Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball Continues MVC Play At Northern Iowa This Weekend
03/24/2005 | 12:00:00 | Softball
March 24, 2005
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -
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Following a sweep of Wright State (8-0 & 10-0) on Wednesday, Southern Illinois (19-8, 2-1 MVC) returns to Valley play at Northern Iowa (10-7, 2-1 MVC) this weekend. The Salukis and Panthers are tied for fourth in the MVC after winning series against Drake and SMS respectively.
"I think Northern Iowa is a tough team. They reflect the personality of their coach, Christy Hebert, who was one of the best shortstops I've ever seen play. She's real gritty and tough, and that's how Northern Iowa plays the game," said Kerri Blaylock, SIU head coach.
The Salukis improved their team ERA to an MVC-best 1.06 and their average jumped to .269 after Wednesday's games, while the Panthers entered the week hitting .266 (5th) with a 2.36 ERA (6th).
Although SIU has outscored Northern Iowa (125 to 61) and has the advantage in home runs (24 to 6), Southern Illinois has to deal with two of the top five hitters in the Valley in Northern Iowa's Erin Strellner (.415, 2nd) and Jamie Kelling (.383, 5th).
"We need to play our game and keep the run total down for the other team. If our pitchers and defense perform well, we can then let our bats go to work. I've also told them not to dwell on the things you can't control and weather and the distance of a long road trip are two things we can't worry about. It's a marathon so we just want to win as many as we can," added Blaylock.
Expected snow on Friday pushed the games back to Saturday and Sunday after being scheduled originally for Friday and Saturday. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m. and the series finale on Sunday at 12 p.m.
