April 4, 2000

The Tigers (26-16, 2-4) take on their Big 12 Conference rival Kansas Jayhawks Wednesday at 5 p.m. at University Field. Missouri is due for a big conference win, and is always up for a fight against the Jayhawks. The game will be televised live on College Sports Southwest. It is Missouri's second TV game of the season. The only station in Missouri airing the game will be MetroSports in the Kansas City area. The game will also be on KCOU 88.1 FM. Outside of the Columbia area you can listen to the game via the Internet. The Tigers, now sixth in the Big 12, are coming off a split conference series with the Texas Longhorns. Missouri curbed a five game losing streak with Sunday's 3-1 win over Texas.

The Jayhawks also split a weekend series with a conference team from Texas. Kansas beat the Texas A&M Aggies 2-1 on Saturday, their first conference win. They dropped a 0-2 decision to the Aggies on Sunday. They play a doubleheader against Creighton on Tuesday night before heading to Columbia on Wednesday.

The Tigers are hitting .279 as a team. The Tiger pitchers have held opponents to a .199 average, which leads the conference, and a 1.53 ERA.

In conference games the Tigers have a considerably lower .233 average. The pitchers have a 1.45 ERA.

Missouri leads the series between the two teams, 41-35.

The Low Down on the Opposition

Kansas is just below Missouri in the conference race with a 1-3 record. They have a 19-18 record overall.

The Jayhawks were batting .228 overall as a team and .165 in conference games prior to a non-conference doubleheader against Creighton Tuesday evening. Shelly Musser is the leading hitter with a .333 average. She leads her team in hits with 28, runs scored with 18, triples with two and stolen bases with 17 in 21 attempts. Megan Urquahart is just behing Musser with a .273 average. She leads the Jayhawks in RBI with 18 and doubles with eight.

The Jayhawks have a 2.63 team ERA. None of their pitchers has below a 2.00 ERA. Sarah (Workman) Clopton is the Kansas pitching ace. In 21 appearances she has a 2.01 ERA and a 10-7 record. In 114.2 innings she has struck out 91 batters.

The Coaches

Missouri head coach Jay Miller is one of the most respected and winningest active coaches in Division I softball. In addition to 13 seasons at Missouri, Miller has coached on the international level as well. Most recently he coached USA Blue, the Olympic alternate team, this summer in a series against the Olympic team. Miller has a 641-543 record overall and a 488-237 record at Missouri. He is assisted by Mindy Johnson, a former All-Big 12 right fielder for Oklahoma, and Annie Smith.

Tracy Bunge is in her fourth year at the helm of the Kansas Softball program. She has a 116-105 record at Kansas and a 207-172 record in her seven years as a head coach. Prior to coming to Kansas, Bunge served as the head coach at Ohio for two years. Bunge played for the Jayhawks from 1983-86. In 1986 she was given All-America honors and was inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame in 1987. Bungee is assited by Julie Wright and Drew Christmon.

Last Time Against the Jayhawks

Missouri and Kansas faced off five times last year. They played each other twice in the Metrodome Classic in Minneapolis, Minn., once at each team's home field and finally, in the Big 12 Tournament. KU won four of the five games, the only game they lost was the one played at University Field.

In the game in the Big 12 Tournament, Jamie Lowry and Shawna Robinson each had two hits for the Tigers, but Missouri left four runners stranded and never got anyone beyond second base.

Consecutive singles by Kansas' Amy Hulse, Shelly Musser and Courtney Wright scored the only run of the game.

Sarah Workman (now Clopton) pitched the 1-0 shutout for the Jayhawks. Stephanie Falk took the loss after pitching 15 consecutive innings the previous day.