Road Trip To Murray State Wraps Up Softball Regular Season For ISU

MURRAY, Ky. – One final road trip during the regular season looms for Illinois State this weekend at Murray State, as the Redbirds wrap up the regular season with a three-game conference series against the Racers in Murray, Kentucky. ISU will look to hold onto its fourth-place spot in the MVC season standings, which would give the Birds a bye to the quarterfinals.

First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. start on Saturday and a noon game on Sunday to wrap up the series.
Live stats for each game will be available via StatBroadcast and links can be found on the softball schedule page on GoRedbirds.com. All three games will also be streamed will live on ESPN+. 

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and Racers have faced off six previous times, with ISU leading the all-time series 5-1. The first game in the series took place in 2017 and Illinois State is 4-1 against Murray State as members of the Missouri Valley Conference. Last season, the Birds took two of three games from the Racers at Marian Kneer Stadium.

SCOUTING THE RACERS
•    Murray State (20-25, 10-14 MVC) heads into the weekend playing good softball, having won seven of its last 10 games overall. The Racers are third in the league with a .281 average as a team, behind only Southern Illinois and UNI. 
•    The Racers took the final game of a three-game set last weekend in Carbondale against lead-leading Southern Illinois. The top of the Racer lineup had a productive day as both Katy Huels and Kenley Minor went 3-for-4, and Huels scored a pair of runs while Minor scored one. Bailey Broemmer also put together a good day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a two-run homer.  Hannah Sutton added a pair of RBIs with her first-inning double, and Parker Holcombe had one on a bunt.
•    Minor leads the way for the Racers at the plate, leading the team with a .336 average and a team best 51 hits and nine doubles on the year. Huels is right behind her, hitting at a .329 clip with a team-leading five triples on the season. Ailey Schyck supplies the bulk of the power for the Racers, as she leads the team with eight home runs and a team-best 27 RBI.
•    Bre Haislip and Karlye Graber have been Murray State's primary starters in the circle, with the duo combining for 34 of the team's 45 starts. Haislip leads the duo with a 3.51 ERA and 24 starts in 35 appearances, posting a 6-11 record in 117.2 innings pitched and 65 strikeouts. Graber, who has started in 10 of her 28 appearances, holds a 3.93 ERA in 87.1 innings pitched with 52 strikeouts and a 7-9 record.

REDBIRD NEWS & NOTES
•    Illinois State (21-28, 14-10 MVC) also heads into the series having won seven of its last ten games overall and sit in fourth place in the MVC standings.
•    On Wednesday, the Redbirds finally wrapped up their MVC series with UIC as the two programs resumed a game that was halted 32 days earlier on March 29. When the game resumed, pitcher Hannah Meeks got out of a jam in the top of the fifth inning and the Redbirds scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to come away with a 5-4 win and a series sweep over the Flames. It was the third MVC series sweep of the season for the Redbirds (Bradley, Valpo, UIC).
•    The Redbirds also picked up a win the series finale last Sunday against UNI on Senior Day, as ISU used a walk off RBI single from Bella Atkinson to defeat the Panthers by a score of 5-4 at Marian Kneer Stadium in Normal. In that contest, senior Abby Knight picked up her 200th career hit, and fellow senior Addison Masching drove in a pair of runs while Hannah Meshnick picked up the win in the circle.
•    ISU is one of the better defensive teams in the league, boasting a .966 fielding percentage which ranks second overall behind Belmont. The Redbirds have committed the second-fewest errors in the MVC (49) and are third in the Valley in double plays turned (18). Illinois State's pitching has also been solid, as the Redbirds are fourth in the Valley in team ERA at 3.53.
•    Knight continues to lead the way for the Redbirds, batting a team-best .350 with 10 doubles and 16 RBI. Senior Delainey Bryant is hitting .303 and leads the Redbirds with four home runs on the year, and Masching holds a team-best 21 RBI on the year.
•    As the regular season ends, several Redbird hitters are finishing the year on hot streaks at the plate. Knight and sophomore Julia Larson both have current 12-game hitting streaks, while Bryant brings in a 10-game hit streak.  Larson has also reached base in 16 straight games (longest streak by a Redbird this season) while Knight has reached in 12 and Bryant has reached in 10. Knight also leads the Redbirds with 18 multiple hit games this season, including seven in her last 11 games played.

For updates on Illinois State Softball, follow the Redbirds on Twitter (@RedbirdsSB), Instagram (@redbirdsoftball), and Facebook (Illinois State Redbird Softball).

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