Feb. 23, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ga. -
It's shaping up to be another challenging weekend for the Illinois State softball team as the Redbirds are in Columbus, Ga. to compete in the 11th Annual NFCA Leadoff Classic Feb. 24-26. Twenty of the 24 participants in this year's field competed in the NCAA Tournament last season, including reigning NCAA Champion Michigan and Women's College World Series participants Tennessee and Alabama.
"It's huge for us to face this type of competition," ISU head coach Melinda Fischer said. "We've got to bring the best that we've got right now. I think we're going to see a lot of different styles of play and a lot of different kinds of pitching. We need to be able to use this experience to prepare us for later on in the season. We want to be in a (NCAA) regional; and with that as our goal we need to see what these other teams are doing in order to get there."
The Redbirds (1-6), who are looking to snap a five-game losing streak, last faced this many ranked opponents to open a season in 2003. That year the Redbirds also faced five ranked teams in the first three tournaments.
"Our players have had great attitudes," Fischer said. "Are they disappointed with the way they played last weekend? Absolutely, but we've just got to keep plugging away until we start to do the thing we know we're capable of doing.
"This week in practice we did a lot of breaking down the mechanics with our hitting. And (pitching coach) Bill (Kennedy) was able to address some things individually with the pitchers, but we still haven't been able to practice outside and that's key."
In pool play, the `Birds will face Massachusetts (1-4), No. 24 Louisville (8-0) and No. 12 Northwestern (7-3). How ISU fares in its pool will determine who it faces in bracket play on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday. Ten of the teams in the field are ranked in the NFCA Top 25, including the two teams in Illinois State's pool.
"UMass we haven't played in a while but we do know that they have a pretty good freshman pitcher," Fischer said. "Plus I think they came within a couple strikes of beating Cal in a tournament a couple weeks ago. Northwestern is off to another tremendous start, and I think Louisville is off to its best start in the program's history."
As a respite from the travel, practices and games, the Illinois State softball team took time out to read to the students at Forrest Road Elementary School in Columbus on Thursday afternoon.
"It was a great experience for our team," Fischer said. "We've had some individual players who've been a part of `Just Read!', but we've never been able to do anything like that as a team. For me personally to be able to walk around to the different classrooms and see our players in that type of environment made me so proud. I've never been able to do that. I think our players learned a lot about themselves."
