Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball continues season at NFCA Leadoff Classic
02/22/2006 | 12:00:00 | Softball
Feb. 22, 2006
SALUKI WINNING STREAK ENDS AT FIVE AS SIU FALLS TO MISSISSIPPI STATE AT MSU INVITATIONAL
The SIU softball team extended its season-opening win streak to five games after beating Tennessee State 8-0 in six innings at the Mississippi State Invitational before falling to the host Bulldogs 2-0 later in the day.
Jayme Wamsley, Lauren Haas and Katie Louis had three hits each for the Salukis in the rout over TSU. Freshman Katie Schmidt highlighted the game with a triple in the second inning, SIU's second of the season.
Junior Ashley Hamby picked up the win, throwing a career-high nine strikeouts, giving up two walks and six hits.
Later in the afternoon, Southern Illinois hit an offensive drought at the hands of Mississippi State pitcher Reagan Blake. The Salukis posted only four hits in the shutout loss. Blake tallied nine strikeouts in the game while never walking a batter.
Cassidy Scoggins took the loss for SIU. She pitched six strikeouts in the loss, giving up six hits and no walks.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS:
Michigan State University Spartans (4-0)
Location: East Lansing, Mich.
Enrollment: 43.836
Colors: Green and White
Conference: Big Ten
Head Coach (Record at MSU / Yrs.): Jacquie Joseph (378-321 / 12)
2005 Record: 25-28-1 / 7-9 (Big Ten)
Last NCAA Tournament appearance: 2004
Media Relations contact: Emily Feeney
Office Phone / Cell Phone: 517.432.8014 / 517.243.0945
E-mail: emily_feeney@ath.msu.edu
Seton Hall University Pirates (4-2)
Location: South Orange, N.J.
Enrollment: 9,700
Colors: Blue and White
Conference: Big East
Head Coach (Record at SHU / Yrs.): Ray Vander May (279-158-2 / 9)
2005 Record: 34-15 / 15-3 (Big East)
Last NCAA Tournament appearance: 2005
Media Relations contact: Jeff Andriesse
Office Phone / Cell Phone: 973.761.9493 / 973.731.7508
E-mail: andrieje@shu.edu
#12 / #13 University of Georgia Bulldogs (9-2)
Location: Athens, Ga.
Enrollment: 33,660
Colors: Red and Black
Conference: Southeastern
Head Coach (Record at UGA / Yrs.): Lu Harris-Champer (259-89 / 5)
2005 Record: 55-15 / 26-4 (SEC)
Last NCAA Tournament appearance: 2005 - NCAA Super Regional runner-up
Media Relations contact: Jared Benko
Office Phone / Home Phone: 706.542.1621 / 706.583.8355
E-mail: jared@sports.uga.edu
ABOUT THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
Michigan State
The Spartans (4-0) are coming off an opening weekend where the team traveled to Greenville, N.C. to win the Holiday Inn Pirate Classic tournament hosted by East Carolina University.
Michigan State beat Army (3-0), Seton Hall (8-1), Bucknell (3-2) and ECU (1-0) at the tournament.
Sophomore outfielder Nikki Nicosia leads the Spartans in batting with a .750 average (9-for-12). Four other MSU players are batting .300 or better.
In the circle, the Michigan State pitching staff has only given up one earned run for a 0.25 team ERA. Junior pitcher Rachel Turney leads the team with 17 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched along with her 0.00 ERA.
Seton Hall
The Pirates (4-2) also competed in the Holiday Inn Pirate Classic in Greenville, N.C. last weekend. The team struggled at first, losing its first two games to East Carolina (3-0) and Michigan State (8-1).
Seton Hall rebounded though and went on to win its next four against Campbell (2-1), Army (5-1), Bucknell (16-6) and Towson (8-0).
Senior Caitlin White leads the team in hatting with a .550 average (11-for-20). She is followed by Katie Pierce with a .444 average (8-for-18) as well as five doubles and a triple.
Freshman pitcher Ashley Arnett has quickly stepped into a leading role with the Pirates. She sports 2-0 record along with a 1.70 ERA and a team-high 15 strikeouts in 12.1 innings pitched.
Georgia The Bulldogs (9-2) are coming off a weekend in which they dominated their own Georgia Softball Classic. UGA entered the tournament with a 3-2 record and rattled off two wins each against Appalachian State, Winthrop and Marshall. Georgia's two losses have come at the hands of North Carolina (8-4) and then-#19 Iowa (6-5).
Leading the Bulldogs in hitting is junior Kellie Middleton with a .528 average (19-for-36). Middleton has four doubles, a homerun and 15 stolen bases.
She is followed closely by freshman Chelsea Cantillo with her .500 average (8-for-16).
On top of the UGA pitching staff is junior Kasi Carroll, who is on the USA Softball Player of the Year watch list. Carroll is 5-1 with a 1.21 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 29 innings pitched. As a pitching staff, UGA has a 2.24 ERA.
FRESHMAN FIREPOWER
After the second week of the season, two of SIU's freshman find themselves leading the team in batting average.
Catcher/DP Jayme Wamsley is leading the way with a .571 average (8-for-14) with two extra-base hits (one homerun). Wamsley has also drawn four walks and has a .667 on-base percentage, along with a .857 slugging percentage.
Though Katie Schmidt is yet to start a game and has mostly seen action in a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner role, she has made the most of it.
Schmidt is batting .667 (2-for-3), scoring a run and a RBI. Of her two hits, one is a double and the other is a triple.
SALUKI THEIFS
SIU Head Coach Kerri Blaylock said in the preseaon that this year's team would be quick, but she didn't say how quick.
