Salukis return home to host Coach B Classic

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southern Illinois University softball team returns home to Charlotte West Stadium to host the Coach B Classic from Friday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, March 1. Southern welcomes Creighton, Purdue Fort Wayne, Murray State and Northern Kentucky to Carbondale for the three-day tournament. A full schedule is available here.

QUICK HITS

•Southern comes into the Coach B Classic having won six of its last seven games.
• The 2020 edition of the Coach B Classic marks the 17th season that Southern has hosted the early season tournament in honor of former head coach Kay Brechtelsbauer. Dr. Brechtelsbauer was inducted into the Saluki Hall of Fame in 1994 and amassed a 633-438-2 record in 32 seasons at the helm, which included five NCAA Tournament appearances.
• SIU is 42-21 (.667) all-time at the Coach B Classic.
• Southern will open the home portion of its 2020 schedule on Friday at 2:30 p.m. against IPFW.
• The Salukis are 14-6 (.700) all-time in home openers under head coach Kerri Blaylock.
• Sarah Harness earned her first career MVC weekly honor after an impressive weekend in the circle. Harness leads all MVC freshmen in wins (4), innings pitched (45.2), strikeouts (43) and complete games (4).
• Kerri Blaylock is one win shy of 700 for her career. When she reaches the milestone, she will join Missouri State's Holly Hesse and Illinois State's Melinda Fischer as the only coaches in MVC history to win 700-plus games as a head coach. The winningest coach in program history, Blaylock is 40 wins shy of passing Itchy Jones for the most wins by a head coach - male or female - in SIU's illustrious history.
• Katelyn Massa homered twice at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational - which moved her into seventh on SIU's all-time home run list.
• Maddy Vermejan is three runs shy of cracking the Top-10 for runs scored in program history.
• Susie Baranski's next hit will move her into a tie for 25th on SIU's all-time hits list.
• Maddy Vermejan's double against Michigan State moved her into 10th on SIU's all-time list with 32 doubles. Jenny Jansen is tied for 13th with 30 career doubles.

History hosting the Coach B Classic

• The 2020 edition of the Coach B Classic marks the 17th season that Southern has hosted the early season tournament in honor of former head coach Kay Brechtelsbauer. Dr. Brechtelsbauer was inducted into the Saluki Hall of Fame in 1994 and amassed a 633-438-2 record in 32 seasons at the helm, which included five NCAA Tournament appearances.
• The 2002, 2003 and 2015 editions of tournament were canceled due to weather while last season's tournament was moved to Chattanooga.
• The Feb. 28th start date of the Coach B Classic is the earliest it has been since 2004, when it also began on the Feb. 28.
• SIU is 42-21 (.667) all-time at the Coach B Classic.

Home Opener

• SIU will open the home portion of its 2020 schedule on Friday at 2:30 p.m. against IPFW.
• Southern is 14-6 (.700) all-time in home openers under head coach Kerri Blaylock.

Scouting IPFW

• The Mastadons are 1-10 on the season and come into Friday on a five-game skid.
• IPFW comes into the weekend sporting a 6.90 earned run average.
• This marks the first-ever meeting between SIU and IPFW.

Scouting Murray State

• The Racers are 9-4 on the season, which includes a win over UNI and a run-rule victory over Drake. Murray State went 2-2 last week at the Stinger Classic in Montgomery, Ala.
• The Racers rank in the top-20 nationally in a pair of categories- shutouts (14th; 5) and double plays per game (20th; .54). Murray State's ace Hannah James ranks fourth nationally in shutouts with three.

All-time vs. Murray State

• This will mark the 12th meeting between Murray State and SIU.
• The Salukis are 7-4 all-time vs. the Racers after the two teams split last season. The Salukis won the most recent meeting, 4-0 on April 2, behind a three-hit complete game shutout by Holly Marousek.
• Southern is 5-2 all-time at home against Murray State.
• This also marks Murray State's fourth-straight appearance at the Coach B Classic.

