April 29, 2003

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After recording a 4-14 record in the Big 12 Conference in 2002 and after being picked to finish ninth in the Big 12 Coaches Preseason Poll, Missouri will enter this week's Big 12 Tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Tigers finished the regular season with a 31-16 record and a 12-5 Big 12 Conference mark. They will open up play in the tournament against the No. 6 seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers, who they split with in a two-game series last weekend in Columbia. Last season, as the ninth seed, Mizzou fell to Iowa State in the opening round, 1-0, eliminating it from the tournament. The Tigers are 10-11 all-time in the Big 12 Tournament. The 10 wins is tied for the fourth most among Big 12 teams in the conference tournament. The Tigers are ranked No. 25 in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25.

A LOOK AT THE BIG 12
Texas is the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament after finishing with a 15-2 conference record. One of its two losses came to Mizzou, 1-0 on April 5. The Longhorns are the defending champions. Oklahoma State, who swept MU this year, is the No. 2 seed after finishing 13-5 in league play. Mizzou, who was picked to finish ninth in the Big 12 Coaches Preseason Poll, ended the season with a 12-5 conference mark and a No. 3 seed. The fourth seed is Oklahoma, who was 12-6 on the year in the Big 12. Following the Sooners is fifth-seeded Texas A&M with a 10-8 conference record. Nebraska is the sixth seed after finishing with a 10-8 record. Missouri split a two-game series with the Cornhuskers last weekend. The Tigers and Huskers will see each other again, as the open the tournament against each other on Friday. Iowa State (6-12) is the seventh seed, followed by Texas Tech (4-14), Kansas (4-14) and Baylor (3-15). Seeds No. 7-10 will play on Thursday in Oklahoma City. The winners of those games will advance to the double elimination portion of the tournament.

LAST TIME OUT
Missouri closed out the regular season by recording a split of a two-game series with Nebraska last weekend in Columbia. The Huskers took the opening game of the series with an 11-2 win. MU only managed four hits in the game and did not record its first hit until the fourth inning. Sunday was a different story, as Erin Kalka kept Nebraska in check. Kalka pitched a four-hit complete game for her 10th shutout of the season to improve to 19-10 on the year. Heather Kunkel was 2-for-3 on the day and scored a run. Five other Tigers picked up hits in the game as MU locked up the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Tournament with the win.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Several MU stars are moving up the charts in the career record books at Mizzou. Rachael McGinnis is fourth in career home runs at Mizzou with 19 for her career. McGinnis could become the all-time batting average leader if she were to keep up her current pace. She currently has a .360 mark for her career. The old record was .352 set by Stacey Bailey (1994-97). McGinnis is also sixth in triples (13), fourth in RBI (110) and ninth in hits (178) Morgan LeCluyse is ninth in home runs at Mizzou with 11 for career. Sara Vassmer is currently 11th in career batting average at MU, with a .321 mark. She is currently fourth in hits at MU with 207. Vassmer is also moving up the career stolen bases list at Mizzou. She has swiped 50 bases, placing her 12th all-time in Tiger softball history. Erin Kalka is currently in eighth place in career strikeouts with 323 in only her sophomore year. She also has 33 career wins, which places her 11th all-time at MU and her 14 shutouts is ninth best. Ingrid Werner is ninth in career strikeouts with 246. She is also in ninth place in innings pitched with 469.2 innings pitched and has 12 career shutouts, placing her ninth all-time. She is also ninth in complete games (37) and 10th in wins (35).

