Southern welcomes SLU in mid-week matchup

03/17/2015 | 12:00:00 | Softball

March 17, 2015

SIU (8-10-1) vs. Saint Louis (15-8)
Date	March 18, 2015 \| 4 p.m. CT
Location	Carbondale, Ill. \| Charlotte West Stadium (502) \| Tickets
Media	Video Stream \| Free Audio \| GameTracker \| StatBroadcast
Statistics	Southern Illinois \| Saint Louis \| MVC
Series History	SIU leads 45-3 \| SIU W1
Social Media	@SIU_Softball \| @SIU_Softball \| Saluki Softball

FAST FIVE

The SIU-SLU game will be the second mid-week matchup of the year for SIU. Southern opened mid-week play with a 3-2 loss to Lipscomb last Wednesday. SIU and SLU split a doubleheader last year in St. Louis.
Head coach Kerri Blaylock moved Kelsey Gonzalez to the No. 1 spot in the batting order and Kalyn Harker to the No. 2 spot for that Lipscomb game. In the four games since, Gonzalez is hitting .600 (9-for-15) and Harker is hitting .571 (8-for-14).
The Salukis started their home and MVC season 3-0 after a series sweep of Bradley on March 15-16.
Southern Illinois is the lone 3-0 team in the Missouri Valley Conference after the opening weekend of the year.
SIU has come from behind and won five games in its last at bat.

FOR STARTERS
Southern Illinois hosts Saint Louis on Wednesday, March 18, at 4 p.m. CT in Charlotte West Stadium. The teams split a doubleheader at Saint Louis last season, with SLU taking the opener 1-0 and SIU winning the second game 9-3. The matchup is the middle game in a seven-game home stand for SIU--Southern is coming off a three-game sweep of Bradley to open home and MVC play and will host preseason MVC favorite Wichita State next weekend.

SCOUTING THE BILLIKENS
Saint Louis is off to a 15-8 start after a successful 30-21 season last year. After a 3-0 start, the Billikens lost five of six games before rattling off 11 wins in 12 tries. SLU played a common opponent of SIU, Northern Colorado, winning one game 18-0 in five innings before winning a 11-10 game in nine innings. The Billikens are led by standout pitcher Brianna Lore. Lore (6-6) has been dominant this season, posting a 1.36 ERA in 67 innings. Opponents are hitting just .188 against Lore, and she has given up only 12 extra base hits in her 67 innings. Offensively, the Billikens hit .308 as a team. Alex Nickel has already racked up 32 hits in her .438 average. Lindsay Friedman has six home runs and 22 RBIs to go along with a .359 average and Allie MacFarlane hits .355.

SALUKIS SWEEP LADY BRAVES
SIU started the MVC season 3-0 for the fourth time in the last six seasons with a sweep of Bradley over the weekend. SIU came from behind in both games on Sunday, winning a 2-1 game in the opener before a back-and-forth 10-9 win in a 10-inning night cap. SIU was the only MVC school to sweep its first conference series, giving Southern an early lead in the MVC race.

PLAYING WELL AT THE RIGHT TIME
Southern started the year 3-8-1 after getting back from a trip to Mexico. SIU had committed 11 errors in five games at the Triple Crown Collegiate Invitational. Since, Southern has won five of its last seven games and committed just five errors total in those seven games. Southern's team batting average has risen nearly 40 points, and Katie Bertelsen has developed into a dominant presence in the circle, winning all five of those games for SIU.

GONZALEZ ON FIRE
SIU junior captain Kelsey Gonzalez has seen her batting average jump nearly 200 points in the last eight games. Gonzalez was hitting just .148 after a loss to BYU, but she's 15-for-29 since then (.517)--and that includes an 0-for-5 game in a win against Bucknell. She has hit .625 in the other seven games, including multi-hit games against Nevada (three hits), Northern Illinois (two), Lipscomb (two), Bradley (three) and Bradley again (three hits again).