Scouting Northern Kentucky

• Northern Kentucky is 4-5 on the season and have lost four of its last five.
• The Norse are hitting .257 as a squad with a team ERA of 3.56.
• NKU reclassified to NCAA DI in 2013.
• This will mark the first-ever meeting between Northern Kentucky and SIU.

Scouting Creighton

• The Blue Jays sport a 7-5 record and have won four of their last five games.
• Creighton leads the Big East Conference with a .308 team batting average. Ashley Cantu ranks 27th nationally with a .500 batting average.

All-Time vs. Creighton

• The Salukis are 24-32 all-time vs. the Bluejays, who left the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013 after 36 years of being a member school. Southern is 19-28 all-time against Creighton under head coach Kerri Blaylock.
• The Salukis have won six of the last nine games in the series, including a split between the two schools at last season's Southern Invitational.

Harness named MVC Newcomer of the Week

• Sarah Harness earned her first career MVC weekly honor after an impressive weekend in the circle.
• The Bowling Green, Mo. native earned back-to-back complete game wins against Fordham and Michigan State.
• In the win over Fordham, the freshman hurler allowed just one run on four hits and struck out a career-high 13. The following day, she scattered six hits and gave up just one earned run while striking out seven to lead SIU to its first win over a Big Ten opponent since 2017.
• Harness produced a 1.26 earned run average in 16 and two third innings over the weekend with an over 7:1 (23:3) strikeout-to-walk ratio.
• Her 13 strikeouts against Fordham are the second-most in the Missouri Valley Conference this season.
• Harness leads all MVC freshmen in wins (4), innings pitched (45.2), strikeouts (43) and complete games (4).

Getting it done defensively

• Southern, who finished the 2019 season ranked third in the nation in fielding percentage, is currently 30th in the category through the first three weeks of the 2020 season.
• The Salukis rank second in the Valley with a .974 fielding percentage.
• SIU has committed just nine errors, the second-fewest in the MVC to Drake's seven.

Coming up on a milestone

• Kerri Blaylock is one win shy of 700 for her career. When she reaches the milestone, she will join Missouri State's Holly Hesse and Illinois State's Melinda Fischer as the only coaches in MVC history to win 700-plus games as a head coach.
• The winningest coach in program history, Blaylock is 40 wins shy of passing Itchy Jones for the most wins by a head coach - male or female - in SIU's illustrious history.
• Blaylock will likely be the fastest to 700 career wins in conference history.

Head coach- Games took to reach 700 wins
• Kerri Blaylock (SIU) - 1,077 career games (not including any played during Coach B Classic)
• Melinda Fischer (Ill. St.) - 1,123 games
• Holly Hesse (Missour State) - 1,386 games

• Blaylock will be the 39th head coach, all-time, to win all 700 games at the same institution.

Taking one for the team

• Maddy Vermejan is second to South Carolina's Kenzi Maguire for the most hit by pitches of any active NCAA DI player.
• Vermejan's 54 career hit by pitches rank second in school history. Allie Vadeboncouer was hit by an astounding 71 pitches while a catcher at SIU from 2011-14.
• Vermejan led the Valley in total walks (hit by pitches plus bases on balls) in 2019.
• Has reached base in seven-straight games and is hitting .412 (7-for-17) with a .630 on-base percentage during that stretch.
• She also tied a career-high with three walks against Fordham (2/21/20).

4 in the Top-15 of School History

• Four Salukis currently rank in the Top-15 in program history for on-base percentage (mini. 200 ABs).
• Maddy Vermejan is currently third at .454, while Jenny Jansen ranks 10th at .412. Katelyn Massa is 12th at .403 while Susie Baranski ranks 14th with a .401 on-base percentage.
• Shaye Harre holds the school record with a .476 on-base percentage.
• 10 of the Top-15 career on-base percentages have come during associate head coach/hitting coach Jen Sewell's tenure.

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Players Mentioned

Susie Baranski

Sarah Harness

Jenny Jansen

Holly Marousek

Katelyn Massa

Maddy Vermejan

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