May 7, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Riding high off the weekend sweep of Missouri State and locking up the No. 2 seed for this week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship, the No. 22 Illinois State softball team added another honor to its list of accomplishments when sophomore utility player Jessie Buker was named the Valley's Player of the Week on Monday.
The honor is the second of the season for Buker, as the Macon, Ill., native also garnered the award on March 19. Illinois State has won five weekly player and pitcher of the week honors in 2007, tying Southern Illinois for the most weekly awards by any one Valley institution this season.
Entering the last week of play with only two hits in her last 25 at bats, sophomore Jessie Buker exploded out of her hitting slump by batting at a .400 clip through four games last week. Buker pounded six hits in 15 at bats and used a pair of walk-off home runs to help the Redbirds pick up a pair of Valley wins over Missouri State on Saturday. She also hit a homer in Saturday's first game to give her a total of three on the week.
Buker drove in seven RBI on the week, tallied 16 total bases and earned a slugging percentage of 1.067 to lead the potent Illinois State offense. Additionally, her total of 12 home runs and 30 RBI in conference play through the regular-season set new Missouri Valley Conference marks for league games only.
Illinois State will host the 2007 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Redbird Softball Complex on May 10-12. With the No. 2 seed, the Redbirds are scheduled to play at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 11 and will take on No. 7 Bradley, No. 6 Missouri State or No. 3 Southern Illinois.
