April 19, 2002
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Mizzou Hosts Final Big 12 Home Games of 2002 this Weekend
The University of Missouri softball (27-28 overall, 1-13 in the Big 12) team looks to extend its current four-game winning streak this weekend as they welcome Texas Tech (12-36 overall, 1-13 in the Big 12) to University Field. The Tigers are coming off of 4-2 win at Kansas on Thursday afternoon while Tech has dropped their last nine contests including two losses to No. 16 Texas on Wednesday.
The Tigers are hosting their final home Big 12 series of the season and will be honoring the four members of their senior class on Sunday.
A Look at Texas Tech
The Red Raiders have fallen upon some tough times recently dropping their last nine contests checking in with a 12-36 overall mark and a 1-13 record in the Big 12. That being said, Tech did show some major signs of life on Wednesday against Texas. They took the Longhorns to eight innings before Texas would take the game, 3-2 and would hang in there in the second game as well losing 2-0 to the No. 16 team in the land.
Tech is led offensively by junior short stop Kristi Robles with a .274 batting average, 10 doubles and 23 RBI. They are coached by Bobby Reeves, who is in his second year as the head coach at TTU and lead the all time series with Mizzou, 9-8.
Last Season Against the Red Raiders April 21 in Columbia TTU 1, MU 0 April 22 in Columbia TTU 1, MU 0
Legal Streaking
The Tigers are in the midst of a four-game winning streak dating back to last Sunday's win over No. 4 Nebraska in Lincoln. All four of the wins have come on the road. Two of the wins have been against Big 12 competition. The four straight wins is the second-longest winning streak of the season for Mizzou. Several Tigers, and not exactly the usual suspects, have been knocking the cover off of the ball. Senior catcher Mary McGrane has hit .545 with six hits (three doubles) and nine total bases. Melanie Fisher and Rachael McGinnis have also done some damage recording three home runs, eight RBI and 18 total bases between the two of them.
Who's En Fuego
* The obvious answer to the question would be the Tigers as a team. Four straight road wins...far out man.
* After going 0-for-3 in Game 1 against the Kangaroos on Tuesday, Allister went wild in Game 2 going 4-for-5 with an RBI while scoring two runs.
* Freshman Erin Kalka has given up only 12 hits and no earned runs in 15.0 innings of work in her last three outings. She is now 13-11 on the year.
* Junior Melanie Fisher has recorded a home run in two of the Tigers last four games including the game-winner in Mizzou's 1-0 win over UMKC on Tues.
* Freshman Heather Kunkel has slated four hits in the last five games and has blasted a hit in 12 of the last 15 games.
* Junior Sara Vassmer has scored a hit in five straight contests.
A Black and Golden Opportunity Continues
The Tigers are currently in 9th place in the Big 12 with a 3-11 league mark after splitting last weekends series with Nebraska, sweeping the series with UMKC and then taking a game from KU . However, the Tigers are only four games back in the loss column behind the fifth place team in the league, the No. 24 Texas A & M Aggies, whom the Tigers face in the final weekend of the season. Mizzou also has a weekend home series on April 20-21 with the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who are in 10th place in the conference.
If Mizzou wants to make a run at improving its seed in the Big 12 Conference Tournament next month, now is definitely the time.
Spinning Your Favorite Records Every Season, Your Listening to the Missouri Softball Network
Several Tigers are making major moves in the Mizzou softball record books. Here is a breakdown of some of the movers and shakers.
Rachael McGinnis ranks... -7th on the single season RBI charts (43). -would rank second on the Mizzou charts in single season slugging percentage if the season were to end today (.626) - 6th on the single season home run charts (7). -tied for 10th on the Mizzou career homerun charts (9). Ingrid Werner ranks... -9th on the career appearance chart (93). -10th on the career innings pitched (399.1). -8th on the career strike outs charts (211). Erin Erickson ranks... -6th on the career doubles charts (33) -5th on the career homerun charts (14) -5th on the career put outs charts (959) Mary McGrane ranks... -8th on the career put outs charts (739) -1st on the career fielding percentage charts (.995)
The Hits Just Keep on Coming
Sophomore Rachael McGinnis, who currently ranks sixth in single season home runs at MU with seven, showed signs of heating up again going 2-for-3 with a homerun and three RBI on Thursday against Kansas. She is second in the league in hitting (.392), and leads the league in hits (62), triples (5, tied with senior teammate Lindsey Jacoby) and total bases (102).
McGinnis has recorded two or more hits in 18 games this season and recorded a 13-game hit streak earlier in the year. If the season were to end today, McGinnis' .392 batting average would rank third on the MU single season charts.
Swingin' For the Fences
After not hitting a home run in three straight contests earlier this month, the Tigers have exploded for five crush jobs in the last five game.
Junior Melanie Fisher was the first to break out with her second home run of the season in the top of the first inning last Sunday against Nebraska giving Mizzou a 1-0 lead. Fisher would hit her second in as many games in the Game 1 of Mizzou's series with UMKC, a majestic game-winning shot to center field.
Seniors Erin Erickson and Lindsey Jacoby would also get in on the act. Erickson hit her second of the year in the fourth inning on Sunday against the Huskers which plated two Tiger runs. Jacoby broke out of an 0-16 slump with an opposite way job in Game 2 of the Tigers series against UMKC in Independence.
Sophomore Rachael McGinnis kept the power surge going on Thursday when she recorded her seventh round tripper. Mizzou has now hit 25 home runs as a team on the season, which ranks sixth in the Big 12 and is already more than double the number of home runs the Tigers hit in 2001.
The Last Time Out
Mizzou Softball Wins Fourth Straight
Tigers sweep the season series from Kansas with 4-2 win.
Lawrence, Kan.-The University of Missouri softball team (27-28, 3-11 Big 12) stretched its current winning streak to four games on Thursday, taking out Kansas (29-19, 5-7 Big 12), 4-2. The four-game stretch is the second longest winning streak Mizzou has registered this season with the longest being a 10-gamer in the first part of March.
Mizzou continued its recent power surge to open the Tiger scoring in the first inning as sophomore Rachael McGinnis pounded her seventh homerun of the season driving in senior Heather Allister and junior Melanie Fisher to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. The shot was Mizzou's fifth homerun in the last four games and was hit right into the teeth of a 33 mile-per-hour southwest wind.
The Jayhawks would respond in the bottom of the first scoring an earned run and then chasing starter Ingrid Werner after two plus innings after she walked the leadoff batter of the inning and 2-0 to Shelly Musser. Freshman Erin Kalka would then enter the game and would allow a run to score on two hits, but the Tigers maintained a 3-2 lead after three innings.
Mizzou would score its fourth run in the top of the fourth when senior Mary McGrane, who went 2-for-2 with a walk and a double, scored on an errant throw by the third baseman on a hard-hit ball by sophomore Morgan LeCluyse. Kalka was excellent from there as she handcuffed the Jayhawks for five hits, no runs and two strikeouts in 5.0 innings of relief to get the win. Kalka has not allowed a run in her last 15.0 innings of work.