May 16, 2008

Making its fifth appearance in six years at an NCAA Regional Tournament, the Tiger softball team will travel to Iowa City, Iowa, and take on No. 14 Long Beach State, Missouri Valley Conference Champions Creighton and host-school Iowa. Missouri enters the three-day, double-elimination tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face third-seeded Iowa, Friday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. (CST) on Bob Pearl Field. Live stats will be provided through www.mutigers.com.

Earning the No. 1 seed in the Iowa City Regional bracket, the 49ers will challenge the Bluejays of Creighton in game one of the tournament, with first pitch set for 5 p.m. (CST).

The Tiger softball team was one of only four Big 12 squads to earn a bid to an NCAA regional tournament. Fifth-seeded Texas A&M was an automatic qualifier, while No. 10 seed Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri earned at-large bids. The 64 team bracket features 11 of Missouri's 2008 opponents, Washington, Texas, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, UTC, Drake, Long Island, Oklahoma, BYU, Purdue and UCLA.

Now in the fourth year of play in which super regionals are included the Tigers are looking to make their fourth Women's College World Series (WCWS) appearance and first since 1994.

The field of 64 teams, divided between 16 regional sites, will be narrowed to 16 squads by Sunday, May 18. These 16 programs will play in one of eight super regional sites in a best of three series beginning Friday, May 23. From these super regional sites, the eight winners will advance to the 27th annual WCWS beginning Friday, May 30 at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla., home to the Big 12 Softball Championships.

About Missouri
Coming off of a dissapointing showing at the 13th annual Big 12 Championships, in which the Tigers were handed a 5-3 loss by sixth-seeded Texas Tech, Missouri is looking to rebound and advance to its third Regional Championship game in four seasons.

The 2008 campaign marks the second straight year in which Missouri competes in an NCAA Regional as the No. 2 seed. Last season, the Tigers traveled to Carbondale, Ill., and finished the weekend 2-2, earning victories over Southern Illinois, but falling to No. 1 seed DePaul. Missouri's previous regional title game showing came in 2005, when the Tigers hosted the event on University Field. Led by then-Head Coach Ty Singleton, Missouri dropped a one-run game, 3-2, to No. 1 seed Stanford.

Missouri enters the tournament having won seven of its last 10 games. Big 12 Freshman of the Year Rhea Taylor continues to lead her teammates at the plate with a .405 average. Senior four-time All-Big 12 honoree Amanda Renth owns the highest slugging percentage of the Tigers with a .750 mark. Both Renth and Taylor have etched their names into Missouri's single season record book and lead the league in several batting categories.

Senior Jen Bruck will make her final NCAA Regional Tournament appearance. Credited with the loss in the May 10 game against Texas Tech, Bruck owns a 16-9 record and 2.75 ERA. Bruck has started at pitcher in four of Missouri's last five games and collected wins against Iowa State and Nebraska.

Teammate Stacy Delaney, a junior right-handed pitcher, owns a 1.74 ERA and 18-3 record. Among her impressive statistics are her 165 strike outs. Missouri's three-person pitching staff has thrown 344 K's on the season.

At Regionals
The 2008 season marks the 12th time in program history that the Tiger softball team has advanced to an NCAA Regoinal Tournament. Missouri's first trip to regionals came in 1982 under then-Head Coach Barb Presit. In its 11 NCAA Regional showings, Missouri has managed a 17-18 record. The Tigers have claimed three Regional titles, 1983, 1991 and 1994.

The 1991 Regional
The 1991 campaign marks the only time in which Missouri has met with one of its 2008 regional opponents in a previous regional tournament. Seventeen years ago, Missouri opened bracket play with a 2-0 win over Southern Illinois and went on to capture back-to-back wins over Iowa, 2-0 and 4-0 at the NCAA Mideast Regional. A junior, pitcher Karen Snelgrove collected all three regional wins, hurling 21 innings, striking out 21 batters, allowing only seven hits and walking three. Snelgrove threw a one-hitter in the 2-0 decision over Iowa and helped the Tigers advance to the Women's College World Series where they squared off with Missouri's other 2008 regional tournament opponent, Long Beach State, in the opening game.

Scouting the Hawkeyes
The Iowa Hawkeyes will make their seventh appearance in the NCAA Regionals in the past eight years and will host their second regional in three years when they welcome a four team field to Bob Pearl Softball Field. The Hawkeyes make their 15th NCAA Tournament appearance and will look to make their fifth Women's College World Series in program history, however none since the inclusion of the Super Regional round was introduced in 2005.

