ST. LOUIS – Illinois State standout pitcher Morgan Day has been selected to the preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference softball squad, while the Redbirds were picked to finish fifth in a poll of the league's head coaches, the conference office announced on Wednesday.
The Redbirds finished sixth in the MVC standings last season, with an overall record of 18-33 and 11-10 mark in conference play. Illinois State is set to face another challenging set of opponents in 2020, with contests against 11 NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago.
With six starters returning in 2020, the Redbirds tallied 60 points and captured one first-place vote in the preseason poll. Drake (89 points) was picked to repeat as the league's champion for the third-straight year, while UNI (87), Southern Illinois (82) and Missouri State (69) were selected ahead of Illinois State in the voting. Rounding out the bottom half of the poll was Bradley (55), Indiana State (31), 2020 MVC Tournament host Evansville (27), Loyola Chicago (26) and Valparaiso (24).
Day acquired second-team all-conference status after a successful sophomore campaign in 2019, appearing in 39 games with 25 starts in the circle for the Redbirds. The right-handed hurler pitched a team-high 12 complete games for the second-straight season to go with five shutouts. Day earned a nationally-ranked win over Indiana with a 3-0 decision and was recognized as the Conference's Pitcher of the Week for her performance. She turned in the 10th-most strikeouts (156) in a single season by a Redbird and became the first ISU pitcher to strike out at least 10 batters in a game since Regan Romshek did so in 2015. Day's selection to the MVC Preseason All-Conference Team marks the 14th consecutive season that the Redbirds have placed someone on the squad.
Illinois State opens its 2020 campaign on Thursday, Feb. 6 at USF with a 5:30 p.m. (CT) first pitch, before taking on Michigan, Florida, Fresno State and Georgia State in the Bull's USF-Rawlings Tournament, Feb. 7-8.
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