HARKER HITTING HARD
Kalyn Harker, another team captain, has also seen her season turn around at the plate. Harker hit around the .200 mark for most of the season before a move to the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Since then (four games), Harker is riding a four-game hitting streak and is 8-for-14 with four RBIs, four runs scored and three stolen bases. After a 4-for-4 day against Bradley on Monday, Harker's average is up to a season-high .279 after she hit .313 as a junior last year.

BERTELSEN CARRIES THE LOAD
Senior pitcher Katie Bertelsen has pitched the bulk of the innings for SIU this year, and she has rounded into form as one of the top pitchers in the MVC. Bertelsen won all three games in a three-game sweep against Bradley over the weekend, and she has earned the win in six of the team's eight wins. Since coming back from Mexico, Bertelsen has shaved a run and a half off her ERA, thanks to complete-game wins over Northern Illinois (2 ER), Bucknell (1 ER) and Bradley (1 ER).

Lineup Quick Notes
00	Sydney Jones	Reached in 17 of 19G...Game-winning 2R HR vs. Morehead State...Walk-off, two-run HR in 10th vs. Bradley
1	Merri Anne Patterson	2015 MVC All-Tournament team...4-10 in last two games vs. Bradley...Hit. 412 in Mexico
2	Brook Womack	Started 16G...Hit in 6 of last 8 games...Went 7-10, 5 RBIs in Florida...3H games vs. Creighton and Bucknell
5	Lacey Newbold	104 career games & 20 career starts...2-2 in pinch hitting situations in Mexico...13 career stolen bases...35 career R...2-4 vs. BU
6	Savannah Fisher	Team-best .275 avg...3-5, HR on opening weekend...3 2Bs, 2 3Bs and 2 HRs...Only player in MVC w/ multiple triples
7	Kelsey Gonzalez	15-29 (.517) last 8 games...Five multi-hit games in last 8G...MVC POW (4/28/14)
10	Caylee Cook	63 career games & 33 career starts...3 doubles and 2 HRs, both in 2014...2-4 vs. Morehead State...1-4, RBI vs. N. Colorado
12	Kalyn Harker	2-time 1st-team MVC Scholar-Athlete (4.0 GPA)...Only 2 career E...Hit 7-10 vs. Bradley...Robbed HR @Lipscomb \| FEATURE
17	Kara Kimball	3 starts in 2015 (1st starts of career)...152 career GP...7 career SB...58 career R...Former walk-on
23	Jessica Heese	True FR...1st career start vs. Charleston So...2-time first-team All-State honoree in HS...Top 10 in state in 7 hitting categories as Sr
24	Alyssa Wunderlich	Two-time honorable mention MVC Scholar-Athlete...23 career Ws...4.24 career ERA...262.1 career innings...0 ER in 1.2 IP in 2015
25	Shaye Harre	2014 All-MVC...53 career RBIs...Game-tying grand slam vs. Morehead St...Pitching W & walkoff RBI vs. UMBC...Started all 71 G in car
27	Katie Bertelsen	2014 All-MVC...37 career wins...38 career complete games, including 20 in 2014...2 ER vs. #5 Kentucky...6 of team's 8 Ws \| FEATURE
28	Taylor Harris	59 career games and 18 career starts...Went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs against Texas A&M Corpus Christi in 2014....329 career OBP
32	Jessa Thomas	Started 10x at C in 2015..Caught 2 base stealers in 2015...1.000 FLD%...2-out double started three-run rally vs. UMBC
33	Meredith Wilson	2-time All-MVC (2012, 13)...149 career starts...25 career doubles...Two 2-out RBIs vs. Ohio St...Game-tying HR vs. N Colorado
59	Savanna Dover	True freshman...First career W vs. Morehead State...5 Ks vs. Ohio State (2/7), BYU (2/27) & Creighton (3/9)...CG vs. Creighton