Bears Head to Oklahoma for Mizuno Softball Classic

Friday, March 6

Stillwater, Okla.

12:00 p.m.

Missouri State University

Murray State

Bears Head to Oklahoma for Mizuno Softball Classic

March 04, 2020 | Softball

By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State Bears (6-8) at Mizuno Classic (Stillwater, Okla. & Norman, Okla.)
Dates	Friday, March 6 -- Sunday, March 8, 2020
Site \| Location	Cowgirl Stadium (750) \| Stillwater, Okla. Marita Hynes Field (1,378) \| Norman, Okla.
Game 1	Friday, 12:00 p.m. (CT) vs. Murray State (11-6) \| Live Stats
Game 2	Friday, 2:30 p.m. (CT) at #11 Oklahoma State (13-5) \| Live Stats
Game 3	Saturday, 12:00 p.m. (CT) vs. Murray State \| Live Stats
Game 4	Saturday, 5:00 p.m. at #6 Oklahoma (15-4) \| Live Stats
Game 5	Sunday, 12:30 p.m. at #11 Oklahoma State \| Live Stats \| ESPN+
Missouri State	Softball Home Page \| Roster \| Twitter \| Facebook
Up Next	Bears host Southern Illinois (DH) on Wednesday, March 11 at 1:00 p.m.

The Prime Nine

Missouri State plays its fourth and final pre-conference tournament this weekend when the Bears travel to Oklahoma for five games at two different sites. The Bears will play Murray State and Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Friday and Sunday in the Mizuno Classic with games against Oklahoma and Murray State slated for Saturday in Norman.
Tess Weakly (Fr., Elsberry, Mo.) has reached base safely 10 straight games. In that span, she is 14-for-28 (.500) at the plate, with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 walks and a .611 on-base percentage. For the season, Weakly has a remarkable .568 on-base percentage, which leads the MVC and ranks 26th nationally.
MSU's roster boasts 5 players from Oklahoma -- Kathryn Taylor (Fr., Bixby), Hannah Heinrichs (Sr., Broken Arrow), Abi LaValley (So., Ada), Jacie Taber (Fr., Sand Springs) and Steffany Dickerson (Jr., Oklahoma City).
As a team, Missouri State leads the Missouri Valley and ranks 66th nationally with a 2.56 ERA. Steffany Dickerson (Jr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) leads the MSU staff with a 0.88 ERA which is 24th nationally and tops in the MVC. Her ERA is also fifth-best among all Division I pitchers with 40.0 or more innings this season.
The MSU offense has utilized quick starts to set the tone, outscoring opponents 10-0 in the first inning this season and scoring first in 9-of-14 games. The Bears are 6-3 when scoring first this season after going 21-3 last year when putting the first run on the scoreboard.
Over the last two seasons, the Bears are 18-4 when providing run support of 2 runs or more in Steffany Dickerson's starts. Likewise, MSU is 16-4 in that span when getting at least 3 runs of support for the junior right-hander.
Missouri State head coach Holly Hesse is in her 32nd season as head coach of the Bears. She has a career record of 817-796-2 (.507). She began the 2020 season tied for 27th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
MSU has faced 6 teams this season that have been ranked or have received votes in the national polls. The Bears have held four of those teams to 2 runs or less, including 1-0 losses to Minnesota and Ole Miss.
Olivia Krehbiel (RFr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) has reached safely in 9 straight games. The transfer from Central Missouri is hitting .297 on the season and is tied for second on the squad with 5 RBI.
MSU's 1-4 hitters went a combined 24-for-60 (.400) at last weekend's Ole Miss Classic with 5 doubles.
The Bears rank 2nd in the MVC and 63rd nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio. MSU has 71 strikeouts and just 27 walks for a 2.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season.
Payton Minnis (So., Blue Springs, Mo.) has hit safely in 4 straight games, matching Krehbiel for the team's longest active streak.

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 817-796-2 record. She began the 2020 season tied for 27th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
Coach Hesse is 0-1 vs. Murray State, 4-24 all-time against Oklahoma State, and 4-15 vs. Oklahoma.
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

Murray State - Murray State leads series 1-0 | Last Meeting: Murray 1, MSU 0 (9 inn.) (2/20/16) | Recap
Oklahoma State - OSU leads series 30-8 | Last Meeting: OSU 3, MSU 0 (4/11/18) | Box Score
Oklahoma - OU leads series 19-9 | Last Meeting: OU 9, MSU 0 (5 inn.) (3/3/18) | Box Score

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