Salukis travel to Chicago to take on Ramblers

The Southern Illinois University softball team travels to Chicago, Ill. to take on the Loyola Ramblers for a three-game series beginning Friday, April 2. First pitch for Friday's Missouri Valley Conference doubleheader is set for 12 p.m. while Sunday's game is tentatively set for an 11 a.m. start time. All three games can be streamed on ESPN3.

All-time vs. Loyola

• SIU leads the all-time series 14-5 in a rivalry that dates back to 1996.

Southern's last series win came in 2018 when the Salukis took two of three from the Ramblers at Charlotte West Stadium.
Loyola's last series win came in 2017 when it took two out of three from Southern.
The two teams split a doubleheader in Chicago in 2019- Loyola won the first game, 5-4 on a walk-off home run before Southern took the nightcap, 8-3.

• SIU's last three-game sweep in the series, and last sweep in Chicago, came in 2015.

Broke out the Brooms

• The Salukis swept the three-game series from the Bradley Braves this past week, which included a 10-2 run-rule win over the Braves on March 28.

• Southern outscored Bradley, 20-4 to sweep the Braves for the first time since 2016.

• SIU's series win over Bradley marked the eighth-straight series win for the Salukis over the Braves in a streak that dates back to 2012.

Cracked the Top-5

• Katelyn Massa totaled 7 RBIs in SIU's three-game sweep of the Bradley Braves last weekend.

• With her 7 RBIs, Massa cracked the top-five of SIU's all-time RBI list.

• Massa currently ranks fourth in school history with 134 career RBIs. She needs 22 RBIs to break the all-time career RBI record, set by Shaye Harre.

SIU's all-time RBI leaders

155 - Shaye Harre (2014-17)

147 - Jayna Spivey (2011-14)

137 - Taylor Orsburn (2011-14)

134 - Katelyn Massa (2017-pres.)

Coming up clutch in the three-hole

• Maris Boelens hit in the three-hole for the first time this season in SIU's sweep of Bradley and put up impressive numbers.

• Boelens recorded multiple hits in all three wins and hit .600 (6-for-10) for the series.

• In SIU's 6-1 game one win, Boelens went 2-for-3 with a career-high tying 3 RBIs.

• In Southern's 10-2 run-rule win over the Braves on Sunday, Boelens went 2-for-3 and tied her career-best with two runs scored.

• Boelens had drove in multiple runs three times in 110 career games prior to this season. She already has three multi-RBI games in 26 games this season.

Moved into third

• Maddy Vermejan scored five runs last week for the Salukis to move into the Top-3 in school history for career runs scored.

• Vermejan's 150 career runs are tied with Becky Lis for the third-most in program history.

• Vermejan needs to score 13 runs to pass Mallory Duran-Sellers for the most runs scored in school history.

SIU's all-time runs scored leaders

162 - Mallory Duran-Sellers (2009-12)

159 - Colleen Holloway (1990-93)

150 - Maddy Vermejan (2017-pres.)

150 - Becky Lis (1994-97)

Getting it done in non-conference play

• Southern holds an .857 winning percentage (18-3) in non-conference play this season.

• With one more non-conference games on the schedule, SIU has a chance to break the school record for the best regular season non-conference winning percentage in program history. (Note: excludes MVC/NCAA Tournament games)

• Only three Saluki teams have finished a season with a non-conference winning percentage above .800- the 1991, 2003 and 2006 teams. All three advanced to a NCAA Regional.

• In fact, of the 10 times that the Salukis have finished a regular season with a .739 non-conference winning percentage or better, they have advanced to postseason play in eight of those seasons.

• The 2020 team posted a .761 non-conference winning percentage only to see the remainder of the season cancelled due to COVID-19.

• The 1993 team (.760) missed out the NCAA Tournament but did advance to the NIC Tournament, where they went 2-1.

• The 2009 team (.782) has the highest non-conference winning percentage for a Saluki team that didn't advance to the postseason.

A hole in the middle

• The Salukis were 15-0 this season with Ashley Wood at shortstop. Wood will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.

• Jenna Christeson (1 game) and Jenny Jansen (13 games) have both started at short in Wood's absence.

• Southern has gone 8-6 without the 2019 MVC Freshman of the Year, who was hitting .317 with a .451 on-base percentage at the time of her injury.

Approaching another milestone

• The winningest coach in program history, Kerri Blaylock is eighth wins shy of passing fellow Herrin, Ill. native Itchy Jones for the most wins by a head coach - male or female - in SIU's illustrious history.

• Blaylock's 731 career wins are second to Jones' 738 career wins.

• Blaylock won her 700th career game in a 9-0 run-rule win against Purdue Fort Wayne on Feb. 29.

• Blaylock joins Missouri State's Holly Hesse and Illinois State's Melinda Fischer as the only MVC coaches to win 700 games and is the fastest of the three to reach the milestone.

Head coach- Games took to reach 700 wins

Kerri Blaylock (SIU) - 1,078 career games

Melinda Fischer (Ill. St.) - 1,123 games

Holly Hesse (Missouri State) - 1,386 games

Coming up on 100

• Katelyn Massa and Maddy Vermejan became the fourth and fifth players in school history to reach the 100-walk plateau in SIU's series sweep of Bradley.

• Massa ranks 22nd among active DI players while Vermejan ranks 24th.

• Shaye Harre has the most walks (152) all-time by a Saluki.

Full game notes are available here.

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Players Mentioned

Maris Boelens

Jenna Christeson

Jenny Jansen

Katelyn Massa

Maddy Vermejan

Ashley Wood

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