Southern Illinoise University Athletics
No. 4 seed Softball set to host MVC Championships
05/09/2012 | 12:00:00 | Softball
May 9, 2012
By Megan Kramper
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The No. 4 seed Southern Illinois softball team will host the Missouri Valley Conference Championships for the fourth time in school history and third time at Charlotte West Stadium Thursday through Saturday. The Salukis are set for a 4:05 p.m. game Thursday between the winner of No. 5 Creighton and No. 8 Evansville.
GAME INFORMATION
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SALUKIS (34-19, 16-10 MVC) vs. No. 5 CREIGHTON (27-24-1, 15-11 MVC) or No. 8 EVANSVILLE(18-36, 8-19 MVC)
Game 54 • MVC Championships • Charlotte West Stadium (Carbondale, Ill.)
Radio: Game Central on SIUSalukis.com and 810 AM in Carbondale with Patrick Erickson (play-by-play) and Johnny Sole
Video: Free live video is available from Valley Live
Stats: Gametracker from SIUSalukis.com
PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON
vs. Creighton
The Salukis and Bluejays met Mar. 25-26 at Charlotte West Stadium in a 2-1 series win for the Dawgs. They swept the Saturday doubleheader in 10-4, 17-8 wins. In tournament history, the Bluejays hold a 4-8 advantage but the Salukis won the most recent matchup in last year's semifinal round with a 4-1 victory in Springfield, Mo.
vs. Evansville
The Salukis and Purple Aces met at each team's home field in the split series. SIU won the doubleheader at Charlotte West Stadium while UE took the single game at Cooper Stadium in a 9-1 run-rule victory. In tournament history, the Purple Aces own a 3-0 record against the Salukis. They last met in 2003 with an 8-0 win for the Purple Aces
WEATHER
Thursday: 72˚, mostly sunny
Friday: 76˚, sunny
Saturday: 77˚, sunny
ON DECK: NO. 5 CREIGHTON
The Bluejays have lost five of their last six coming into the tournament as they were swept at Illinois State and dropped two of three to Missouri State. CU leads the MVC with 405 hits, 53 homers, 267 RBI and a .464 slugging percentage. Junior Amy Baker is second in the MVC with 46 RBI, fourth in on-base percentage (.481), fifth in batting average (.348) and walks (33), and seventh in both slugging percentage (.567) and home runs (8). Sophomore Ellen Homan ranks second in the MVC in batting average (.376) and hits (65), and was fourth in runs (38). The Bluejays pitching staff is led by sophomore right-hander Becca Changstrom, who is 16-13 and leads the team with a 2.28 ERA, 175.1 innings pitched and 168 strikeouts.
ON DECK: NO. 8 EVANSVILLE
Evansville earned the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament with a three-game sweep of Indiana State on the final weekend of the year. The Purple Aces are making their first appearance in the tournament since 2009 and this will be the first appearance for head coach Mark Redburn, who is in his second season at the helm. Freshman Kayla Fortner is the only Purple Aces player hitting .364 and also leads the team lead with 55 hits, 11 doubles, 34 RBI and 26 walks. Amy Gaertner owns a team-high six homers and has 28 RBI with a .246 batting average.
REVERSE THE CURSE
The Salukis are trying to win their first MVC tournament title as they host the State Farm MVC Championships this week at Charlotte West Stadium. The Salukis haven't won a tourney title since 1991, when the league was called the Gateway Conference. The Salukis have four runner-up appearances since 1993 including a loss to Creighton in the championship game in 2010.
THE CHARLOTTE WEST ADVANTAGE
Home field advantage has been key for the Salukis' success in the past two seasons in both regular season and conference action. The Salukis are 16-6 at home this season and 9-5 in Missouri Valley Conference action. They hold an impressive 46-18 overall record (.718) and are 31-8 in conference play at Charlotte West Stadium in the past three and a half years combined. However, the Salukis haven't had luck in the past two MVC Tournaments it has hosted at the stadium since its opening in 2003, going 1-2 in tournament games played on their home field.
Record at Charlotte West (as of May 9, 2012)
Overall: 152-49
MVC: 96-28
RUNNING OVER HER OWN RECORD
Mallory Duran-Sellers scored two runs in Sunday's series finale win over Bradley to take sole possession of the single season runs scored record in the MVC. Duran-Sellers scored runs No. 60 and 61 to best Missouri State's Kate Madden's 16-year-old record by one. She also ranks second all-time in the MVC with 162 career runs scored.
SPIVEY SLAMS
Jayna Spivey's bat has come alive in the final weeks of the conference season. The sophomore from Rosiclare, Ill., blasted her first career grand slam Sunday in the Dawgs 11-5 win over Bradley and held a .308 batting average in five games last week.
