Redbirds to Play Midweek Doubleheader at No. 18/20 Missouri

March 18, 2014

NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State softball team (8-15, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) will play its final pre-conference games of the season, Wednesday, at No. 18/20 Missouri (16-7, 2-4 Southeastern Conference). The Redbirds and Tigers will square off in a doubleheader that begins at 1 p.m., CST, which was changed from the originally scheduled time of 3 p.m., CST, Tuesday morning.

With last weekend's home- and MVC-opening series against Drake being postponed, Wednesday's doubleheader will push ISU's season-opening stretch of games played away from home to 25. The Redbirds most-recently played four games over five days at Louisville's Ulmer Stadium, March 7-11. ISU went 2-2 during the stint, which featured victories over Ohio and Louisville.

Slap Hits

• The Redbirds have committed just 16 errors in their first 23 games, fewest in the Missouri Valley Conference, and own the league's best fielding percentage at .976.
• Senior Kolby Hoffman, who entered 2014 as a career .173 hitter, leads ISU with a .290 batting average. She enters the weekend with two home runs, which matches her career-high, and eight RBI, which are more than half of what she had last year in 43 games (15).
• Freshman catcher Jordan de los Reyes is tied for the MVC lead with six home runs. She is also ranks fifth in the league with 19 RBI.
• Sophomore pitcher Regan Romshek has posted a 1.84 ERA over the last four weeks, and ranks fourth in the MVC with a 2.55 overall mark. She has thrown 90.2 innings, second-most in the league, and is also tied for third with seven wins.
• All but one of ISU's 15 losses this season have come to teams that were either ranked in the top-25 or made the NCAA Tournament in 2013, including six against top 10 teams and five versus 2013 Women's College World Series participants
• ISU's four longest on-base streaks this season are all active entering the weekend - Laura Canopy (10), Nichelle Harrison (9), Kara Repp (8) and Kolby Hoffman (7). Hoffman is also riding a five-game hitting streak, the team's longest this season.
• The 2014 Redbird schedule features 21 games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2013. ISU has gone 3-13 in those games thus far.
• Now in her 29th season at the helm of ISU, and 31st overall, head coach Melinda Fischer ranks 18th all-time among DI coaches with 958 wins.
• ISU has been to the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons and nine times overall. The Redbirds have also won 12 regular-season conference titles and six tournament crowns.

Scouting the Tigers (16-7 Overall, 2-4 SEC)

Coming off of their sixth-straight NCAA Super Regional appearance in 2013, the Tigers have been in the top-25 all season en route to a 16-7 overall record and 2-4 mark in the Southeastern Conference. Mizzou dropped two of three games to No. 9 Kentucky last weekend, with both losses being decided by just one run.

Redshirt sophomore Taylor Gadbois has sparked the MU offense from the leadoff spot, hitting .473 and going 21-for-23 on stolen base attempts. Sophomore Emily Crane has excelled offensively as well for the Tigers, batting .419 with three home runs and a team-best 26 RBI.

Pitching was an area of concern for the Tigers entering the 2013 season, as all four pitchers from last year's team departed. The freshmen duo of Tori Finucane and Casey Stangel has filled that void, with each winning seven games. Finucane is 7-3 with a 2.00 ERA, while Stangel has posted a 7-4 mark with a 2.32 ERA. As a team, the Tigers have posted a 2.36 ERA, barely higher than the 2013 squad's 2.30 mark.

Series History

Missouri leads the all-time series between the two teams, 22-7, and has won 13-straight over the Redbirds. Each of the last two meetings has been decided by one run. The Redbirds and Tigers met earlier this season at the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic in Kissimmee, Fla. After falling behind 4-0, ISU came back to build a 10-5 lead heading into the seventh inning. Mizzou scored six times in the final frame, however, to come away with the victory.