After rolling through the first two rounds of the Big Ten Tournament, the Hawkeyes ran into Northwestern and suffered a tough 1-0 defeat at the hand of the Wildcats, who earned the number 11 seed overall in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa finished the Big Ten season in third place with a 14-6 record in conference games and 40-18 mark overall. This year, the team finished with an 11-2 home record at Bob Pearl Field.

Rachel West leads three Hawkeyes hitting over .300 with a .371 average, while also being tied for the team lead in steals with 17. Colleen McGlaughlin leads Iowa in the major offensive categories with nine home runs, which is good for a fifth place tie on the Iowa season record list, 33 runs batted in, a .564 slugging percentage and a .442 on base percentage. She is also tied for the lead in doubles with 10 and holds the team lead in total bases with 93. As a team, the Hawkeyes are hitting .270, while outscoring their opponents by a margin of 110 (219-109).

Brittany Weil leads the Hawkeye pitchers with a 26-13 record, boasting a team low ERA of 1.14. Her counterpart in the circle, Amanda Zust, has been just as successful, holding a 14-5 record to go along with a miniscule ERA of 1.24. As a team, the Hawkeyes have an ERA of 1.17. In 264.1 innings, Weil has managed to strike out 281 opponents, while walking only 84. As a team the Hawkeyes have allowed their opponents to bat .170 against them, while the Hawkeye offense hits .270 against their opponents. Fourteen of the 40 Iowa victories have come via shutout, due in large part to Weil's 10. Zust has four shutouts, while the two have combined for three.

Iowa and Missouri have met a total of 15 times, with the last being in 2005, when the Tigers took a 3-1 victory in the Marriot Red and Black Tourney hosted by the University of Louisville. The Tigers hold a 9-6 advantage in the series history.

Scouting the 49ers
Seeded 14th nationally in this years' NCAA Tournament, the Long Beach State 49ers head to their 18th NCAA Tournament as the top seed in the Iowa Regional. Long Beach, which brings an overall record of 39-15 into the tournament, had the top RPI in the nation and has defeated three seeded teams, Northwestern, Texas A&M, and Florida. The 49ers are one of only two teams to hand Florida a loss on the season.

Missouri and Long Beach have faced six common opponents on the season, with the 49ers taking wins over Texas A&M, Iowa State, Washington, New Mexico, and Pittsburgh, while losing a 1-0 extra inning game to UCLA.

Long Beach State carries six hitters into the tournament who have a batting average above or near .300, led by junior infielder Jennifer Griffin, who sports a nifty .333 average. To go along with her team-leading average, Griffin leads the team in on-base percentage with a .459 clip, as well as leading the team with 32 walks, and 16 doubles, while holding a .523 slugging percentage, good for second on the team. Jessica Beaver leads the team with six home runs, 42 runs batted in, and a total of 83 bases earned.

Like Iowa, Long Beach holds a nice team ERA of 1.57, led by Brooke Turner's 26-4 record and .067 ERA. In her 210 innings of work, she has retired 226 batters via strikeout, while holding her opponents to a .163 batting average giving up a mere 119 hits against 730 batters faced. Her counterpart on the mound, Bridgette Pagano, brings in a record of 13-11 with an ERA of 2.44. Turner has thrown 30 complete games in her 31 games started, while also managing to throw 17 shutouts in those appearances. Missouri and Long Beach State have faced each other a total of three times, with the 49ers holding a 2-1 advantage. The two squads have not faced one another since 1996, when Long Beach defeated Missouri by a score of 4-1.

Scouting the Bluejays
For the fifth time in the past six seasons, Creighton has earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bluejays, who at 43-15, won the Missouri Valley regular season championship advance to their second consecutive NCAA Tournament and fifth since 2003. It is their 11th overall appearance in the tournament and sixth under coach Brent Vigness, who has been at the school for 15 years.

Creighton, who at one point in the season had an 11 game winning streak, will look to its balanced lineup to help them advance. The Bluejays have 10 players hitting .270 or above, with Jessica Wakasugi leading the way, hitting at an astounding .362 clip. The power in the lineup is evenly distributed as well, as five players have hit seven or more home runs, led by TJ Eadus with 11 and Bailey Dawson with 10. Dawson leads the team with 39 RBI and a .574 slugging percentage. Just as Long Beach State, the majority of Creighton's hits have come via single, with 291 of the 407 marked as one baggers.

Leading the way in the circle for Creighton is ace Tara Oltman, who at 31-7, leads the team with a .094 ERA. She has struck out 285 in 262.1 innings, while only allowing 75 walks. Of her 34 starts, 31 have been complete games, 13 have been solo shutouts, with one combined shutout and she has also accumulated seven saves.

The Tigers, who own a 12-11 record over Creighton, last faced off with the team from Omaha in 2001, when they took a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jays.