April 22, 2008
Columbia, Mo. -The Missouri softball team will travel to Ames, Iowa for a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. (CT) in the Southwest Athletic Complex Wednesday, April 23. In search of their second Big 12 road win of the season, the Tigers are 40-13 overall and 7-5 in league games. This season, Missouri is 7-7 on the road and collected its first Big 12 road win Sunday, 4-1, over the Longhorns in Austin, Texas.
Iowa State, 26-21 overall and 11th in the conference with a 3-8 record, enters game one of the doubleheader on a two-game losing streak after suffering back-to-back losses to No. 8 Oklahoma in Ames, Iowa. The Wednesday afternoon doubleheader will mark the Cyclones final home series of the 2008 campaign.
Missouri owns a 45-28 lead in the all-time series with Iowa State and has won nine of the last 10 games with the Cyclones. The Tigers' only loss to Iowa State came at Ames in 2006, when Missouri dropped a one run loss, 3-2.
Two-time Big 12 Player of the Week Rhea Taylor continues to lead the Missouri softball team and Conference with her .410 batting average. Missouri's first two-time Big 12 Player of the Week this season, Taylor leads the nation with her 48 stolen bases and broke the program's 20-year old single season record in Sunday's game against Texas.
Five Tigers are batting above .300 this season including Big 12 home run leader Amanda Renth (15) and second place finishers senior Jen Bruck (14) and Lindsey Ubrun (14). The trio have combined for 43 of Missouri's 54 home runs this season. Missouri's last home run was hit in the Tigers' April 16 midweek game against Kansas by Renth.
Tiger junior Andee Allen continues to hold the hot bat averaging .369 on the season with 51 hits and a league leading 12 doubles.
Bruck and junior Stacy Delaney have proved Missouri's most recent winning duo in the circle. Bruck enters the series with a 14-7 record, while Delaney stands at 16-3, having recently collected Missouri's win against the Longhorns. Missouri's three-person pitching staff has thrown 322 strike outs this season, good enough for eighth-best in program history.In addition, Missouri's combined 2.15 ERA stamds third best in the league behind Texas A&M and Oklahoma.