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Missouri State

SB Huddle

Softball Bears Head to MVC Tournament

May 12, 2021

By: MSU Athletics Communications
Missouri State Bears (25-16) at MVC Tournament
Dates Thursday, May 13 – Saturday, May 15, 2021
MVC Tournament Tournament Central | *Single-elimination bracket
Site | Location Cooper Stadium (650) | Evansville, Ind.
Quarterfinal Thursday, 7:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | MSU Game Notes
Semifinal Friday, 2:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | MSU Game Notes
Championship Saturday, 1:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch (ESPN+) | MSU Game Notes
Missouri State Softball Home Page | Season Stats | Roster | Twitter | Facebook

The Prime Nine
  • Missouri State enters the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed after it finished in the top-3 of the league standings for the second time in the past three conference seasons following a second-place finish in 2018. The Bears will play a quarterfinal game against the winner of No. 6 Bradley and No. 7 Indiana State/No. 10 Valpo on Thursday at 7 p.m. with a chance to advance to the semifinals on Friday (2 p.m.). The single-elimination tournament culminates with the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
  • MSU has won the MVC Tournament 6 times -- 1983, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006 and 2011. The six tourney titles matches Illinois State and Creighton for the most by any school in league history. MSU is 72-48 (.600) all-time in the MVC Tournament, boasting 12 more victories than Illinois State (60) which is second on the list.
  • Second-Team All-MVC Daphne Plummer (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) finished MVC play ranked 2nd in batting (.457) and 3rd in hits (32) against Valley foes. Plummer brings a 16-game MVC hitting streak into the tournament and has reached base safely in her last 18 games overall. She totaled at least 50 hits in a season for the second time in her career after she set the MSU freshman record with 63 in 2018 while coming within one of the 50-hit mark in 2019 (49).
  • The Bears boast the top-hitting MVC team (.298) and rank second in pitching (2.14) in Valley-only games.
  • First-Team All-MVC Olivia Krehbiel (3B, Lee's Summit, Mo.) closed out her sophomore regular-season campaign with an eight-game tear that included a .520 average, 14 RBI and 4 home runs. In league games, she ranked 4th in the MVC in RBI (24), 5th in slugging (.746), 6th in hitting (.418), 6th in home runs (5), 8th in assists (44) and 9th in hits (28).
  • Gracie Johnston (So., Augusta, Kan.) tossed a career-high 8.2 innings in a scoreless relief outing of MSU's 10-inning thriller versus the Purple Aces on May 7. Her 1.31 ERA in MVC games ranks 1st in the league.
  • Second-Team All-MVC Madison Hunsaker (Sr., Peculiar, Mo.) is 9-4 on the season with a 1.87 ERA, which ranks 5th in the Valley and 87th nationally.
  • First-Team All-MVC Darian Frost (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) tallied her 120th career hit in the regular-season finale against Evansville. She has appeared in 194 career games for MSU.
  • With the doubleheader sweep against Evansville closing out its regular season, Missouri State totaled at least 16 conference wins for the fifth time in program history. Missouri State won 7-of-8 MVC series this season, including its last four in a row.
  • Missouri State went 9-3 at Killian Stadium this year which marked the highest winning percentage (.750) at its home ballpark since it first opened in 2009.
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 843-816-2 (.508). She began the year ranked 30th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories.
  • Coach Hesse is 50-38 all-time in MVC Tournament play.
  • 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 37 different first-team all-conference players which have received 53 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.
All-Conference Bears
  • Missouri State's Darian Frost, Madison Hunsaker, Olivia Krehbiel and Daphne Plummer received All-Missouri Valley Conference laurels as the league announced its postseason softball honors on Wednesday (May 12).
  • Frost and Krehbiel earned a spot on the first-team list while Hunsaker and Plummer were selected to the second team. Hunsaker was also named to the MVC All-Defensive Team.
  • It's the second All-MVC first-team recognition for Frost while Plummer was named to the second team for the second time in her career after both collected MVC honors in 2018.
  • Frost started 33 of her 38 games played in 2021 to bring her career total to 194 appearance. Her six doubles against Valley teams ranks fifth in the conference while her 16 RBI is 11th.
  • Krehbiel received her first all-conference nod after hitting .352 in her sophomore campaign while leading the team in RBI (30), extra-base hits (13), walks (24) and assists (72).
  • Plummer paced the Bears in hitting (.403), runs scored (32), hits (50), triples (4) and stolen bases (16). Against MVC opponents, she finished in the top-6 in multiple conference categories, ranking second in hitting (.457), third in hits (32), sixth in runs scored (21), first in triples (3), fifth in stolen bases (7) and fourth in on-base percentage (.524).
  • Hunsaker garnered her first All-MVC honors after she played in all 41 games of the 2021 regular season and started in 40 of them. She earned both MVC Player of the Week (April 19) and Pitcher of the Week (Feb. 22) honors earlier this season.
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