Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball set for MVC title game versus Creighton
05/11/2007 | 12:00:00 | Softball
May 11, 2007
By Matt Crouch
www.SIUSalukis.com
NORMAL, Ill. - For the fourth time in the team's history, the Southern Illinois University softball team will head to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game.
The Salukis (40-13), the No. 3 seed in this year's tournament, will face top-seeded Creighton (38-12-1) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Redbird Softball Complex in Normal, Ill.
Southern Illinois is making its 24th appearance in the MVC Tournament, now in its 25th year, while advancing to its fourth championship game.
Southern has a 1-2 record in championship games with the line win being in 1991, a 4-1 win over Illinois State in Wichita, Kan.
In SIU's other two appearances, the Salukis fell 8-2 to Western Illinois in the 1992 championship in Des Moines and 5-0 to Creighton in the 2004 title game in Carbondale, Ill.
The Bluejays will be appearing in their seventh Valley championship game and hold a 4-2 record in their previous six appearances. Creighton won MVC Tournament titles over Northern Iowa in 1999, Evansville in 2003, SIU in 2004 and Wichita State in 2005. The two losses have come at the hands of Illinois State in 2000 and 2001.
Saturday's game will be the 41st meeting between SIU and Creighton with the Bluejays holding a 23-17 all-time advantage. CU also holds a 5-3 advantage over the Salukis in MVC Tournament games.
The Bluejays won the regular-season series between the two teams, 2-1. SIU won the first game of the series 3-1 on the back of a two-run double by Becky Wegmann and a solo home run by Jayme Wamsley. Cassidy Scoggins threw eight strikeouts in the win.
In the second game, Southern carried a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning but fell victim to three Creighton base hits that turned into two runs for a 5-4 Saluki loss.
In what had been a pitching duel up to the final game of the series, both teams exploded in game three in a shootout that the Bluejays won 12-6.
Creighton hit four home runs in the game while Southern Illinois committed four errors, resulting in six unearned Bluejay runs.
With Friday's win, Creighton becomes the winningest team by percentage in the MVC Tournament history. The Bluejays have a 30-18 record for a .625 winning percentage.
Southern has a 37-44 record in the Valley tournament for a .457 winning percentage, ranking fifth among active MVC squads.
Action in Saturday's championship game is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Redbird Softball Complex. The game will be broadcast live on Comcast Sports Chicago (Dish-429, DirecTV-640), Metro Sports Kansas City and Fox College Sports. The game will also be broadcast on FoxSports Midwest (Dish-418, DirecTV-647, Mediacomm-35) on tape delay at 5:30 p.m.
GameTracker is available by accessing the State Farm/MVC Tournament Central Web site.
A free audio Webcast with Patrick Erickson is available at SIUSalukis.com.
NOTES: - Only one active Saluki player has competed in a MVC championship game; Cassidy Scoggins pinch hit in the 2004 title game... Amanda Clifton started for SIU in the game but is currently inactive because of recent surgery on her hand and Ashley Hamby did not play in the game... Creighton's Caitlin Marcano, Kate Petullo, Jessica German and Jamie Reiss all played in the championship game in 2004... The last meeting between the team's in the MVC Tournament was in 2006 with Creighton taking a 2-1, 10-inning win over the Salukis in the opening round.
