Senior Emily Krueger was named Missouri Valley Conference Softball Player of the Week for her efforts last week in a doubleheader against Illinois and in the Southern Illinois Saluki Round Robin.
Krueger, a Pleasant Plains, Ill., native, batted .556 for the week with 10 hits, including a double, a triple and four home runs and nine RBI. She is Illinois States leading hitter this season and has already tied the number of home runs and RBI that she had all last season. Krueger, who is in her second year at ISU after transferring from Lincoln Land Community College, leads the Birds in most offensive categories. After playing in all but one game this season, she leads the Redbirds in batting average (.441), hits (26), home runs (6), RBI (16), total bases (50) and slugging percentage (.847).
Emily (Krueger) is very deserving of this honor, head coach
Melinda Fischer said. In terms of timely hitting, clutch hitting, hitting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, shes had two really great weeks of softball. We hope she keeps building on the success shes had so far this season.
In game one of a doubleheader against Illinois, Krueger led both teams with three hits in four at bats. She got the first hit of the game in the top of the first with a single to right center. In her next at bat, she crushed a two-run homer over the left field fence to put ISU up 2-1. The lefty hit a homer to the other side in her next at bat in the fifth inning, also a two-run bomb. Krueger had four RBI in the game.
Last weekend In three games at the Saluki Round Robin, Krueger batted .636, going seven for 11 with three runs, a single, a triple and two home runs. Against Tennessee Tech in the opener, she was 1-for-2 with a triple, a run batted in and two walks. Krueger also homered in her first at bat against DePaul. In that game she was also 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.
Krueger kept Illinois State in the game against Kansas. She was one of just two Redbirds to hit safely and managed three hits in five at bats. Krueger was clutch in the bottom of the seventh inning when she hit a solo homer to knot the score at one and send the game to extra innings. She tied the score again in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff double to score the runner that was on second due to the tie-breaker rule. Krueger singled to left center in the bottom of the 11th to put a runner on with one out, but the Birds couldnt put together a series to push the run across the plate.
In other softball news, sophomore utility player Tricia Gaither is out for the season indefinitely due to injury. Gaither received oblique fractures to the fourth and fifth proximal phalanges in the right hand as a result of a play at the plate in game one of the Illinois doubleheader last week. Gaither, who split time this season between third base and catcher, had surgery on the two broken fingers on Saturday.
The loss of Tricia (Gaither) is big for our program, Fischer said. At this point in the season, to lose someone whos been a starter the whole time shes been here is huge. Well really miss her versatility because she can play any position. Other players will have to step up and produce to fill the void left by her absence.
