SPRINGFIELD -- The Missouri State softball team hosts Loyola University for a Missouri Valley Conference series, starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 25 and continuing Sunday with a doubleheader at 11 a.m. at Killian Stadium.
 

Missouri State (13-11, 1-2 MVC) vs. Loyola (17-7, 0-3 MVC)
Dates	Saturday, Mar. 25 | Sunday, Mar. 26
Location	Springfield, Mo.
Site	Killian Stadium
Saturday, Mar. 25	Game 1 - 6 p.m.
Sunday, Mar. 26	Game 2 - 11 a.m. | Game 3 - 1:30 p.m.
Follow Along	Live Stats | ESPN3 Sat. | ESPN3 Sun.
Missouri State	Game Notes | Softball Home Page | Twitter

The Starting Nine

• Erika Velasquez Zimmer (Jr., Coppell, Texas) matched a career best with a 13-game hitting streak from Feb. 18 to March 16. The only Bear to hit safely in more games over the last 12 seasons is Rebecca McPherson who had a hit in 15 straight contests in 2015. Zimmer is hitting a team-high .432 (4^th in MVC/69^th in NCAA) with 44 total bases.
• Darian Frost (So., Lee's Summit, Mo.) hit a game-tying, two-out, inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the sixth inning in Sunday's game against Northern Iowa. It was Frost's third home run of the season, which matches a team high, and was the first-ever, inside-the-park homer in Killian Stadium history.
• MSU head coach Holly Hesse entered the 2017 campaign ranked 36^th among all active NCAA Division I coaches with 726 career victories. Hesse is in her 29^th season at the helm of the Bears and now owns a 739-732-2 (.502) career ledger. She has earned two conference Coach of the Year honors and coached five NCAA Tournament teams.
• Junior Holly Kelley (Cypress, Texas_ had two impressive relief outings last week. First in Stillwater, where she threw 3.0 scoreless innings in relief to close out a 7-3 win over the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. In Sunday's game against UNI, Kelley came out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out and recorded a strikeouts and a double play to stop the Panthers' extra-inning rally. Kelley also pitched a shutout inning in relief in Saturday's 6-0 MVC win over UNI at home. For the week, she was 2-1 in the circle with a 2.80 ERA in 15.0 innings of work.
• The Bears have turned 11 double plays through their first 24 games (0.46 per game), which ranks 35^th among the nation's 291 Division I programs. Mary Stephens (Sr., Sochse, Texas) has been a part of nine double plays, the top among all MVC Players.
• MSU's top career hitters against Loyola are Olivia Roark (Sr., Ottumwa, Iowa) and Velasquez Zimmer. Roark is 4-for-12 (.333) against the Ramblers in seven games while Velasquez Zimmer is 8-for-15 (.533) with 4 RBI and a HR in five games.
• Velasquez Zimmer's 35 hits ranks third among all Missouri Valley Conference players. She and Madison Jones (Jr., Overland Park, Kan.) also share the MVC lead in triples with three apiece.
• Six of Missouri State's 11 losses this season have come by a single run. MSU is 2-6 in one-run games
• Missouri State has matched or out-hit 10 of its last 11 opponents and is 7-4 in that span.
• Senior Bethany Sullinger (Kansas City, Mo._ is expected to make her 100^th career start in tonight's game. The fourth-year standout has played in 143 games and is batting .287 overall with 9 home runs and 74 RBI.
• Missouri State is 64-81 all-time at Killian Stadium which opened for the 2009 season and 3-0 vs. Loyola.

 
Head Coach Holly Hesse
Holly Hesse (Creighton, 1982) is 739-732-2 (.502) in her 29th season as head coach at Missouri State and overall.
 
She the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history and joined the 700-victory club with a 4-0 win at Illinois State on April 18, 2015, completing a doubleheader sweep in Normal, Ill.
 
She is also the winningest softball coach in Missouri State history. Her tenure includes two regular-season MVC titles, five MVC tournament crowns and five NCAA Tournament appearances. Hesse recorded her 300th win in 2000, her 400th win in 2004, her 500th in 2007 and victory number 600 in 2012.  Missouri State leads all schools with 70 wins in the MVC Tournament and Hesse has the second-most MVC Tournament wins with 49.
 
Hesse's 2016 squad finished ranked 13th in the country with a .973 fielding percentage. The Bears went 22-30 and earned a spot in the MVC Tournament in a do-or-die series to end the regular season.  Her team rallied to the challenge and carried the momentum to the MVC Tournament quarterfinals.
 
The Series
Missouri State leads the brief series between the two clubs, 4-3. The Bears and Ramblers split in the initial Valley series between them in 2014 in Chicago, 1-1, before Missouri State swept the LUC in Springfield in 2015, 3-0. Last season Loyola won two games from the Bears in Chicago for its first-ever series win against MSU. Missouri State is 3-0 at Killian Stadium against the Ramblers.
 
Scouting the Opponent: Loyola
Starting the season with a 14-game win streak, Loyola enters this weekend's series with a 17-7 overall record and 0-3 mark in MVC play. The Ramblers have faced several Missouri State opponents this season, including Alabama State, SEMO, Belmont, Jacksonville State and Tennessee State. Snapping its three-game losing streak with a win over Valparaiso, Loyola is 3-7 over its last 10 games.
 
At the plate, Erica Nagel leads the team with 23 hits in her 85 at-bats. The Ramblers are 24-for-31 in stolen bases and combine for a .248 team batting average. Sophomore Katie Kasubke has launched half of Loyola's home runs as the team has only lifted six pitches over the fence.
 
In the circle, Kiley Jones has seen the majority of the workload this season. The sophomore leads the two-man staff with a 1.70 ERA, 67 strikeouts and two saves to go along with her 10-4 record. Following Jones is fellow sophomore pitcher Keenan Dolezal, who is 7-3 with a 3.22 ERA. With 27 strikeouts over 67 innings, the right-hander has surrendered three of the staff's four home runs this season.
 
The Ramblers look to head coach Jeff Tylka, who is in his third year at the helm for the Loyola softball program.
 
Final Details
Adjusted due to weather conditions, Saturday's doubleheader against Loyola is slated for approximately 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. while Sunday's single game is scheduled for 11 a.m. For more information on the Missouri State softball team, visit missouristatebears.com or follow @MSUSoftball on Twitter.