Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Softball travels to Illinois Collegiate Championship this weekend
09/19/2008 | 12:00:00 | Softball
Sept. 19, 2008
By Kyle Herm
www.SIUSalukis.com
Illinois Collegiate Championship Schedule
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Saluki softball team continues fall exhibition play this weekend at the Illinois Collegiate Softball Championship in Normal, Ill.
The teams will each play two games on Saturday to determine seeding for bracket play on Sunday.
Southern Illinois will compete in pool three against Western Illinois at 2:30 p.m., and Illinois at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The 12-team tournament includes every Division-I school in Illinois, along with Heartland Community College and SIU-E, to create a competitive field.
"This is really a unique tournament because it's in a sense the Illinois Championship of all Division-I," said head coach Kerri Blaylock. "It's by far our toughest fall tournament, but we're just going after it hard."
SIU went 1-1 last weekend at the Saluki Invitational, which was shorted to one day after the remnants of hurricane Ike hit Carbondale.
"I was pleased with our pitching and defense in our first tournament," Blaylock said. "The area for improvement I'd like to see this weekend is our at bats. We've been focusing on pitch selection, and have hit very well this week in practice."
The Saluki pitching staff of sophomore's Danielle Glosson and Nikki Waters, and senior Katie McNamara combined to not allow an earned run in 13 innings with six strikeouts against UT-Martin and SIU-E last Saturday.
"We're just excited to get out again and play," said Blaylock. "Everything we do to improve this fall will help in the spring."
Illinois Collegiate Softball Championship
Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21
Pool 1
Northwestern
Eastern Illinois
Heartland CC
Pool 2
Depaul
Bradley
SIU-E
Pool 3
Illinois
Southern Illinois
Western Illinois
Pool 4
Illinois State
Illinois Chicago
Northern Illinois
