Saluki softball opens home slate Friday against Creighton, Ohio

Friday, February 22

Carbondale, Ill.

12:15 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

Creighton University

Photo by: Will Becque

Saluki softball opens home slate Friday against Creighton, Ohio

02/21/2019 | 7:52:00 | Softball

By: Will Becque, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois University softball team opens the home portion of its 2019 schedule beginning Friday, Feb. 22 with two games against Creighton and Ohio at Charlotte West Stadium. Southern will play both teams a second time on Sunday, Feb. 24. Live stat links, as well as ticket information and a full schedule for the two-day, five team event can be found here.

All-Time vs. Creighton

The Salukis are 23-31 all-time vs. the Bluejays, who left the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013 after 36 years of being a member school. Southern is 18-27 all-time against Creighton under head coach Kerri Blaylock.
The Salukis have won five of the last eight games in the series, including the last matchup between the two schools- a 3-2 win in the opening game of the 2012 MVC Tournament on May 10, 2012.

All-time vs. Ohio

This will mark the third-ever meeting between Ohio and Southern Illinois as the two have split the previous two meetings.
Southern won the first-ever meeting, a 12-8 win to open the 2011 season and the Bobcats won the second meeting- a 2-0 win on Feb. 15, 2014.

What a run

The Salukis have won seven games in a row, including a perfect 4-0 record at the Puerto Vallarta Challenge.
Southern's seven game win streak is its longest since 2017, when Southern won seven-straight in a run that culminated in SIU winning its first MVC Tournament title.
SIU's 7-2 start to the 2019 season is its best since 2010, which included the Salukis winning seven-straight after recording their second loss.

What's on the line:

With a win over Creighton on Friday, Southern will have its first eight-game win streak since 2016, when SIU won eight-straight from March 16-26, 2016.
Should SIU extend its win streak to nine with a pair of wins Friday, it would be its longest win streak since the 2012 season.
SIU's last double-digit win streak came in 2011, when the Salukis rattled off 10-straight from April 6 to April 20, 2011.
Southern hasn't had an 11-game win streak since 2009, and SIU's last 12 game win streak was during the 2005 season.

7-game win streaks all-time

The Salukis have had 39 7-plus win streaks in program history.
24 of those 39 7-or more game win streaks have come under head coach Kerri Blaylock, including six streaks of 10 or more wins.
The longest win streak in school history came during the 1991 season, when the Kay Brechtelsbauer led Salukis ran off 23-straight wins en route to winning the Gateway Championship.
Southern had two 10-plus win streaks during the '91 season, as SIU won 12-straight to open the season, suffered three-straight losses, then rattled off 23-straight victories. The Salukis went 42-7 and a perfect 14-0 in conference play that season.

Ace in the hole

Brianna Jones went 4-0 at the Puerto Vallarta Challenge to earn Tournament MVP honors and improve to 6-1 in the circle on the season.
Jones ranks second nationally in wins and is one win behind national leader Summer Ellyson of Louisiana.
Jones currently ranks no. 3 in program history in career wins with 73. She's nine wins behind Cassidy Scoggins for second and 12 shy of Amy Harre's school record of 84.
With her save earlier this season, Jones became just the seventh Saluki pitcher with 10-plus career saves. Her next save will break a three-way tie for fifth on SIU's all-time list.

MVC Weekly Honors

The Salukis have won three of the six total weekly awards that the Missouri Valley Conference has handed out this season.
Katelyn Massa was named the MVC Player of the Week after she hit .500 in the week one of the season.
Brianna Jones was named the MVC Pitcher of the Week this week after she went 4-0 in the circle with a microscopic .74 ERA against four opponents that played in the postseason a year ago. The three-time All-MVC First Team selection allowed just 13 hits in 19 innings of work and struck out 18 while walking just four.
Ashley Wood earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors after she hit a team-best .615 (8-of-13) with two extra bases hits, two walks and 3 RBI and didn't record an error in the field at shortstop for SIU in Puerto Vallarta. She recorded at least one hit in all four games, and multiple hits in three of the four games.
Wood is the first Saluki to earn MVC Newcomer of the Week since Jones did so in 2016 while Jones picked up her ninth career MVC Pitcher of the Week honor- which is tied for the fifth-most in MVC history.

Not Making Mistakes

The Salukis rank 18th nationally with a .979 fielding percentage.
Southern has committed just three errors through nine games - its fewest through nine games in recorded program history dating back to 1980.

Runs aplenty