Bears Take on Sycamores in Key MVC Softball Series

Saturday, May 1

Terre Haute, Ind.

11:00 a.m.

Missouri State University

Indiana State

Bears Take on Sycamores in Key MVC Softball Series

April 29, 2021 | Softball

Game Notes Live Stats

By: MSU Athletics Communications

Missouri State Bears (21-15, 12-5 MVC) vs. Indiana State (17-24, 10-12 MVC)
Dates	Saturday, May 1 – Sunday, May 2, 2021
Site \| Location	Price Field \| Terre Haute, Ind..
Game 1	Saturday, 11:00 a.m. (CT) \| Live Stats \| MSU Game Notes
Game 2	Saturday, 2:00 p.m. (CT) \| Live Stats \| MSU Game Notes
Game 3	Sunday, 10:00 a.m. (CT) \| Live Stats \| MSU Game Notes
Missouri State	Softball Home Page \| Season Stats \| Roster \| Twitter \| Facebook
Up Next	May 7-8 \| vs. Evansville \| Springfield, Mo.

The Prime Nine

With just two weekends remaining in the conference season, the Missouri State softball Bears take to the road this weekend for a key three-game set at Indiana State. MSU has won its last two Valley series and finds itself just percentage points behind second-place UNI in the conference standings with 6 games remaining.
Leading a cast of Bears swinging a hot bat is sophomore Olivia Krehbiel (3B, Lee's Summit, Mo.) who batted .600 (6-for-10) and slugged 1.100 with 2 doubles, 2 stolen bases, and a home run to help lead Missouri State to a series win over visiting Loyola last weekend.
The Bears are 18-5 (.783) this season when scoring 3 or more runs. Over the last three seasons, coach Holly Hesse's squad is 51-13 (.797) when plating three or more runs.
Krehbiel and Tess Weakly (So., Elsberry, Mo.) each homered in the bottom of the fourth of last Saturday's game versus Loyola. It marked the fourth time this season the Bears have hit multiple home runs in an inning after previously doing so in games against Texas A&M CC (March 5), Drake (March 27) and Valpo (April 18).
Bears right-hander Steffany Dickerson (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) is 3 appearances away from 100 in her career. Dickerson holds a 40-30 career record in 63 career starts with 2.47 ERA
Krehbiel is 6th in the MVC in hitting (.404) against conference foes, while Daphne Plummer (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) is hitting .392, which ranks 8th. The Bears infield tandem also ranks 7th (.500) and 11th (.484), respectively, in on-base percentage.
Plummer brings a team-high 6-game hitting streak into the weekend, while she has reached base in 13 straight contests. Her .333 career batting average (155 games) ranks 5th all-time in program history.
In MVC games, Gracie Johnston (So., Augusta, Kan.) has a 1.33 ERA, while Madison Hunsaker (Sr., Peculiar, Mo.) has a 1.50 ERA vs. Valley opponents. The tandem rank 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the MVC in conference-game ERA, while Valley foes are hitting just .153 against Johnston, which leads all MVC players.
Johnston's 4.79 hits allowed per 7 innings ranks 2nd in the MVC and 59th nationally.
MSU enters the weekend ranked 2nd in the MVC in both hitting (.292) and ERA (2.06) in Missouri Valley Conference games. In all games, MSU's 2.71 ERA ranks 61st nationally among all DI teams.
In 17 conference games, the Bears have allowed just 7 stolen bases, by far the best in the league.
The Bears are 16-4 this season when scoring first and have out-scored their opposition by a 29-14 margin in the first inning.
Plummer is just 5 at-bats from 500 for her career (155 games).

Head Coach Holly Hesse

Bears head coach Holly Hesse is in her 33rd season leading the Bears' program as the second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history with a 839-815-2 record. She begins the 2021 season ranked for 30th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
Coach Hesse is 58-24 all-time against Indiana State.
Hesse joined the 800-win club on a thrilling walk-off win over UNI on March 24, 2019. The Bears also relished their second straight 30-win campaign in 2019, the first time MSU has achieved that feat since three straight MVC titles from 1996-98.
She is the winningest coach in Missouri State history and second-winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference history. Her tenure includes two regular-season MVC titles, five MVC tournament crowns and five NCAA Tournament appearances.
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 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 Indiana State, 66-28, including a 27-13 ledger in games played in Terre Haute.
The Bears and Sycamores did not play in 2020 due to the COVID shutdown, but the squads split the series in 2019, two games apiece, including a high-scoring 10-8 ISU win the the MVC Tournament in Peoria.
Missouri State swept the 2018 series in Springfield, 3-0, and has won five of the last seven meetings overall.

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