Missouri State Softball - Games 37-38
 

Missouri State (21-15, 9-6 MVC) at Wichita State (26-14, 11-4 MVC)
Date	Wednesday, April 19 (DH)
Location	Wichita, Kan.
Site	C. Howard Wilkins Stadium (capacity 1,000)
Time (Central)	Friday 12 p.m. (DH) | Saturday 11 a.m.
Follow Along	Game 1 Live Stats | Game 2 Live Stats | ESPN3
Missouri State	Game Notes | Softball Home Page | Twitter | Facebook | Media Guide
Up Next	MSU at Illinois State | April 22 (DH) & April 23

The Starting Lineup

• Senior Mary Stephens (Sachse, Texas) is just two RBI away from 100 for her career. She would be the fifth MSU player ever to ever reach that milestone and first since Jessie Smith in 2009.
• The Bears remain the only MVC team to rank in the top three in the league in team hitting, pitching and fielding. Entering the week, Missouri State's .295 team batting average ranks third in The Valley (and 75th nationally), while its 2.45 ERA is second (and 53rd nationally). MSU's .967 fielding average is also the second-best in the conference this season (and 64th nationally).
• MSU senior Olivia Roark's next start will be the 100th of her Missouri State career. The right fielder from Ottumwa, Iowa has played in 145 career games with 99 starts and has a .286 career average to go with 43 runs and 81 hits. The 2016 All-MVC performer has also accounted for 107 putouts and 53 assists in her MSU tenure.
• Kaitlin Beason (Webb City, Mo.) is hitting a team-best .357 in the month of April with a .500 slugging percentage, two doubles and a team-high five RBI. In the circle, Beason is 3-2 in April with a 1.80 ERA in six starts and 35.0 innings of work. She ranks 14th nationally with seven shutouts and is fourth in the league with a 1.96 ERA.
• The Bears' top career hitters against the Shockers are: Madison Jones .500 (4/8, 2BB); Mary Stephens .345 (10/29, 2B, 2HR, 6 RBI); Erika Velasquez Zimmer .304 (7/23, 4 2B); and Darian Frost .286 (2/7, 2B).
• When leading off an inning, Erika Velasquez Zimmer (Coppell, Texas) has an on-base percentage of .483 (29-for-60). As a team, the Bears are getting on board 44.9 percent of the time to start an inning, while their opponents are reaching just 32.2 percent of leadoff at-bats.
• At 21-15 and 9-6 in the MVC, the Bears are just one win away from matching their overall and conference win totals for the entire 2016 season. MSU was 22-30 overall a year ago and 10-14 in Valley games. Missouri State enters the final three weeks of the current campaign with 13 games remaining on the regular-season slate.
• MSU head coach Holly Hesse is just three wins shy of reaching 750 for her career. Starting the 2017 season, only 33 active Division I coaches had reached 750 career victories. Hesse is in her 29th season as MSU head coach.
• Elena Gambill (Broken Arrow, Okla.) has reached base safely in five straight games for the Bears, while Erika Velasquez Zimmer (Coppell, Texas) has hit safely in four straight games. Velasquez Zimmer matched a career-best with her 13-game hitting streak earlier this season -- the club's second longest streak in the last 12 seasons.
• The Bears are 19-3 this season when out-hitting their opponent. Likewise, the Bears are 18-6 when scoring first.

 
Head Coach Holly Hesse
   Holly Hesse (Creighton, 1982) is 747-736-2 (.504) in her 29th season as head coach at Missouri State and overall. She is 43-48 all-time against Wichita State.
   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 as part of a doubleheader sweep in Normal.
   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 started the 2017 campaign ranked 36th among all active NCAA Division I coaches with 726 career victories.
   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 is 58-50 all-time against the Shockers, including a 17-26 mark in Wichita and 43-48 mark under head coach Holly Hesse. WSU has won five straight in the rivalry, which dates back to 1976.
   Last season, Wichita State swept the Bears after winning two in Springfield and one in Wichita. In the most-recent matchup, then-junior Elena Gambill blasted a sixth-inning grand slam to give the Bears a lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, but the Shockers came back to score two in the bottom of the frame, clinching the game by a score of 5-4.
 
Scouting the Opponent
   Sitting in second place in the MVC, Wichita State enters Wednesday's doubleheader with a 26-14 overall record. The Shockers lead the Missouri Valley Conference and rank 19th nationally with a team batting average of .319. Wichita State also carries a league-leading 37 homers, 224 runs and 346 hits. Six Shockers – led by senior Kelli Spring – carry a .303 batting average or better. Spring leads the squad with a .387 average while Paige Luellen has tallied eight home runs on the season.
   In the circle, the WSU staff combines for a 2.62 ERA led by senior Katie Malone (22-8) who has racked up 132 strikeouts -- second in the MVC -- while her 22 victories ranks third nationally. WSU is under the direction of sixth-year head coach Kristi Bredbenner.