs this season. Of Duewel's eight home runs, the first seven all came with at least one runner aboard. For Beason, six of her eight home runs have been hit in the same game in which she was the pitcher of record.
TAKE YOUR BASE
This season, the Bears have drawn 104 bases on balls and have been hit by a pitch 26 times. MSU received a free pass to first base by one or both of these means in 46 of the 50 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.
