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Missouri State

Steffany Dickerson

Softball MSU Athletics Communications

Bears Prepare for High Stakes Softball Series Against Aces

Missouri State Bears (26-14, 11-5 MVC) vs. Evansville Purple Aces (13-25, 3-12 MVC)
Dates Friday, April 19 & Saturday, April 20, 2019
Site | Location Killian Stadium (1,200), Springfield, Mo.
Game 1 Friday, 12:02 p.m. | ESPN3 | Live Stats | MSU Game Notes
Game 2 Friday, (approx.) 2:30 p.m. | ESPN3 | Live Stats | MSU Game Notes
Game 3 Saturday, 11:02 a.m. | ESPN3 | Live Stats | MSU Game Notes
Missouri State Softball Home Page | Twitter | Facebook | MSU Media Guide

The Prime Nine
  • Missouri State returns to Killian Stadium this weekend for a three-game series against Missouri Valley Conference rival Evansville. The Bears are 7-3 at home this season and have won six of their last seven, sitting a half game behind Southern Illinois for second place in the MVC standings. The Aces are 3-8 on the road this spring and come to town having lost 9-of-10 games -- and 12-of-15 dating back to March 12.
  • Bears' ace Steffany Dickerson (So., Oklahoma City, Okla.) picked up three wins and a save in four appearances last week to improve to 17-6 overall this season and 9-2 in MVC games. Dickerson became the first MSU pitcher since 2012 (Natalie Rose) to win 17 games in a season and is closing in on becoming MSU's first 20-game winner since Rose won 22 games in 2011.
  • Dickerson enters the weekend 10 strikeouts away from 200 for her career and one win away from 25 career. Among players with at least 30.0 innings pitched in MVC games, she ranks second in ERA (2.05) against Valley foes.
  • MSU has a microscopic 1.00 ERA at home this season, giving up just 10 earned runs in 70.0 innings with 43 strikeouts. Loyola (March 17) is the only team to tally 3 earned runs against the Bears at Killian Stadium this year.
  • Senior Kyana Mason (Independence, Mo.) has reached base safely in 14 consecutive games (the team's second-longest streak this season) with a team-best, 6-game hitting streak. The talented third baseman collected four hits in last Saturday's doubleheader sweep at Illinois State and racked up eight total bases last week. Her .408 season batting average ranks fourth in the league, while she continues to lead all Valley players in total hits 53.
  • In her last 6 starts, right-hander Erin Griesbauer (Jr., Blue Springs, Mo.) is 4-2 with a 0.97 ERA in 29.0 innings with 14 strikeouts. She has a 0.82 ERA at home this season (17.0 IP) and is 2-0 in her career against Evansville with 0.62 ERA (11.1 IP).
  • MSU's 2.22 ERA in league games is second in the MVC, while the Bears are also second in the Valley in opponent batting average (.226), strikeouts (78) and wins (11). The Bears' 2.56 season ERA ranks 52nd nationally.
  • Over the last 7 games, Madison Hunsaker (So., Peculiar, Mo.) is batting a team-best .400 (8-for-20) with 4 RBI and a .480 on-base percentage. The Bears are 6-1 in that stretch.
  • Kyana Mason (Sr., Independence, Mo.) leads all Missouri State players with a .457 average (16-for-35) at Killian Stadium this season with 19 total bases and a .543 slugging percentage. Mason's season total of 53 hits lead all MVC players and is just 11 shy of cracking the program's all-time top five for hits in a season.
  • In last year's MSU series sweep at Evansville, Daphne Plummer (So., Lee's Summit, Mo.) was 6-for-12 (.500) against the Purple Aces with a double, a triple and 4 RBI with a .538 on-base percentage.
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 807-781-2 (.508) record. She began the 2019 season ranked 32nd among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
  • Coach Hesse is 46-26 all-time against Evansville.
  • Hesse joined the elite 800-win club on Sunday, March 24 with the Bears' 3-2 come-from-behind win over Northern Iowa at Killian Stadium to make her the 30th active Division I coach with 800 wins at the time. Hesse 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., after earning her 700th victory 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, 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. Earlier this season, Hesse led the Bears to a 4-3 win at No. 16 Auburn.
  • 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, including two players -- Kaitlin Beason and Holly Kelley -- in 2018.
  • 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 MSU Board of Governors for distinctive work and accomplishments in support of Missouri State's public affairs mission. 
 
Series History
  • Missouri State leads the all-time series against Evansville, 46-26, in a rivalry that dates back to 1994. MSU is 21-10 in Springfield against the Purple Aces and 9-4 at Killian Stadium vs. UE.
  • The Bears have won 10 of the last 12 games and four of the last five season series against UE. Last season in Evansville, the Bears swept the three-game series (April 6-7) ... In game one, MSU got a complete-game effort from Erin Griesbauer and a pair of extra-inning homers by Darian Frost and Kelly Metter to win the series opener, 4-1, in nine innings. Griesbauer allowed just one run and surrendered just four singles to keep the home club in check ... In game two, a furious four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh by Evansville tied the game, but the Bears capitalized on UE's sixth error of the game to plate the winning run by Madison Hunsaker in the eighth inning in a 7-6 victory ... In game three, Kaitlin Beason tied the game in the seventh with a solo homer to center, and Madison Jones' RBI single to center scored the winning run to secure the sweep, 4-3.
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Players Mentioned

Kaitlin Beason

#10 Kaitlin Beason

P/1B
5' 8"
Senior
Madison Jones

#1 Madison Jones

2B
5' 8"
Senior
Holly Kelley

#9 Holly Kelley

P
5' 9"
Senior
Steffany Dickerson

#13 Steffany Dickerson

P
5' 8"
Sophomore
Darian Frost

#33 Darian Frost

C
5' 10"
Senior
Erin Griesbauer

#20 Erin Griesbauer

P
5' 9"
Junior
Madison Hunsaker

#15 Madison Hunsaker

P/1B
5' 8"
Sophomore
Kyana Mason

#2 Kyana Mason

3B
5' 4"
Senior
Kelly Metter

#22 Kelly Metter

2B
5' 9"
Sophomore
Daphne Plummer

#14 Daphne Plummer

SS
5' 7"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Kaitlin Beason

#10 Kaitlin Beason

5' 8"
Senior
P/1B
Madison Jones

#1 Madison Jones

5' 8"
Senior
2B
Holly Kelley

#9 Holly Kelley

5' 9"
Senior
P
Steffany Dickerson

#13 Steffany Dickerson

5' 8"
Sophomore
P
Darian Frost

#33 Darian Frost

5' 10"
Senior
C
Erin Griesbauer

#20 Erin Griesbauer

5' 9"
Junior
P
Madison Hunsaker

#15 Madison Hunsaker

5' 8"
Sophomore
P/1B
Kyana Mason

#2 Kyana Mason

5' 4"
Senior
3B
Kelly Metter

#22 Kelly Metter

5' 9"
Sophomore
2B
Daphne Plummer

#14 Daphne Plummer

5' 7"
Sophomore
SS

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