LET'S PLAY TWO
Erin Kalka has taken Ernie Banks' famous quote, "Let's play two" to heart. Four times this season Kalka has stepped into the pitcher's circle in back-to-back games against some of the best teams in the nation. Kalka took the ball in the first of two games on the final day of the UCLA Tournament, and was still in the circle when the second game ended. She pitched back-to-back complete games, striking out 16 batters and giving up no earned runs in 13 innings of work on the day. She picked up a win in a four hit shutout against Boston College to start the day. Then, against the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins, Kalka gave up no earned runs and struck out 10. Kalka again took the start in both games of a doubleheader on March 26, this time against No. 4 Oklahoma. Kalka was 1-1, pitching a three-hit shutout in the first game, as she struck out six Sooners and walked only one in a 2-0 win. She then held OU to only four hits and one run through four innings in the nightcap, before OU's Leah Gulla connected on a three-run home run, the first big hit for Oklahoma on the day against Kalka. Kalka recorded another shutout over a top five team on April 5 as she pitched a three-hit shutout against No. 5 Texas. She threw 15 innings of shutout ball against Iowa State on April 10. She recorded two shutout wins allowing just four hits in the two games. On April 21, she recorded back-to-back complete game victories against Kansas, striking out five in each game and giving up only one hit in game two.

CENTURY MARK
With the win in game one of MU's doubleheader against UMKC on April 15, Ty Singleton reached the 100-win mark for his career. Singleton currently has a 106-61 all-time record as a head coach. Prior to coming to Mizzou, he lead Northwestern State to a 75-45 record in two seasons with the Demons.THE MAC ATTACK Mizzou junior Rachael McGinnis' is currently fourth on the all-time home runs list at Mizzou, with 19 for her career. She leads the Tigers with 10 home runs this season, which is fourth best in the Big 12 Conference. She is currently second in the conference in batting with a .374 mark. McGinnis is fourth in on base percentage (.449) and is second in the Big 12 in slugging percentage (.683). McGinnis leads the team with a .374 batting average. She also leads MU in hits (52), home runs (10), RBI (34) and runs scored (35). She is tied for the team lead in triples (3), is second in stolen bases (10) and tied for third in doubles (7).

TO BE THE BEST, YOU HAVE TO BEAT THE BEST
Mizzou's 2-0 win over No. 7 Nebraska last Sunday was its third win over a top-10 team this season. On April 5, MU defeated No. 5 Texas 1-0 just a little over a week after it defeated No. 4 Oklahoma by a score of 2-0 in Norman, Okla. The following weekend, MU took a game from No. 20 Texas A&M, defeating the Aggies 6-5 in 10 innings in the second game of a two-game series. Missouri is 4-9 against Top 25 teams and 3-4 against teams in the Top 10.

J-LO
Freshman Joanne Loethen has been arguably the Tigers' most consistent player this season. She is second on the team with 44 hits on the year. Loethen has had a seven-game hitting streak, a six-game hitting streak and two four-game hitting streaks this season. The freshman is hitting .293 heading into postseason and leads the team in doubles with 10. She has stolen six bases on 10 attempts. She has had a hit in 29 of Mizzou's 47 games this season and has also had 12 multiple-hit games this year.

HITS KEEP COMING FOR KUNKEL
Of Heather Kunkel's 43 hits this season, 16 have gone for extra bases and her 28 RBI is second best on the team. She opened the season with a five-game hitting streak and had a 10-game hitting streak at one point during the year. Kunkel is second on the team in doubles with nine on the season and has five home runs and two triples. She is hitting .295 heading into the conference tournament. Kunkel is also a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts on the season.

KALKA RECEIVES BIG 12 HONOR
Erin Kalka was selected as the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week on April 8 after she led Mizzou to a 1-0 win over No. 5 Texas on April 5. The shutout was her seventh of the season as she struck out eight and allowed just three singles to the Longhorns. The win marked the second three-hit shutout over a ranked opponent for Kalka in a span of two weeks. On March 26, she recorded a three-hit shutout over No. 4 Oklahoma. She recorded two more wins and two more shutouts on April 10. Kalka pitched 15 scoreless innings and struck out eleven while allowing only four hits in the two games against Iowa State For the season, Kalka is 19-10 with a 2.06 ERA. She has struck out 186 batters in 190.0 innings pitched. Opposing batters are hitting just .197 off Kalka, and she leads MU with 17 complete games and nine shutouts this season.