Close, But No Cigar

• Of the Redbirds' 15 defeats in 2014, eight have been by two runs or less. ISU has also held leads in six of those games, including twice in the seventh inning, only to see them evaporate.
• All but one of ISU's 15 losses this season have come against teams that were either ranked in the top 25 or made the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
• Against teams not ranked or coming off a NCAA Tournament appearance, the Redbirds are 5-1. They have also notched three wins over postseason teams from a year ago (San Jose State, James Madison and Louisville).

Flashing the Leather

• Defense has been a strength of the Redbirds this season, as their 16 errors committed are fewest in the Missouri Valley Conference. ISU also leads the league with a .976 fielding percentage.
• The Redbirds have committed more than one error just four times, and have never been charged with more than two in a game.
• ISU has been stout defensively from behind the plate, as well. Catchers Stephanie Gallant and Jordan de los Reyes have combined to throw out 41-percent (9-of-22) of attempted base stealers.

On the Move

• Not normally known as a team that steals a lot of bases, the Redbirds have been more active on the base paths this season.
• Through 23 games, ISU has swiped 22 bags, and is on base to register 51 steals. That would be the most in a single-season for the program since 1991, and third-most all-time.
• Four Redbirds have already set new or equaled personal bests for steals in a single-season, led by Kolby Hoffman (9-for-10) and Nichelle Harrison (5-for-8).

Just Get On

• While the Redbirds have struggled to the tune offensively of a league-low .210 batting average, they have found other ways to get on base.
• ISU's on-base percentage (.325) significantly out paces its batting average, due in large part to 81 walks and 21 hit by pitches, which rank fourth and third in the MVC, respectively.
• Senior outfielder/first baseman Laura Canopy ranks seventh in the league with a .471 OBP, first with 19 walks, and is tied for second with six hit by pitches.

Experience In, Youth Out

• All six players that have seen action in the infield for Illinois State this season are upperclassmen, compared to four of seven Redbirds that have appeared in the outfield being juniors or seniors.
• All four infield starters - Laura Canopy, Kolby Hoffman, Brittny Drish and Sara Bradley - returned from the 2013 squad. That quartet combined to start 174 games last season, and has made 109 of a possible 111 appearances this year.
• Conversely, ISU's outfield entered 2014 with little experience. Only Nichelle Harrison returned as starter, while the other outfielders on the roster entered with a combined 53 career appearances.
• Through 23 games, the Redbirds have utilized eight different starting outfield combinations, while a total of seven players have seen action in the outfield.

Senior Laden

• The 2014 Redbird roster features five seniors - Taylor Baxter, Sara Bradley, Laura Canopy, Nichelle Harrison and Kolby Hoffman - which marks the most seniors on a squad since the 2005 Redbirds had six.
• The group has combined to appear in 755 games and make 665 starts over the last three seasons. Over that time, ISU has won 109 games, made two NCAA Tournament appearances and won both a MVC regular-season and tournament title.

New Power Sources

• Entering the 2014 season, lack of power projected to be a potential issue for ISU, as the Redbirds graduated players who hit 48.6-percent of its home runs last season.
• The main source of returning power was senior Laura Canopy, who tied for the team-lead with 10 long balls last season and ranks 14th in program-history with 17 in her career. No other Redbird on the roster, however, entered the season with more than seven career home runs.
• ISU has still been able to hit 14 home runs, though, thanks to unexpected contributors. Canopy has hit just one homer, while the others have been hit by five different players who combined to hit five homers last year.

The Legend Continues

• Head coach Melinda Fischer is in her 29th season at the helm of the ISU softball program, and 31st as a head coach.
• Fischer has posted a 917-626-4 record during her tenure at Illinois State, making her the winningest coach in ISU Athletics and MVC softball history.
• Her 958 career wins overall rank her 18th all-time nationally among DI coaches, and 11th among active coaches.
• Fischer also played softball at ISU, and helped lead the Redbirds to a second-place finish at the AIAW Women's College World Series in 1969.

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