Salukis to host Ramblers for three-game series

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois University softball team continues its seven-game homestand with a three-game series against Loyola. The final MVC series between the two teams begins on Saturday, March 26 with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. followed by one game on Sunday, March 27 at 1 p.m. The Ramblers come into Saturday's contest after taking two of three from Bradley while the Salukis are looking for their first conference series win of the season. All three games can be viewed on ESPN3.

New RBI Queen

With her seven RBI last week, Jenny Jansen broke Shaye Harre's school record for most career RBI.
The Preseason All-MVC selection became Southern's all-time leader with a three-run single against UNI on March 19.
She currently leads the Valley with 20 RBI on the season.
Jansen, who's 160 career RBI rank her fourth in Valley history, will need a herculean effort to break the conference record for career RBI. She's currently 32 RBIs shy of Illinois State's Jordan de los Reyes MVC record of 191.

Another record coming up

Earlier this season, Jenny Jansen became the sixth player in program history, and first since Haley Gorman in 2012, to join the 200-career hit club.
She is joined by Macy Johnson (Drake), Daphne Plummer (Missouri St) and Bella Peterson (Indiana St.) as the only current players in the Valley with 200 career base knocks.
Jansen's 217 career hits rank her third in program history and she is quickly approaching Jen Feldmeier's school record of 223 career hits, set in 1999.

Jen Feldmeier - 223

Becky Lis - 221

Jenny Jansen - 217

On-base machine

Ashley Wood currently leads the Valley with a .484 on-base percentage.
Wood's streak of 22-straight games in which she reached base at least once came to an end on March 20. Her 22-game reached base streak is just the 10th streak of 20-plus games or more by a Saluki since 2003.
She has reached base safely at least once in 22 of Southern's 23 games this season and with her .408 lifetime on-base percentage is currently one of 15 players in school history with a .400 or better career on-base percentage.

She's a Workhorse

Sarah Harness currently leads the MVC in innings pitched (90.2) and is second in the league in strikeouts (74).
Last season, Harness led the Valley in innings pitched (187.1) and finished second in both wins (22) and strikeouts (203).
Harness has led the league in innings pitched and finished second in strikeouts in each of her two previous seasons, which included the COVID-shortened 2020 season in which she led the Valley with 90.2 innings pitched and was second Evansville's Izzy Vetter with 83 strikeouts.
Her 355.0 career innings pitched rank 14th in school history and with 35 more innings pitched this season, can crack the top-10.

30-Plus Bombs

Jenny Jansen crushed her 31st career home run on March 19 against UNI.
Jansen is just the seventh player in program history to reach the 30 career home run milestone and her 31st bomb moved her into a tie with Katelyn Massa for the fifth-most in school history.
Katie Jordan holds the school record for most career home runs with 39.

200-career game

Jansen will play in her 200th career game Saturday during game one of SIU's doubleheader against Loyola.
The do-it-all fifth-year senior will be just the 25th player in program history to play in 200-plus career games.

Finding a way

Sidney Sikes continues to find a way to get on-base for the Salukis, and has reached base safely in 18 of the 23 games she has played in this season.
Sikes has been hit by a pitch in nine games this season, which included twice at Troy on Feb. 11.
The senior from Kaufman, Texas currently leads the Valley, and ranks fifth nationally, in hit by pitches per game (.43/game).
Sikes' 35 career hit by pitches are the third-most in school history.
Sikes comes into this weekend's series after a particularly productive weekend at the dish against UNI. The catcher/third basemen tallied a hit in all three games, which included the first and second home runs of her career.

Back in the swing of things

Bailey Caylor has returned to the form that saw her earn 2021 All-MVC honors as a freshman.
After going just 1-for-11 at the plate in her first six games of the 2022 season, Caylor now has at least one hit in four of her last five games and in nine of her last 11 contests.
Caylor is hitting .357 (5-of-14) in her last five games with four walks.

