UIC Up Next for Softball Bears on Legacy Weekend

Friday, April 14

Springfield, Mo.

5:00 p.m.

Missouri State University

UIC

UIC Up Next for Softball Bears on Legacy Weekend

April 13, 2023 | Softball

Game Notes (PDF)Watch (Game 1)Watch (Game 2)Watch (Game 3)Live Stats

Missouri State Bears (21-16, 11-3 MVC) vs. UIC Flames (1-35, 0-13 MVC)
Schedule	Game 1 - Friday, April 14 \| 5 p.m. CT Game 2 - Saturday, April 15 \| 12 p.m. CT Game 3 - Sunday, April 16 \| 12 p.m. CT
Location & Site	Killian Stadium \| Springfield, Mo.
Promotions	Saturday - Barb Gaines Porter & Sue Frederick Recognitions \| Pick a Prize Raffle Sunday - Bark in the Park
Watch	Friday - ESPN+ (Mike McClure, Chelsea Turner) \| Watch Saturday - ESPN3 (Mike McClure, Chelsea Turner) \| Watch Sunday - ESPN+ (Tom Ladd, Chelsea Turner) \| Watch
Live Stats	Live Stats
Missouri State	Game Notes (PDF) \| Softball Home Page \| Media Guide (PDF)
UIC	Softball Home Page
Bears Mobile App	App Store (Apple Devices) \| Google Play Store (Android Devices)
Up Next	Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 vs. Belmont \| Springfield, Mo.

The Starting Lineup - Storylines for the UIC Series

This weekend against UIC, Missouri State Softball will be hosting Legacy Weekend. As a part of the weekend, the Bears will honor 2023 Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame inductee, Barb Gaines Porter, as well as longtime associate head coach Sue Frederick on Saturday.
Missouri State is coming off a 3-2 midweek victory over Kansas City, which marked the first of eight consecutive games at home to close the 2023 home slate for the Bears.
MSU is off to an 11-3 start in MVC play and sits in second in the conference standings. The Bears enter the weekend with a 13-1 record in their last 14 games. Over that span, MSU is outscoring its opponents, 80-22, and owns a .973 fielding percentage. The Bears have nearly doubled their opponents in walks with a 59-30 advantage over the last 14 games.
The Bears also head into the weekend with a perfect 8-0 record at home. In those eight matchups, MSU is outscoring its opponents, 39-7, and have allowed 0 home runs and just 6 extra-base hits.The Bear pitching staff owns a 0.76 ERA at home this season with 42 strikeouts.
Missouri State is 19-2 this season when scoring three or more runs and the Bears improve to 7-0 when scoring six or more runs. MSU is also 19-1 on the season when holding opponents to fewer than three runs.
McKenzie Vaughan (So., Bella Vista, Ark.) and Olivia Krehbiel (Sr., Lee's Summit, Mo.) are leading the way offensively for MSU this season, both owning batting averages of .300 or better. Krehbiel leads the team in multiple categories including: average (.301), hits (31), doubles (10), triples (3) and walks (18). Meanwhile, Vaughan leads MSU with 7 home runs, a .683 slugging percentage and a .476 on-base percentage. In MVC games, Vaughan's average jumps to a team-leading .423 (11-for-26) and her SLG% rises to .923 with 4 home runs and 12 RBI.
Gracie Johnston (Sr., Augusta, Kan.) and Mackenzie Chacon (So., Oologah, Okla.) are MSU's top arms in the circle this season. Chacon owns a season ERA of 1.72, which ranks fourth in the MVC, in 53 innings of work, while Johnston has a 2.95 ERA in 80.2 innings pitched. In Valley play, Chacon's 0.88 ERA ranks third in the league, while Johnston's 1.71 conference ERA ranks ninth. Johnston has yet to allow a run at home this season (24.1 IP). Vaughan will also appear in the circle for the Bears, as she leads the staff with 55 strikeouts on the season.
The Bears continue to show off their speed as they rank 25th nationally and first in the MVC with 75 stolen bases, which is the most stolen bases by the Bears since 2006 (85). MSU is led by freshman Abby Ford who owns a league-leading 20 stolen bases. Her 20 swipes also rank 37th nationally. Ellie McCoy is second on the team and tied for 3rd in the Valley as she is 14-for-14 in stolen base attempts this season.
Head coach Holly Hesse is in her 35th season at the helm of the Bears program and she is just 7 wins shy of 900 career victories. She ranks second in the MVC in overall career victories with 893 and second in MVC career victories with 390 league wins. Hesse entered the season ranked 17th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories and is currently 893-853-2.
The Bears currently sit at No. 78 in the RPI, while owning four wins over teams in the Top 100 of the RPI.

Series History
Missouri State and UIC are tied 1-1 in series history with both games coming at a neutral site location. The teams first met on April 30, 1983 with MSU falling 1-5. In the two teams' last meeting, MSU defeated UIC 3-0 on April 5, 1986.