Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball opens home schedule with Kay Brechtelsbauer Southern Classic
03/01/2006 | 12:00:00 | Softball
March 1, 2006
SALUKIS GO 2-0 AT NFCA LEADOFF CLASSIC; SET TO OPEN HOME SCHEDULE AT SOUTHERN CLASSIC
After picking up two wins last weekend at the NFCA Leadoff Classic, the Southern Illinois University softball team returns to Carbondale to open its home schedule with the Kay Brechtelsbauer Southern Classic.
SIU improved to 7-1 on the season after defeating Michigan State (6-3) and Seton Hall (6-4) at the rain-shortened NFCA Leadoff Classic.
The Salukis are set to come home to Charlotte West Stadium and take on Illinois-Chicago, Iowa and Northern Illinois at the Kay Brechtelsbauer Southern Classic.
Southern Illinois has hosted a tournament several times throughout its history, going under various names. The Southern Classic is named for Brechtelsbauer, who was SIU's head coach from the program's inception in 1968 until Coach Blaylock took over in 1999.
During her 32-year tenure as coach of the Salukis, Brechtelsbauer accumulated a career record of 633-438-2.
ABOUT THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS
Illinois-Chicago
The Flames come into the weekend with a deceiving 1-9 record. Illinois-Chicago has spent the early part of the season playing in very competitive tournaments on the West Coast, facing some top teams.
The Flames' lone win is a 4-1 decision against Southern Utah, but also on the schedule are losses to #5/6 Stanford (3-0), #9/9 Oregon State (5-2) and #13/15 Washington (5-1). UIC also lost to Cal State-Fullerton, a team that regularly receives Top 25 votes, 9-7.
Senior Nicole Shepard leads the team in hitting with a .778 (7-for-9) average. She has scored one run along with three RBI.
A pair of freshman had led the charge for the Flames in pitching so far. Kelly Cross has seen the most action with 25.0 innings pitched and sports a 2.80 ERA. Clynes has the team's only win in her 21.0 innings pitched and 4.67 ERA. Cross has a team-high 26 strikeouts, followed by Clynes with 17.
#24 Iowa
The Hawkeyes (6-6) have not traveled an easy path either this season. In Iowa's 12 games so far this season, seven of them have come against ranked opponents.
Iowa started the season with a win over #11/12 Georgia (6-5), followed by a 3-2 extra-inning win over #25/24 North Carolina. It hasn't all been a good experience though, as the Hawkeyes have dropped three games to #12/13 Arizona State, one to #15/11 Louisiana-Lafayette and one to #2/3 Tennessee.
Senior Stacy May leads the team in batting with a .412 (14-for-34) average. She has four doubles and an RBI so far this season.
Also adding some offensive power have been freshman Erin Riemersma and senior Kylie Murray. Riemersma is batting .300 (9-for-30) with a .533 slugging percentage. She also has a double, two home runs and four RBI.
Murray is batting .267 (8-for-30) with a .533 slugging percentage to complement her two doubles, two home runs and eight RBI.
Brittany Weil and Ali Arnold have split the pitching duties fairly evenly. Weil leads with a 4.06 ERA in 48.1 innings pitched while Arnold has a 4.57 ERA in 30.2 innings. Weil also leads with 40 strikeouts while Arnold has 23.
Northern Illinois
The Huskies started their season last weekend at the Dragon's Dome Invitational in Pekin, Ill. Northern Illinois acme out of the three-day tournament with a 2-2 record, sporting wins over Northern Iowa (4-3) and IUPUI (5-0).
Senior Elyse Jamrozy and freshman Randi Kreiter lead the lead in batting, both going 3-for-8 with .375 averages. Jamrozy also has one of the team's three home runs along with her six RBI.
Senior pitcher Lindsey LaChiana claims both of the team's wins along with her 1.50 ERA. She has pitched 18.0 innings and struck out 15 batters while also giving up two home runs.
WEATHER ISSUES
Heading into the 2006 season three weeks ago, the Salukis would have guessed that they would have 16 or 17 games under their belt, heading into this weekend's Southern Classic. Well, the weather had something else in mind.
After having each of its three tournaments this season cut short because of inclement weather, SIU has only eight games in the book.
The Triple Crown Classic in St. Agustine, Fla., was cut short because of freezing temperatures. The Mississippi State Invitational was cut short by the Salukis because of rain and potential travel hazards.
Then, this past weekend, the NFCA Leadoff Classic was shortened for the fourth time in six years because of rain.
BLAYLOCK NEARING 250
Entering the season with 239 career wins, it was not going to take long for SIU Head Coach Kerri Blaylock to reach the next win plateau of 250.
After picking up two wins at the NFCA Leadoff Classic, Blaylock is currently four wins shy of the mark.
In only her seventh year as head coach, Blaylock has picked up the wins by virtue of winning often. She has posted more than 40 wins in three of the previous six season for a career winning percentage of .703, ranking as one of the top 15 active winningest coaches.
GRAND-SLAMMING IT
SIU senior Katie Louis hit the team's first grand slam of the season last weekend in the Salukis' 6-4 win over Seton Hall.
With SIU trailing 3-2 and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Louis slammed a home run to left-center, clearing the bases and putting the Salukis in the lead, 6-3.
FLEXING THE OFFENSIVE MUSCLE
Losing some big hitters from the 2005 season, some were worried about SIU's offensive power coming into 2006. Apparently the team wasn't too worried about that. Eight games into the 2006 campaign, SIU has a team batting average of .303 (64-for-211).
Of those 64 hits, 19 have been for extra bases (13 doubles, three triples and three home runs).
SIU has also outscored its opponents 38-13 so far this season.
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 Southern Classic, the Salukis had stolen six bases in 11 games. Heading into this year's tournament, SIU is a perect 15-for-15 on stealing bases in eight games, more than triple where the team was this time last season.
Leading the way for SIU is sophomore Krystal Stein and senior Samantha Carter with four stolen bases each.
