Missouri State puts a four-game softball win streak on the line this weekend when the second-place Bears continue Missouri Valley Conference play with three games at Loyola (Saturday and Sunday) and a single game at Southern Illinois (Monday).
 

Missouri State (27-15, 12-4 MVC) at Loyola  and Southern Illinois
Dates	Saturday, April 21 -- at Loyola (12 p.m.) doubleheader Sunday, April 22 - at Loyola (11 a.m.) Monday, April 23 - at Southern Illinois (12 p.m.)
Site | Location	Loyola Softball Park (capacity 500), Chicago, Ill. Charlotte West Stadium (capacity 502), Carbondale, Ill.
Game 1	Saturday, April 21 | Live Stats | ESPN+
Game 2	Saturday, April 21 | Live Stats | ESPN+
Game 3	Sunday, April 22 | Live Stats | ESPN+
Game 4	Monday, April 23 | Live Stats | ESPN3
Missouri State	Game Notes | Media Guide | Softball Home Page | Twitter

 
The Starting Lineup

• Kaitlin Beason (Sr., Webb City, Mo.) smacked her 20th career home run in Wednesday's first game against Southern Illinois at Killian Stadium. She now sits in third place on MSU's career home run list, ranking just behind Jessie Smith (2006-09) with 27 and Erin Duewel (2012-16) with 22.
• Darian Frost (Jr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) was the star in MSU's game two win over SIU on Wednesday when she belted a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to win it 7-4. It was Frost's fifth home run of the season and second walk-off homer of the year. In fact, all five of Frost's home runs in 2018 have been game-winning hits.
• The Bears are 2-0 this season with Madison Jones (Sr., Overland Park, Kan.) hitting in the leadoff spot.
• Erika Velasquez Zimmer (Sr., Coppell, Texas) enters the weekend needing just 5 hits to reach 194 for her career, a milestone that would move her into the top five in program history. Only four MSU players -- Barb Gaines (1990-93), Sarah Madden (1997-00), Kate Madden (1993-96) and Diedre Shores (1995-98) have collected 200 career hits. Zimmer is already MSU's career leader in stolen bases (60).
• Missouri State is 14-3 this season when it hits at least one home run. The Bears' 20 long balls this season has surpassed last year's team total (16) and marks the 13th time the club has reached 20 or more HRs in a season.
• Off to a 12-4 start in Missouri Valley Conference play, MSU is chasing its 13th conference victory for just the eighth time since the 2000 season and first since a 17-9 run in 2015. In the history of the program, the Bears have tallied 14 or more conference wins just four times -- 1992 (14-4), 2005 (16-11), 2006 (18-4) and 2015 (17-9). The Bears have already eclipsed their win total (23) and conference win total (10) from a year ago.
• In 2018, the Bears are 18-3 when they score first and 10-2 when they plate a run in the first inning.
• Freshman Daphne Plummer (Columbia, Ill.) is hitting .358 on the season, which ranks 9th among all MVC players -- and 2nd among all freshmen -- headed into the weekend.
• The Bears enter the weekend ranked 10th nationally and tops in the MVC in triples per game (0.36). MSU's 15 triples on the year includes 3 apiece by Erika Velasquez Zimmer, Madison Jones and Kyana Mason, who share the team lead.
• Head coach Holly Hesse reached her 750th career win on Feb. 9, 2018 with the club's 4-0 win over Mississippi Valley State. Entering the 2018 season, just 37 active Division I coaches had reached 750 career victories.

Head Coach Holly Hesse
Head coach Holly Hesse enters her 30th season leading the Bears' program as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history. Hesse 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 the winningest coach in Missouri State history with a 776-762-2 record. 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 72 wins in the MVC Tournament and Hesse is tied with the most tournament wins at 50. Hesse was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on January 28, 2018.
Hesse is 7-3 all-time against Loyola and 33-51 against Southern Illinois in her career.
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association has recognized her program four times as a NFCA Division I Top 10 All-Academic Team including 1999, 2000, 2016 and 2017. The 2017 Bears ranked second in the nation with a 3.648 team GPA.
    In 2017, the Bears finished with three all-conference selections, including first-team pick Bethany Sullinger, and three MVC Scholar-Athlete selections in Kaitlin Beason, Erika Velasquez-Zimmer and Sullinger. Velasquez Zimmer also represented the Bears on the NFCA All-Region Team. Junior Holly Kelley also stood out, earning a spot on the MVC All-Tournament Team after tossing an opening-round no-hitter against Drake, the first at the Valley Tournament in 27 years. Likewise, senior Mary Stephens earned NFCA National Player of the Week on Feb. 14 after a sensational opening weekend.
    In 2016, the Missouri State University Board of Governors honored coach Hesse with the Staff Excellence in Public Affairs Award in recognition of her distinctive work and accomplishments in support of Missouri State's public affairs mission.  

Series History
Missouri State leads the relatively-young series between the Bears and Ramblers, 7-3. However, the Bears are just 1-3 in Chicago, splitting the series in their first-ever trip to Loyola in 2014 and dropping both games there in 2016.
    Southern Illinois holds a 57-47 all-time series lead over the Bears. The Bears are 13-33 all-time in Carbondale and are just 1-12 there since 2008. The Bears were swept at Carbondale last season -- by scores of 5-0, 10-2 and 3-2 -- and later fell to SIU, 9-3, in the second round of the 2017 MVC Tournament.

Academic Leaders
Missouri State University ranked second among the nation's NCAA Division I softball programs in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's Academic Team rankings for the 2016-17 academic year. The Bears boasted an impressive 3.648 team grade-point average to rank No. 2 among the nation's major programs in the organization's annual academic release. A total of 143 Division I teams accumulated grade-point averages of 3.00 or higher in 2016-17.

Young Guns
Missouri State's great crop of young talent has produced three weekly awards from the Missouri Valley Conference this season with freshmen Daphne Plummer (Feb. 19) and Madison Hunsaker (March 19) earning MVC Newcomer of the Week this spring. Sophomore pitcher Erin Griesbauer has also earned an MVC distinction in 2018 as Valley Pitcher of the Week (March 19).
   Griesbauer also earned MVC Enterprise Bank Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors on March 11.
   Last season, Griesbauer earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors on Feb. 20.

Walk-Off Drama
    Darian Frost's walk-off grand slam in game two of the Bears' April 17 doubleheader sweep of SIU was her second game-ending home run of the 2018 season. She also hit a walk-off solo homer in the ninth inning of MSU's third game against Illinois State on March 17. Her other three homers on the season -- vs. Abilene Christian, at La. Tech, and at Evansville -- were also GW RBI for MSU.