Salukis host UNI on senior weekend

Game Notes (PDF)

Saluki softball (27-20, 10-11 MVC, third place) close out the regular season this weekend with three games at home against Northern Iowa (25-23, 10-12 MVC tied for fourth place). Southern can finish as high as third in the MVC standing with a good showing this weekend. Saturday will be senior day for the Salukis. The team will honor it's five seniors, Haley Andrus, Sydney Jones, Savanna Dover, Savannah Fisher and Brittany Turner.

Schedule, forecast and media links

Saturday's doubleheader will be the Salukis senior day celebration in which Southern's five seniors will be honored in a ceremony after the completion of the second game of the double header. Sunday is the Donate Life Game, the Salukis will wear special uniforms to help raise awareness for organ and tissue donations. The entire series is the "Study Break Series", in which we invite students to take a break from preparing for finals to take in some softball.

Game Notes

Leading off...

The Salukis are 27-20 on the season and in third place at 10-11 in the MVC.
Junior pitcher Brianna Jones is 22-7 on the season. She has the 14th most wins in the nation.
Sophomore Katelyn Massa is challenging the single-season RBI record. She has 45. The program record is 51. There are still three regular-season games to play.
Freshman Jenny Jansen is having a breakout season hitting .325 with 7 home runs and 24 RBIs. She is top-five all-time among freshman at SIU in doubles and top-10 in home runs.

Milestone/Record watch...

Southern's long time head coach Kerri Blaylock is surpassed several milestones this season

As of 5/4 she is...

The all-time leader in wins at SIU with 654. She passed Kay Brechtelsbauer with her 634th on Feb. 23 against UConn.
Managed her 1,000th game against UT-Martin on March 14 in a 2-1 win.
She won her 300th Missouri Valley Conference game on April 28 against Evansville 1-0 in 16 innings.

Nationally Ranked Statistically

(Top-50 only)

Maddy Vermejan is third in the nation in hit by pitch per game. She's been hit 21 times in 47 games for an average of .45.
Kyleigh Decker is 28th in the nation in hit by pitch per game. She's been hit 14 times in 47 games for an average of 0.30.
Brianna Jones has won 22 games this year; good for 29th in the nation.
She is also 44th in the nation in strikeouts with 193.

MVC Leading Salukis...

Vermejan is tops in the Valley in hit by pitch per game with 0.45 per game. Decker is second on the MVC.
Vermejan also leads the league in on-base percentage at .491.
Katelyn Massa tops the league in RBIs per game at 1.00. Her 45 RBIs lead the league.
Brianna Jones leads the Conference in wins with 22.

Starting Fast...

The Salukis are 19-3 this season when they score first, 11-3 when they score in the first inning and 8-2 when leading after one inning. Adversely, the team is 5-8 when trailing after the first inning and 7-7 when allowing runs in the first inning.

Sophomore slump?

Sophomore Katelyn Massa leads the team in RBI (45), home runs (9), doubles (11), slugging percentage (.576), walks (26) and total bases (83).
She has already surpassed her 2017 numbers in doubles, home runs, RBIs, runs scored, total bases, walks and steals.
Massa has been named the MVC Player of the Week twice this season. First on Feb. 19, after her performances at the Gamecock Invitational and again on March 19, after the Loyola series.
This year, sophomore Maddy Vermejan has hit five home runs and earned 26 RBI. She leads the team in batting average (.365), runs scored (36), hit-by-pitches (21) and on-base percentage (.491).
In all of 2016, she had just 20 RBI and didn't hit a round-tripper.
Vermejan was named as the MVC Player of the Week on April 23, after she hit three home runs and had 10 RBI in a three-game series at Bradley.
Sophomore first baseman is in her first year as a full-time starter.
She's played in all 47 games and is hitting .271 with five homers and 18 RBIs. She leads the team in triples with two.
Last year, Decker appeared in just five games and hit .120 with a homer and 5 RBIs.

Ace in the hole...

Saluki junior Brianna Jones is off to a fantastic start to the 2018 season.
Jones is 18-7 with 159 strikeouts, 44 walks and 19 complete games, three of which have been shutouts. She currently has an ERA of 2.22.
Jones earned the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week Award on March 12 for her performance at the USF Under Armour Showcase after going 3-0 with 23 strikeouts, four walks, three complete games and holding opposing hitters to a batting average of .181.
Twice this year she has struck out 10 hitters. She did so once against Mercer on 2/16 and again against Maine on 3/11.
On April 28, Jones set a program record for strikeouts in a game with 20 in a 16-inning shutout. Her 16.0 innings pitched in the game tied for the most in program history. Jones and Evansville's starter Morgan Florey struck out a combined 46 batters to set a new NCAA record for combined strikeouts in a game between two starting pitchers.

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