2007 Softball Season-in-Review
05/29/2007 | 12:00:00 | Softball
May 29, 2007
By Matt Crouch
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - So many times, when looking back on a season, people tend to look at the end result as a barometer of success.
While advancing to a fifth-straight NCAA Regional is impressive in itself, Southern Illinois University head softball coach Kerri Blaylock hopes that when the 2007 season is remembered, it is the total body of work that comes to mind.
"I think we had a very good season overall. We had some of the best wins that I have had as a coach over some very high-ranked opponents," said Blaylock.
"And, I think sometimes you can focus on the end and what you did not get done at the end and it kind of clouds what you have done all year long and I don't want that to happen."
The 2007 Salukis put together a 41-16 season, the third 40+ win season in the past four years and the sixth in the team's history. Southern also finished 17-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference, picking up a third-place finish.
The amazing feats did not stop there as Southern Illinois broke into the top-25 rankings on Feb. 21 (coming in No. 24 in the USA Today/NFCA poll) and spent a school-record 13-stright weeks in the top-25 rankings.
Twice during that 13-week stretch, the Salukis earned their highest-ever national ranking, coming in at No. 18 on March 7 and March 28.
But, what propelled SIU into the rankings was equally impressive. On Feb. 18, Southern Illinois picked up an 8-5 win over then-No. 5 Louisiana State, handing the Tigers their first loss of the season and giving the Salukis their highest-ranked win in school history.
Prior to that, the highest-ranked team that Southern had beaten was No. 6 Nebraska (2-1) on March 31, 2003.
Southern Illinois also advanced to the MVC Championship game, a 6-2 loss to Creighton, for only the fourth time in school history and advanced to its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament, an active streak that only 22 other teams in the nation can boast.
The Salukis did all of this with a young team that really stepped up down the stretch.
With a starting lineup that at times was made up of just as many freshmen and sophomores as there were juniors and seniors, the team's youth provided a big question mark at the beginning of the season, but a question that was quickly answered.
"I think when you rely on youth as much as we did that some of the wins that we had really surprised me. So, I think after the early wins, our expectations grew tremendously," said Blaylock.
"I think Alicia Garza, who I thought we were going to rely on mainly for her defense, was great. I thought Katie Wagner and Jayme Wamsley, who both hit over .300 for the year, did a tremendous job for us. And, with Katie Wilson tying the single-season home run record as a freshman was tremendous."
The offense was definitely a youth-driven effort as the freshman Garza led the team with a .358 average, leading the team with 13 doubles on the season. Wilson, also a freshman, hit 14 home runs for the season, tying Katie Jordan and Maria Damico for the SIU single-season record.
Another big surprise for the team on the offensive end was the performance of Wagner and Wamsley.
Wagner, a sophomore, struggled at the plate as a freshman, hitting .190 with only three extra-base hits. She eclipsed that mark in 2007, finishing second on the team with a .317 average with seven doubles, a triple and seven home runs.
Wamsley also had a big turn-around, going from a .231 average as a freshman to .303 as a sophomore. She had 10 doubles and 10 home runs for the year, smashing her totals of four and three, respectively, last season.
The team as a whole finished with some pretty impressive marks at the plate for the season. SIU set a single-game record with five home runs against Northern Iowa on April 21 while also picking up 19 hits in the game, a mark that the team had not seen since 1996.
Southern also set a single-game record with seven doubles hit against Drake on April 6. That mark helped the team along as the Salukis set a new single-season team record with 77 doubles - breaking the old record of 70 which was set in 1998 and again in 2004.
The Salukis also did the job on the other side of the ball, finishing the season with the fifth-best fielding percentage (.977) in the nation with only 36 errors in 57 games while also posting the 17th-best ERA in the nation (1.67).
While youth played a large part in the team's success, Blaylock will be the first to point out that it was the experience and leadership of the senior class that really set the tone for the season.
"I will definitely remember the seniors. A really great group of kids that I am going to miss a bunch and some of our big wins early will always be very pleasant memories for me," said Blaylock.
"Really what this year's seniors have accomplished in their four years has been some great stuff. I think all three of them have had some feel-good type of stories. Cassidy Scoggins is the kid that was not highly-recruited and came in and was one of the best pitchers that this program has ever had. Ashley Hamby struggled and had a great senior year and is now playing pro ball. Amanda Clifton was Ms. Clutch four us and was really big for us in all four years."
The class leaves Southern as one of the most successful in the history of the softball program. The class is the winningest ever at SIU with 168 wins in their four years, averaging 42 wins per season.
The trio of Scoggins, Hamby and Clifton posted seasons of 45, 47, 35 and 41 wins - making them the only class in the program's history to have three 40+ win seasons.
The class only lost 60 of their 228 games, giving them a .737 winning percentage.
Along with the winning, the Class of 2007 is only the second in the team's history to advance to four NCAA Tournaments. The Class of 2006 was the first.
Even with all the success experienced in 2007, Blaylock is already looking forward to 2008 and is excited for what the future may bring.
"I think the best thing for next year is we have so many starters and so many with starting experience coming back and that is huge," said Blaylock.
"I think we have a great recruiting class coming in and two pitchers that have had to pitch in championship-type game experience."
NOTES: - SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock earned her 300th career win during the 2007 season, making her one of only five active Valley coaches to reach that plateau... She now holds a 315-132 career record for a .705 winning percentage.
