April 3, 2009
Three-straight wins, including a 2-1 upset victory over then-No. 24 Iowa March 25, have the Illinois State softball team brimming with confidence heading into its three-game Missouri Valley Conference series against Missouri State Saturday (noon/2 p.m.) and Sunday (noon) at Marian Kneer Softball Stadium. And with both Illinois State (16-14, 4-4 MVC) and Missouri State (14-13, 4-4 MVC) currently tied for sixth place in The Valley standings with four conference series remaining, the Redbirds will be looking to use that confidence to take the series win in order to stay on track to finish in the top half of the league standings.
Live statistics, a live and interactive blog and a live radio broadcast of each game of this weekend's Illinois State-Missouri State softball series can be found on GoRedbirds.com.
Illinois State is coming off a doubleheader sweep of conference foe Indiana State Wednesday. ISU secured a 5-0 win in game one behind the stellar pitching of senior Amber Smith, and then in game two, freshman Jordan Birch struck out a career-high 13 batters to lead the Redbirds to a 3-1 victory over the Sycamores. That win gave ISU head coach Melinda Fischer the 800th-career victory in her 26-year coaching career.
This weekend's series against Missouri State will have an interesting underlying storyline. The Bears defeated the Redbirds, 5-4, in last year's State Farm MVC Tournament Semifinal game, and in the process, abruptly ended Illinois State's quest for the program's third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. MSU won three of the four games played last season between the two schools, including taking a 2-1 series win in Springfield, Mo.
Missouri State has been on a roll of late, winning five of its last six games to pull one-game-above-.500 entering play this weekend. The Bears were scheduled to a face a very good SIU-Edwardsville team Thursday, but that game was called off due to inclement weather.
MSU is hitting .264 on the season as a team, and is led at the plate by The Valley's top hitter, senior infielder Jessie Smith, who owns a .447 batting average and the league's top on-base percentage (.505). Smith is also slugging at a league-second-best .765 clip.
In the circle, Bear pitchers own a combined 3.03 ERA, with no pitcher below the 2.40 ERA mark. Lauren McGinely's 8-4 record is the best on the team, while her 3.03 ERA is second-best. McGinley has been plaugued by a relatively high number of walks to strikeouts, with 29 walks given up thus far against just 40 strikeouts.
The all-time series against Missouri State is the second-longest for Illinois State against any opponent in program history, spanning 76 games, second only to the ISU-Southern Illinois series (111 games). The Redbirds lead the all-time series against the Bears, 50-26, including a 19-12 record in games played in Normal, Ill.
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