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SB Huddle

MSU Softball Preps for Weekend Showdown at Illinois State

April 09, 2021

By: MSU Athletics Communications
Missouri State Bears (16-14, 7-4 MVC) at Illinois State Redbirds (20-5, 7-1 MVC)
Dates Saturday, April 10 – Sunday April 11, 2021
Site | Location Marian Kneer Softball Stadium | Normal, Ill.
Game 1 Saturday, 12:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3) | MSU Game Notes
Game 2 Saturday, 30 mins. after Game 1 | Live Stats | Watch (ESPN3) | MSU Game Notes
Game 3 Sunday, 11:00 a.m. | Live Stats | MSU Game Notes
Missouri State Softball Home Page | Season Stats | Roster | Twitter | Facebook
Up Next April 17-18 | at Valparaiso | Valparaiso, Ind.

The Prime Nine
  • Missouri State (16-14, 7-4 MVC) gets back into Missouri Valley Conference play with a trip to Normal, Ill. to face Illinois State (20-5, 7-1 MVC) on April 10-11.  The three-game series pits two of the league's top-four teams against each other with both sides boasting seven wins against conference opponents.  MSU is 2-3 in Valley road games while the Redbirds are 3-0 overall when playing at home this year.   
  • Last time on the dirt, MSU dropped its final non-conference game of the season with a 9-1 setback to No. 10 Arkansas on Tuesday, April 6.  Facing the nation's second-best home-run hitting team, the Bears surrendered six homers to the Razorbacks in the contest while Daphne Plummer scored the run for Missouri State after racing home on an RBI groundout from Darian Frost.  It was the first loss this year for MSU against a team that was ranked or receiving votes in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top-25 poll after picking up wins against then-No. 23 ranked Iowa State (March 7) and Southern Illinois (March 24), who was receiving votes at the time.
  • The Bears are in the midst of a grueling 10-game road trip which features visits to three Valley ballparks.  MSU is 3-8 in road games this year which includes dropping games to Bradley (April 2-3) and Arkansas (April 6) on the current road stretch.  After the Illinois State series, Missouri State closes out the road swing with a trip to Valpo for a three-game set on April 17-18 before making a return to Killian Stadium on April 21 to play SIU.
  • The MSU pitching staff ranks third in the MVC with a team ERA of 3.10.  The trio of Steffany Dickerson (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.), Madison Hunsaker (Sr., Peculiar, Mo.) and Gracie Johnston (So., Augusta, Kan.) stand among the top-12 Valley pitchers in ERA with Hunsaker (2.01) at fifth, Johnston (2.56) at ninth and Dickerson (3.28) at 12th.  All three hurlers have contributed to MSU's five shutouts of 2021 which includes a scoreless outing from Dickerson against SIU, the league's top run-producing team, on March 24. 
  • At the plate, Hunsaker leads the team with 16 RBI and five doubles.  She has smacked two home runs, both of which have come in big games as her first dinger of 2021 punctuated MSU's top-25 win against the Cyclones (March 7) and she hit a two-run go-ahead home run to seal the victory versus UNI on March 20.
  • Daphne Plummer (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) paces the MSU lineup with a .333 batting average and a team-high 29 hits, 19 runs scored and 10 stolen bases.  Plummer has reached safely in seven straight games after drawing a leadoff walk that resulted in her coming around to score against Arkansas on Tuesday.  Her 28 starts in 2021 gives the senior shortstop a total of 149 for her four-year career.  She joined Bailey Greenlee (Jr., Snohomish, Wash.) in recording their first career home runs in the game against Kansas City on March 30.
  • Payton Minnis (So., Blue Springs, Mo.) recently returned to the MSU lineup after recovering from an offseason injury.  She has registered a hit in four of her five starts this year including multi-hit performances against Kansas City (March 30) and Bradley (April 3).  Minnis is a career .324 hitter and has started in 54 games – all at second base – in her three years at MSU.
  • Kelly Metter (Sr., Columbia, Ill.) has recorded three multi-RBI games in 2021 to boost her season total to 13 runs driven in. Earlier this year, she tallied the third four-RBI game of her career after plating four runs against TAMU-CC on March 5.
  • Darian Frost (Sr., Lee's Summitt, Mo.) owns a .391 on-base percentage with 15 hits and has drawn 12 walks.  Her four doubles on the season have all come against Valley opponents.
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 career record of 834-814-2 (.506). She began the year ranked 30th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
  • Coach Hesse is 37-51 all-time against Illinois State.
  • 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
  • Illinois State leads the all-time series between the schools, 71-44 including a 30-21 lead in Normal. The Bears carry a five-game winning streak against the Redbirds heading into this weekend's matchup after sweeping the past two season series, one of which came at Marian Kneer Softball Stadium in 2019.
  • The last time the two teams faced each other was in that 2019 series in Normal (April 13, 2019) where Missouri State took both games of the doubleheader only to have the weekend cut short after weather canceled game three.  The Bears took game one, 9-5 with Rachel Weber delivering a grand-slam bomb in the third inning while Kelly Metter added a nail-in-the-coffin two-run homer in the seventh to lead them to victory.  A late-game rally allowed MSU to complete the sweep in game two after scoring all six runs between the fifth and sixth inning.  Madison Hunsaker drove in three runs and Steffany Dickerson pitched five innings of relief to earn the win.
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