Softball Bears Set For 2021 Debut at Mississippi State

Sunday, February 21

Starkville, Miss.

9:00 a.m.

Missouri State University

Stephen F. Austin

Softball Bears Set For 2021 Debut at Mississippi State

February 19, 2021 | Softball

By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State Bears (0-0) at Alex Wilcox Memorial Tournament (Starkville, Miss.)
Dates	Sunday, Feb. 21 – Monday, Feb. 22, 2021
Site \| Location	Nusz Park \| Starkville, Miss.
Game 1	Sunday, 9:00 a.m. vs. Stephen F. Austin \| Live Stats
Game 2	Sunday, 11:30 a.m. vs. Mississippi Valley State \| Live Stats
Game 3	Monday, 9:00 a.m. vs. Stephen F. Austin \| Live Stats
Game 4	Monday, 2:00 p.m. vs. #22 Mississippi St. \| Live Stats \| Watch (SEC Network+)
Missouri State	MSU Game Notes \| Softball Home Page \| Roster \| Twitter \| Facebook
Up Next	Feb. 26-28 \| Michelle Short Memorial Tournament \| Conway, Ark.

The Prime Nine

Missouri State went 7-12 in a shortened 2020 season that was canceled prior to the beginning of Missouri Valley Conference play. The Bears faced a fierce non-conference gauntlet with eight of their 15 foes appearing or receiving votes in the national top-25 poll. MSU held five of those teams to two earned runs or fewer, including a 3-0 shutout victory over Baylor (Feb. 9).
MSU recorded shutouts in five of its seven victories last season, outscoring opponents 35-3 in its winning contests. The Bears' shutout total ranked second in the MVC behind Loyola (6) and included blanking opponents in back-to-back games (March 1 & 6), a feat that hadn't been done since March 4-5, 2018
Missouri State head coach Holly Hesse (pronounced HESS-ee) enters her 33rd season at the helm for the Bears and boasts a career record of 818-800-2 (.506). She begins the year ranked 30th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories. As the winningest coach in program history, she has led the Bears to two regular-season MVC titles, five MVC Tournament crowns and five NCAA tournament appearances.
Steffany Dickerson (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) led Missouri Valley Conference pitchers with a 1.43 ERA which also ranked 50th nationally. She also finished fifth in the Valley in innings pitched (53.2) and seventh in strikeouts (47). Dickerson registered four complete games in her nine starts which included shutout performances against Baylor (Feb. 9) and California Baptist (Feb. 28). She allowed just one hit in a complete game start at Ole Miss (Feb. 29) to pad a career ledger that already features a no-hitter (April 9, 2019) and a two-hitter (March 24, 2019).
In her debut season for MSU, Tess Weakly (So., Elsberry, Mo.) led the team with a .333 batting average, 16 hits and three home runs. She finished 16th in the MVC in hitting (.333) -- shared for the best average among all Valley freshmen -- and tied for 6th in the MVC in double plays (4). She reached base in 11 straight games (Feb. 14 – March 6) and carried a team-best .448 on-base percentage.
Olivia Krehbiel (So., Lee's Summit, Mo.) ranked ninth in the MVC with her team-leading nine doubles. The sophomore slugger was hitting her stride before the season shut down, batting .375 (6-16) with four doubles and slugging .625 in the final six games. In the field, she recorded 41 assists to rank fifth-best in the league.
Kelly Metter (Sr., Columbia, Ill.) finished the season as the team leader in RBI (10) and hit .273 with three doubles and a home run. She notched her second career 4-RBI game in a win against Murray State (March 6) where she was a perfect 4-for-4 at the dish.
After making nine relief appearances – to go along with her three starts – in 2020, Madison Hunsaker (Sr., Peculiar, Mo.) held opposing hitters to a .222 batting average and struck out 29. She ranked second in the MVC in both games finished (7) and relief appearances (9).
Daphne Plummer (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) started all 19 games at shortstop in 2020 to bring her three-year total to 121 and extend her streak to 76 consecutive starts. Her seven runs and 16 hits tied for team best while anchoring the leadoff spot last season. She broke the team freshman hits record in 2018 (63) and finished her sophomore season one hit shy of 50.

Head Coach Holly Hesse

Bears head coach Holly Hesse enters her 33rd season leading the Bears' program as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history with a career record of 818-800-2 (.506). She begins the year ranked 30th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
Coach Hesse is 3-1 vs. Stephen F. Austin, 1-0 vs. Miss. Valley State and 0-2 vs. Miss. State in her career.
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 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

Stephen F. Austin – Bears lead series 6-1. Last meeting: Bears 2, SFA 0 (2/18/17)
Mississippi Valley State – Bears lead series 1-0. Last meeting: Bears 4, MVSU 0 (2/9/18)
Mississippi State – Series is tied 3-3. Last meeting: Bulldogs 5, Bears 0 (2/7/20)

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