April 28, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
After leading the Illinois State softball team to a 5-1 record last week in conference play, which included a team-high .474 batting average and two home runs, junior left fielder Jessie Buker was named the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week Monday, as announced by the conference office. The weekly honor is the third of the season for Illinois State and marked the 38th time in program history that a Redbird softball player has been honored as The Valley Player of the Week, the second-most player of the week honors for a school in conference history.
The Valley Player of the Week honor is the third in Buker's two-plus-year Redbird softball career. Buker also earned State Farm MVC Player of the Week honors March 19, 2007, and May 7, 2007.
"Jessie had a great week offensively for us," said Illinois State head coach Melinda Fischer. "She looks like she is getting into a better rhythm with her swing and she is really starting to drive the ball. She had some success at driving the ball earlier this season, but the hits weren't landing. Now, those hits are landing, and she is having some really good at-bats."
After struggling for much of the early part of the season to get any sort of offensive momentum going, Buker had a prodigious week offensively in the Redbirds' six games last week against some of The Valley's top teams. The Macon, Ill., native went 9-for-19 (.474) at the plate with team-highs in hits (9), home runs (2), RBI (7) and total bases (16). She also slugged at an .842 clip in six games played and was on base 52.4 percent of the time.
Against MVC front-runner Creighton April 21, Buker hit a home run against The Valley's top pitcher, Tara Oltman, in game one, as she nearly led Illinois State to an upset-victory over the favored Bluejays. Buker followed up that performance with a pair of two-hit games later in the week, as she went 2-for-4 with three RBI in a 10-2, six-inning victory over Indiana State Wednesday (April 23), followed by a 2-for-3 hitting performance against Drake in the Redbirds' series-opening victory (8-0 in five innings) against the Bulldogs Saturday (April 26).
Buker currently owns a season-best eight-game hitting streak. Her two home runs last week placed her in a tie for third place all-time at Illinois State in career home runs with 24, while her seven RBI last week gave her 86 for her career and tied her for sixth all-time at Illinois State in career RBI. Buker's .474 batting average on the week raised her season batting average 38 points, from .242 entering the week to .280.
Buker and Illinois State return to action at 6 p.m. Tuesday against non-conference foe Northern Illinois in the Redbirds' final home game of the 2008 season at the Redbird Softball Complex. Following that game, ISU will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa, for its final MVC regular-season series of the year against Northern Iowa Saturday and Sunday.