Breakout season underway

Aubree DePron is in the midst of a breakout season at the plate.
She's already set or tied career-highs for hits in a season (20), doubles (2), home runs (1), RBI (8), walks (7) and stolen bases (7). Her seven walks through 23 games this season are more than she had in the 60 career games (5) she played in prior to the start of this season.
The Blanchard, Okla. native's career-high nine-game hit streak came to an end in game two of SIU's March 19 doubleheader against UNI.

Getting more acclimated

Emma Austin hit .400 last week week and tallied the first multi-hit game of her collegiate career against the UNI Panthers.
The freshman outfielder tallied a walk, a run scored and two hits last week.
She scored a run in SIU's win over SIUE and followed with a 2-for-2 day at the plate against UNI on March 19. She later drew a walk against the Panthers in the series finale.

Hits in bunches

Rylie Hamilton leads the Salukis with 10 multi-hit games, which includes a trio of three-hit games. Hamilton has multi-hit games in four of her eight games.
Hamilton had her career-best 13-game reached base streak come to an end in game two against Northern Iowa on March 19.
Hamilton currently ranks third in the MVC in batting average (.368) and is fourth in hits (28).

Swinging a hot bat

Elisabeth Huckleberry has tied her career-best for hits in a game, three, twice already this season.
Huckleberry has reached base safely at least once in 16 of the 19 games she has played in this season and has an active nine-game reached base streak.
The sophomore infielder has a hit in six of her last eight games.

Grand Salami

Tori Schullian's grand slam in the 15th inning lifted SIU to a 6-2 win over Missouri State on March 16.
Schullian's slam was the first of the season for the Salukis and the first since Jansen cleared the bases against Drake on March 20, 2021.
It was the first home run hit by a Saluki in extra frames since Kyleigh Decker went yard in the eighth inning of SIU's 8-6 win over Murray State on March 17, 2020.
It was the third career home run for Schullian and she also tied her career-high with three hits in the win.

As complete of a game as complete games go

Sarah Harness went the distance in SIU's 15-inning win over Missouri State on March 16.
The junior hurler allowed just two earned runs on seven hits and struck out 11.
Harness and Stephanie Dickerson, who also went the distance, are tied for the longest outing in NCAA DI this season.

Tough luck loss

Madi Eberle took the loss in game two of SIU's doubleheader with Missouri State despite retiring the side in five of the six innings she pitched.
It marked the fourth start of five innings or more this season for Eberle in which she has allowed two hits or fewer. She has started eight games in the circle this season.

Longest game since….

SIU's 15-inning win over Missouri State on March 16 was its first extra inning MVC game since April 28, 2019 at UNI (W, 7-5 // 8 innings).
It was the longest game for SIU since its 1-0 win over Evansville in 16 innings on April 28, 2018.

When the bats are rolling…

Southern has tallied double-digit hits in seven games this season.
The Salukis are 9-2 this season when out-hitting their opponent and 5-2 when tallying double-digit hits.

Offense at a premium

SIU leads the Valley in batting average (.282), on-base percentage (.384) and scoring (5.61/runs per game).
Southern is one of 17 teams nationally to currently lead its conference in all three categories.
Other programs that lead their conference in all three categories: Duke (ACC), George Mason (A-10), Oklahoma (Big 12), Sacramento State (Big Sky), Nebraska (Big 10), Marshall (Conference USA), Rider (MAAC), Bowling Green (MAC), Norfolk (MEAC), Saint Francis (NEC), Boston U (Patriot), Grambling (SWAC), Southeastern LA (Southland), Louisiana (Sun Belt), Grand Canyon (WAC), BYU (WCC).

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Players Mentioned

Emma Austin

Bailey Caylor

Aubree DePron

Madi Eberle

Rylie Hamilton

Sarah Harness

Elisabeth Huckleberry

Jenny Jansen

Katelyn Massa

Tori Schullian

Sidney Sikes

Ashley Wood

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