April 23, 2010Complete Game Notes

WHO: No. 11 Missouri vs. No. 22 Texas A&M
WHEN: Saturday, April 24 - 1 p.m. CT | Sunday, April 25 - 2 p.m. CT
WHERE: Aggie Softball Complex - College Station, Texas
LIVE STATS: Game One | Game Two
TELEVISION: Sunday's game will be aired nationally on ESPN.

The No. 11 ranked Tigers begin a streak of six-consecutive conference games, starting this weekend with No. 22 Texas A&M.  Missouri comes into the game with a 35-8 record and is 5-5 in conference play, while Texas A&M is 35-12 with a 6-5 conference record.  Game one between these two nationally-ranked teams begins at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday.  Sunday's game, which begins at 1 p.m. CT, will be aired nationally on ESPN.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES
Texas A&M enters the series as winners of three of their last four overall, but they've only won two of their last six conference games.  They swept Kansas and Iowa State and split with Texas and Nebraska, while getting swept by Oklahoma and dropping one to Baylor.  Head Coach Jo Evans is now in her 14th season as the Aggie leader.  She's assisted by Joy Jackson and Mary Jo Firnbach.

Freshman Meagan May has emerged as one of the elite hitters in the Big 12 in her first season, as she's batting .412 on the season with 18 home runs and 55 runs batted in.  Her slugging percentage is a whopping .939, and she gets on base at a .565 clip.  She's also scored 36 times and has racked up 15 doubles.

Rebecca Arbino gets the majority of the starts for Texas A&M, as she's started 26 of the team's 47 games.  Her record sits at 18-8, she's thrown 14 complete games and has nine shutouts.  Opponents hit .210 off her, and she has struck out 135 batters while walking just 35.

MIZZOU VS. TEXAS A&M
Texas A&M owns the all-time series between the Aggies and Tigers, as they've won 32 of the 53 previous meetings.  Last season, however, Mizzou rolled by the Aggies, winning 8-0 and 9-1 to sweep the series

WHAT'S NEXT?
Following the two mid-week doubleheaders, Missouri will head to College Station, Texas, for a two-game conference series with the Texas A&M Aggies.  Game one will take place at 1 p.m. CT on Saturday, while game two will start at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday.  Sunday's game will be aired live on ESPN.

TIGERS ON ESPN
Missouri and Texas A&M will finish off their series with a battle on national television, as the game will be featured on ESPN.  Most of the Missouri team is no stranger to being on national television, as they appeared on the ESPN networks five times last year.  Their three 2009 NCAA Super Regional games against UCLA were shown on ESPN, as were their two games at the Women's College World Series.  The Tigers went 2-3 in those games.

LEE NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
After a huge week that saw her hit .727 over a five-game span, junior Catherine Lee was rewarded with her first-ever Big 12 Player of the Week award, as announced Tuesday afternoon by the league office. 

Lee, in her first year as a Tiger after spending the last two years at Georgia State, went 8-for-11 over the course of the week, collecting three doubles, driving home seven runs and scoring twice.  Lee put up an on-base percentage of .688 and a slugging percentage of 1.000, while also going 2-for-2 in stolen bases.  Lee is the second Tiger to earn a Big 12 weekly award this season.  Sophomore pitcher Chelsea Thomas was named Pitcher of the Week back on March 2.

TIGERS BEAT CMU, 7-1
A day after setting a new career-high in strikeouts, sophomore pitcher Kristin Nottelmann came out on Thursday and did it again.  The righty struck out a career-best 10 batters on Wednesday against Missouri S&T on the way to her first career no-hitter, but on Thursday Nottelmann struck out 13 hitters as the Tigers defeated Central Methodist by a 7-1 score.

Senior Gina Schneider led the offense with a grand slam, her fourth home run of the season, while juniors Rhea Taylor and Catherine Lee continued their hot streaks.  Taylor went 2-for 3 with a run and a stolen base, while Lee ripped her third home run of the season and drove in three.

DAY OF FIRSTS CAPS SWEEP
It was a day of firsts for the No. 11 Missouri softball team, who improved to 34-8 on the season following a split-doubleheader sweep over Evansville and Missouri S&T.  Senior Michaele Vock hit her first career home run, doing so in walk-off fashion, to lift the Tigers over Evansville, 8-0 in five innings, while sophomore Kristin Nottelmann stymied the Missouri S&T batters for five innings with a career high 10 strikeouts, as she picked up her first career no-hitter in Mizzou's second 8-0 win of the day.

TAYLOR CLOSING IN ON RUNS RECORD
During her current nine-game hitting streak, junior Rhea Taylor has touched home 14 different times.  With that, the Buford, Ga., native has moved into a tie for second for most runs scored in a career at MU with 159.  In a tie with Leanne Bowers, Taylor is just five short of breaking Mary Babb's record of 164, which has stood since 1997.  After connecting on her second triple in as many games last Saturday against Texas Tech, junior outfielder Rhea Taylor continues to rewrite the Missouri record books.  The triple was the 10th of her career, moving her into a tie for 10th all-time at MU.  Taylor is also now fifth all-time in career hits with 209.

NOTTELMANN PASSES LAST YEAR'S WIN TOTAL
Sophomore pitcher Kristen Nottelmann went an impressive 11-2 during her freshman campaign.  With her two wins this past week over Missouri S&T and Central Methodist, the righty has surpassed that total.  The two wins, one of which was her first career no-hitter, improves her record to 13-6 on the season and 24-8 on her career, giving her the fifth-best winning percentage (.733) in Missouri history.

ANOTHER 30 WIN SEASON FOR THE TIGERS
For the fourth straight season under head coach Ehren Earleywine, the Missouri softball team has once again won 30 games during the season.  Mizzou's current 30-8 record gives Earleywine a career record of 167-61 (.732) as Tiger head coach.  Missouri has also won at least 30 games in 20 of the past 23 seasons, dating back to 1988, which includes 14 straight 30-plus win seasons from 1988-2001.

HOME RUN HITTERS BATTLING FOR TOP SPOT
There's a battle brewing amongst a trio of Tiger sluggers, all of whom are looking to take the lead as the top home run hitter on the team this season.  Junior Marla Schweisberger, sophomore Ashley Fleming and freshman Nicole Hudson have each hit five bombs this year.  Schweisberger reached five first, as she belted her fifth in Mizzou's win over Northwestern back on March 21.  Fleming joined her last weekend, when she ripped a home run in game one against Texas for her fifth of the season.  Hudson joined Fleming and Schweisberger when she crushed a two-run bomb in Mizzou's win over SIU on April 14.

TIGERS SIT STILL AT NO. 11 IN NFCA POLL
A perfect 5-0 week wasn't enough to put Missouri back in the top-10, but the Tigers didn't drop either, as Mizzou came in at No. 11 for the second-straight week in the USA Today/NFCA poll.  The Tigers, now 32-8 on the season, sit just six points behind Stanford for No. 10 and 15 points behind Arizona State for No. 9.

The same couldn't be said for the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, however, as the Tigers dropped one spot to No. 15.  Jumping Missouri was Texas, who moved from No. 15 to No. 14.  The Longhorns swept Mizzou a few weeks back.  Texas, who got just one game in last week, improved to 35-9 with their lone victory.