Softball Bears Kick Off Season at Gulf Shores

Friday, February 8

Gulf Shores, Ala.

11:00 a.m.

Missouri State University

Western Kentucky

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Softball Bears Kick Off Season at Gulf Shores

February 07, 2019 | Softball

Tournament Central

By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State at Sand Dollar Classic, Gulf Shores, Ala.
Dates	Friday-Sunday, February 8-10, 2019
Site \| Location	Gulf Shores Sportsplex, Gulf Shores, Ala. \| Tourney Central
Game 1	Friday (11 a.m.) \| vs. Western Kentucky \| Live Stats
Game 2	Friday (5 p.m.) \| vs. South Alabama \| Live Stats
Game 3	Saturday (2:00 p.m.) \| vs. Auburn \| Live Stats
Game 4	Saturday (5:00 p.m.) \| vs. Florida A&M \| Live Stats
Game 5	Sunday (10:00 a.m.) \| vs. Louisiana Tech \| Live Stats
Missouri State	Softball Home Page \| Twitter \| Facebook \| Season Preview Video

The Prime Nine

Daphne Plummer (So., Lee's Summit, Mo.) led the Bears and finished third in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2018 with a .382 batting average. Her season hit total (63) and average were both Missouri State freshman records. She was an All-MVC second-team selection a year ago.
Returning All-MVC first-team catcher Darian Frost (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) will miss the season after undergoing off-season surgery. She will use the 2019 campaign as her redshirt year. She batted .308 with a team-best 34 RBI last year.
In October, nine Missouri State softball players were honored by the NFCA as All-American Scholar-Athletes, including returnees Erin Griesbauer, Hannah Heinrichs and Carolyn Stock. It was Heinrichs' third appearance on the elite academic team and second for Griesbauer.
Holly Hesse begins her 31st season as head coach of the Bears. She has a career record of 781-767-2 (.505) entering the 2019 season. Her career win total ranks 32nd among all active NCAA Division I coaches.
The Bears return their top three pitchers from a year ago, in terms of ERA. In 2018, Erin Griesbauer (Jr., Blue Springs, Mo.) was 8-4 in 13 starts with a team-best 2.41 ERA. Sophomores Madison Hunsaker (Peculiar, Mo.) and Steffany Dickerson (Oklahoma City, Okla.) compiled ERAs of 2.50 and 2.74, respectively. Hunsaker was 5-1 as a freshman, while Dickerson was 7-6 with 80 strikeouts.
MSU ranked 37th nationally last season in double plays per game (0.42) after spinning 22 twin killings. The team's .970 fielding percentage also ranked 39th nationally.
Madison Hunsaker (So., Peculiar, Mo.) belted three home runs and drove in 17 runs as a freshman in 2018, while classmate Kelly Metter (So., Columbia, Ill.) matched Hunsaker's home run total and drove in 16 runs. The young guns combined to start 66 games last season with Hunsaker earning MVC Newcomer of the Week on March 19.
Missouri State was 25-3 last season when out-hitting its opposition. The Bears finished 32-20 overall and were the MVC regular-season runners-up with a 17-8 league ledger. It was the second-most wins by a Bears' team in 20 seasons.
The Bears continued to rank as one of the nation's best academic teams a year ago, finishing the season with a 3.51 GPA, which ranked MSU as the 26th-best in the Division I ranks. Missouri State boasted the nation's second-best team ERA in 2017 with a 3.648 ERA.

Head Coach Holly Hesse

Bears head coach Holly Hesse is in her 31st season leading the Bears' program as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history with a 781-767-2. She begins the 2019 season ranked 32nd among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
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 then picked up her 750th win on Feb. 9, 2018 with a 4-0 win over Mississippi Valley State at the Bulldog Kickoff Classic in Starkville, Miss.
She is the winningest coach in Missouri State history, and her tenure includes two regular-season MVC titles, five MVC tournament crowns and five NCAA Tournament appearances.
The most notable program wins under Hesse have come against Michigan (1996), Alabama (2006) and Oklahoma (1995, 1998, 1999, 2008) all of which have gone on to win NCAA DI National Championships.
Hesse has coached 34 different first-team all-conference players which have received 49 first-team all-conference honors. Twenty-one of Hesse's players have gone on to earn NFCA All-Midwest Region honors.
Recent statewide honors for Hesse include induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Staff Excellence in Public Affairs Award, presented to her in 2016 by the Missouri State University Board of Governors for distinctive work and accomplishments in support of Missouri States public affairs mission.

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