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Softball Bears Start 2020 Campaign at NFCA Leadoff Classic

Softball Bears Start 2020 Campaign at NFCA Leadoff Classic

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Missouri State Bears (0-0) at NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic (Clearwater, Fla.)
Dates Friday, Feb. 7 -- Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020
Site | Location Eddie C. Moore Complex | Clearwater, Fla. | Tickets
Game 1 Friday, 11:00 a.m. (CT) vs. Mississippi State | Live Stats | Video Stream
Game 2 Friday, 4:00 p.m. (CT) vs. #7/8 Minnesota | Live Stats | Video Stream
Game 3 Saturday, 11:30 a.m. (CT) vs. North Carolina State | Live Stats | Video Stream
Game 4 Saturday, 2:00 p.m. (CT) vs. Notre Dame | Live Stats | Video Stream
Game 5 Sunday, 8:00 a.m. (CT) vs. Baylor | Live Stats | Video Stream
Missouri State Softball Home Page | Roster | Twitter | Facebook 
Up Next Feb. 14-15 | North Texas Invitational, Denton, Texas

The Prime Nine
  • Missouri State is coming off back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time in 21 years after going 32-20 in 2018 and 30-21 a year ago. The last time the Bears posted 30 wins in consecutive seasons was a three-year stretch from 1996 (34-22), 1997 (36-26) and 1998 (31-22) when MSU made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The 2019 campaign marked the 10th 30-win season under coach Holly Hesse and the 13th in program history.
  • Bears head coach Holly Hesse (pronounced HESS-ee) enters the 2020 campaign tied for 27th among active Division I coaches in career victories. Hesse is 811-788-2 in her 32nd season at Missouri State. Her coaching staff includes first-base coach Sue Frederick, now in her 30th season in the MSU program, and third-base coach Beth Perine, who is in her 25th year with the Bears.
  • NFCA All-Region and All-MVC first team pitcher Steffany Dickerson (Jr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) led the MSU staff and ranked near the top of the Missouri Valley Conference in nearly every statistical category last year. With a 20-11 ledger and 2.37 ERA in 2019, she became the first MSU player since Natalie Rose (2011) to reach 20 wins and the first Bears sophomore to do so since 1978 (Penny Clayton).
  • Dickerson has received a number of preseason accolades already this season. She was named to the 12-person Preseason All-MVC Team announced on Jan. 29, as one of three pitchers in the Missouri Valley on the elite list of honorees. Dickerson also checked in at No. 104 on the "JWOS Wild 150" preseason rankings of all Division I players.
  • Payton Minnis (So., Blue Springs, Mo.) reached base safely in a team-best 10 straight games to end the 2019 season. She ranked second on the MSU roster in hitting (.344) a year ago with 36 starts at second base.
  • Daphne Plummer (Jr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) hit safely in 35-of-51 games last year and led the squad in RBI (26). After breaking the team record for hits by a freshman in 2018 (63), she finished her sophomore season just one hit shy of 50 in 2019. Plummer collected her 100th career hit on April 3, 2019 against No. 14 Arkansas at Killian Stadium in Springfield.
  • Madison Hunsaker (Jr., Peculiar, Mo.) ranked third on the team last season in hitting (.325), collecting 50 hits and earning 50 starts (45 at first base) her sophomore season. Hunsaker also made 17 appearances in the circle, including one start, striking out 25 batters in 26.0 innings.
  • Missouri State was picked fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason coaches poll, announced Jan. 29. The Bears rank behind defending champion Drake, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois in the 10-team league, and just ahead of fifth-place Illinois State. MSU was 14-11 in the MVC last year to finish fifth and returns all of its pitching, eight position starters and 16 letterwinners.
  • Returning to the Bears this season is redshirt senior catcher Darian Frost (Lee's Summit, Mo.). Frost missed the entire 2019 season after being sidelined with an injury but led the team in RBI (34) in 2018, starting 47 games overall (39 at catcher) while earning All-MVC first-team honors.

Head Coach Holly Hesse
  • Bears head coach Holly Hesse is in her 32nd season leading the Bears' program as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history with a 811-788-2 (.507) record. She begins the 2020 season tied for 27th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
  • Hesse joined the elite 800-win club on March 24, 2019 with the Bears' 3-2 come-from-behind win over Northern Iowa at Killian Stadium to make her the 30th active Division I coach at the time 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. In 2019, Hesse led the Bears to a 4-3 win at No. 16 Auburn.
  • Hesse has coached 36 different first-team all-conference players which have received 51 first-team all-conference honors.  Twenty-three of Hesse's players have gone on to earn NFCA All-Midwest Region honors, including two players -- Kyana Mason and Steffany Dickerson -- in 2019.
  • Recent statewide honors for Hesse include induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Missouri State University 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
  • Mississippi State - Bears lead series 3-2. Last meeting: Bulldogs 5, Bears 0 (2/11/18) Box Score
  • Minnesota - Bears lead series 8-3. Last meeting: Gophers 7, Bears 0 (2/24/19) Box Score
  • North Carolina State - First Meeting
  • Notre Dame - First Meeting
  • Baylor - Missouri State leads sereis 4-1. Last meeting: Missouri State 5, Baylor 4 (3/16/96)
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