Southern drops regular season finale to Missouri State, 4-1

Sunday, May 3

Carbondale, Ill.

12:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

21-25-1, 0

Missouri State

29-24, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Missouri State	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	4	11	0
Southern Illinois	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	0

05/03/2015 | 12:00:00 | Softball

Box Score

May 3, 2015

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

Box Score

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois softball team dropped its regular-season finale to Missouri State on Sunday, 4-1. Missouri State (29-24, 17-9 MVC) clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament with the win, while the Salukis (21-25-1, 15-11 MVC) will be the No. 5 seed and face Indiana State on Thursday morning.

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Both teams' pitchers threw well in their second starts of the series, but MSU's Erin Struemph out-dueled Saluki ace Katie Bertelsen thanks to 10 strikeouts. Despite the loss, SIU took the series from Missouri State thanks to yesterday's doubleheader sweep.

"Coming into the weekend, I wanted to beat them two out of three times," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "They're a great team. They're second (in the MVC) for a reason. They were playing for first. Our kids did a great job all weekend. Struemph is one of the best pitchers in the league, and she got us today."

Missouri State got a run in the first inning, but SIU limited the damage to just one run after the Bears had two runners in scoring position with no outs. Shaye Harre tied the game up with a solo home run in the fourth inning, but Missouri State got a two-run homer in the sixth and another run in the seventh. SIU had runners in scoring position in five of the seven innings, but Struemph's 10 strikeouts--five looking--kept SIU at bay.

Struemph had only given up two earned runs to SIU in 10.1 innings last year, but Southern scored five on her in the series opener, a 5-4 Saluki win. Today, the 6-0 righty showed why she finished the year with the third-best ERA in the conference.

"She's a strikeout pitcher," Blaylock said. "Last year she handled us pretty well. That's why I thought yesterday was so special, what we did to her. And we actually had a shot to win today, so I feel good."

SIU finished the regular season at 21-25-1, 15-11 MVC and will be the No. 5 seed in the MVC Tournament, held in Wichita, Kan. The Salukis will face the No. 8 seed, Indiana State, on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. CT, with the winner advancing to face Wichita State Thursday afternoon.

For the first time in MVC history, all eight teams in the tournament have at least 13 MVC wins. SIU finished with an identical conference record as last year (15-11); but after being a No. 3 seed last year, SIU will be the No. 5 seed this year and miss out on a first-round bye thanks to the parity among the top eight teams.

"Guess who won it last year: a five-seed," Blaylock said. "The last several years a four or a five-seed has won it. There's a bunch of us with more than 13 wins. We're all pretty even. I feel comfortable with our pitching with (Savanna) Dover coming on."

SIU seniors Kalyn Harker and Katie Bertelsen finished the 2015 MVC regular season with outstanding conference seasons. Against MVC competition, Harker led the league in batting average by 34 points (.466), and Bertelsen led the conference in wins (13). SIU has won seven of its last nine MVC games and eight of its last 11.

"I just saw the fight in our kids," Blaylock said. "We're actually playing pretty well. I know when we're heading out looking bad, and I feel like we've looked pretty good. We just have to take it one game at a time."

UP NEXT: Southern Illinois will face Indiana State in the first round of the MVC Tournament at 11 a.m. CT on Thursday. The winner will advance to face Wichita State at 4 p.m. the same day, and the winner of that game will face top-seeded Drake on Friday at noon with a trip to the title game on the line.

NOTES: Kalyn Harker led the league in batting average in MVC play at .466, becoming the first SIU player to do so since Lauren Haas did it in 2008 and just the third player in school history to win the MVC-only batting crown (Krystal Stein, 2005)...Katie Bertelsen led the MVC in conference wins with 13, tied with UNI's Chelsea Ross...Bertelsen is the sixth SIU player to lead the MVC in conference wins and last since Danielle Glosson tied an MVC record with 16 wins in 2010...Harker has hit safely in 12 consecutive MVC games...Kelsey Gonzalez extended her streak of consecutive games reached base to 17, the longest stretch on the team this year.