Heading into last year's NFCA Leadoff Classic, the Salukis had stolen four bases in seven games. Heading into this year's tournament, SIU is a perect 12-for-12 on stealing bases in six games, more than triple where the team was this time last season.
Leading the way for SIU is sophomore Krystal Stein with four stolen bases.
HAAS, HAMBY NAMED TO MSU INVITE ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Following their performances in SIU's two games at the Mississippi State Invitational, Lauren Haas and Ashley Hamby were named to the MSU Invitational All-Tournament Team.
Haas led SIU offensively in the 8-0 win over Tennessee State. She went 2-for-3 at the plate, scoring a run with two RBI.
Hamby pitched a career-high nine strikeouts in the shutout victory. She faced 21 batters, giving up six hits and only two walks in the game.
SALUKIS WIN TRIPLE CROWN INVITE
Sporting a 4-0 record, the Southern Illinois softball team took top honors at the Triple Crown Invitational Feb. 10-12 in St. Augustine, Fla.
SIU beat Texas Tech and Central Florida twice each en route to the championship.
CONNOYER JOINS SIU COACHING STAFF
Christy Connoyer, formerly a head coach and Tulsa and assistant coach at Purdue, joined the Southern Illinois softball coaching staff over the summer of 2005.
Connoyer replaces former assistant Buddy Foster, who left the team to take a head coaching position at MVC-member Bradley University.
A native of Bethalto, Ill., Connoyer was head coach at Tulsa in 2005 after spending eight years as an assistant coach at Purdue.
At SIU, connoyer works as a hitting coach and with infield defense. She also serves as the Salukis' recruiting coordinator.
Prior to coaching, Connoyer played from 1990-94 as a shortstop and second baseman at Notre Dame.
SALUKIS GO 11-1 IN FALL TOURNAMENTS
The Southern Illinois softball team posted a 11-1 record in it's fall tournaments. The Salukis played in the Illinois State Fall Tournament, Kirkwood Fall Tournament and a rain-shortened Saluki Invitational.
SIU posted wins over Parkland College, SIU-Edwardsville (2), Illinois Central College, Western Illinois, Saint Louis, Southeast Missouri, Missouri-Rolla, McKendree College, John A. Logan College and Southern Indiana.
The lone loss came against MVC foe Illinois State. SIU out-scored it's opponents 77-19 in the three tournaments.
Lauren Haas led the team in hitting with a .517 average (15-for-29). Haas, Becky Wegmann and Jayme Wamsley each had three home runs in fall play.
Junior Cassidy Scoggins led the SIU pitching staff with a 1.11 ERA. She saw action in 34 innings with a 4-0 record, striking out 33 batters.
SIU EARNS NFCA ACADEMIC TOP-10 HONOR FOR FIFTH STRAIGHT YEAR
For the fifth consecutive year, the Southern Illinois softball team finished in the top 10 in the nation in team grade point average.
SIU finished 10th with a 3.415 GPA, not far behind Detroit Mercy who finished first with a 3.591 GPA.
No stranger to the NFCA Academic Top 10, SIU finished fourth in 2001 (3.39 GPA), fourth in 2002 (3.39 GPA), sixth in 2003 (3.43 GPA) and fifth in 2004 (3.42 GPA).
During this time, the Dawgs also managed to finish in the top 25 in the final polls in three of the five years.
Amy Harre, Maria Damico, Katie Jordan, Cassidy Scoggins and Lauren Roney all contributed to the team's success as they received regional all-academic honors. Harre was named an academic all-american for the third-straight year.
DAWGS RECEIVE VOTES IN PRESEASON TOP-25 POLLS
Following a record-setting 47-14 season in 2005, the Southern Illinois University softball team received votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA Preseason Top 25 polls.
In the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, the Salukis picked up 16 votes, coming in at what would be #29 in the nation. In the USA Today/NFCA poll, SIU cane in at the would-be #32 position with 21 votes.
Defending national champion Michigan earned the top spot in both polls with 2005 NCAA Tournament runner-up UCLA coming in a close second in both.
Southern is the only Missouri Valley Conference team to receive votes in the USA Today/NFCA poll, with conference foe Wichita State picking up two votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
SALUKIS PICKED SECOND IN MVC PRESEASON COACHES' POLLS
The Southern Illinois University softball team was picked second in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason coaches' poll, released Tuesday morning.
The Salukis tallied 92 total points, with two first-place votes, finishing one point behind Wichita State (93 / 7 first-place). Illinois State came in third with 77 points and one first-place vote.
Creighton, who won the 2005 MVC Tournament, came in fourth with 67 points. The Bluejays are followed by Missouri State (66), Drake (47), Northern Iowa (37), Bradley (25), Evansville (24) and Indiana State (22).
SCOGGINS, STEIN EARN PRESEASON MVC HONORS
Pitcher Cassidy Scoggins and outfielder Krystal Stein were both selected by the league's coaches as members of the Preseason All-Valley Softball Team.
Scoggins, a junior from Owasso, Okla., led SIU in ERA in 2005 with a 0.94. She posted a 20-5 record with 18 complete games.
Stein, a sophomore from Nashville, Ill., led SIU in hitting with a .359 average. She also scored 29 runs and stole five bases.
SIU SIGNS THREE PLAYERS DURING NCAA EARLY SIGNING PERIOD
Southern Illinois head coach Kerri Blaylock announced the signing of three players Nov. 9 for the 2006-07 season.
Alicia Garza, Allie Hanson and Katie Wilson all signed National Letters of Intent during the NCAA's early signing period.
Garza is a second-baseman from Lafayette, Ind.; Hanson is a catcher and utility player from Marion, Ill.; and Wilson is an outfielder and utility player from Alton, Ill.
