March 11, 2011
LEADING OFF
-No. 18/T14 Missouri welcomes Illinois and Illinois State for the 2011 DeMarini Invitational, running this Saturday and Sunday at University Field. It is the first of two consecutive tournaments that the Tigers will host.
-After starting the year 1-2, Mizzou has won nine straight and 13 of their last 14 to improve to 12-3 on the year. Missouri toppled Arkansas this past Wednesday, run-ruling the Razorbacks by a 12-0 final in five innings. Ashley Fleming homered and drove in a career best five RBI, while Chelsea Thomas won her fourth straight game after giving up just two hits and striking out 10 in four innings. Thomas struck out the last eight batters she faced.
-Thomas and Nottelmann have been absolutely lights out this year. After starting 0-2, Thomas is now 4-2 with a 0.54 ERA. She has 67 strikeouts and just five walks with a .108 opponent batting average. Nottelmann is 6-0 with a save and a 0.82 ERA. She has 33 strikeouts to only five walks while limiting opponents to a .154 batting average. As a team, the Tigers boast the second best ERA in the Big 12 with a 1.30, trailing Baylor's team ERA of 1.00. Thomas' ERA is best in the league, while Nottelmann's is third.
-Fleming has been the Tigers' best hitter this year, coming into the weekend with the third best batting average in the Big 12 (.465), along with a team best 16 RBI and tied for the team lead with three home runs. She's walked six times to only five strikeouts, and has stolen seven bases in as many attempts.
-Abby Vock went 2-for-3 against Arkansas, raising her average to .345, fourth best on the team. After struggling at the plate for much of her career, Vock is putting together a solid season with the bat to go with her outstanding glove.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS STATE
The Illinois State Redbirds are 5-4 since they last faced the Tigers a few weeks ago at the USF Fairfield Inn and Suites Tournament in Tampa, Fla. After dropping their first three games at that tournament, they came back to beat Temple and Central Connecticut State to close out the event. At last weekend's Citrus Classic, the Redbirds edged Maryland, Temple and Longwood but fell to Fordham, Virginia and Oregon. ISU is 12-8 this season.
Abby Olson leads Illinois State at the plate, as she is hitting .441 with six home runs and 19 RBI. Her OBP is .535 and she's slugging at a .898 clip. In the circle, Taylor Baxter has a team-best 1.40 ERA. Her record is 3-2. Megan Warner (5-3, 2.98 ERA), Jordan Birch (4-1, 3.22 ERA) and Chrissy Burton (0-2, 4.06 ERA) all split time at pitcher. Missouri beat Illinois State by an 8-2 score a few weeks ago and leads the all-time series 14-7.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS
The Fighting Illini have won four of their last five and are 9-6 on the year. After starting 5-5, the Illini went down to Florida for the Citrus Classic and beat Temple, Maryland, Fordham and Longwood before dropping a 2-1 contest to Oregon.
Danielle Vaji leads all Illinois hitters with a .405 average. Meredith Hackett and Jessica Davis lead all hitters with three home runs, while Hollie Pinchback has a team-high 19 RBI. As a team, Illinois is hitting .308 and has a team ERA of 2.46. Pepper Gay and Jackie Guy return as the team's top pitchers. Gay is 5-3 with a 2.33 ERA while Guy is 4-3 with a 3.05 ERA. Missouri leads 3-0 in the all-time series, beating Illinois twice at last year's NCAA Regionals in Columbia.
FOLLOW LIVE
Each game will have live stats and play-by-play through GameTracker. Links to each game's GameTracker can be found at mutigers.com.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Missouri hosts Southern Illinois on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT at University Field.
FOLLOW MIZZOU SOFTBALL ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
Tiger softball fans can follow along with the season through many of the program's social media options. On Twitter, Mizzou fans can follow the entire athletic department at twitter.com/mutigersdotcom. Assistant Coach Pete D'Amour is also on Twitter at twitter.com/MizzouSBcoach. On Facebook, fans can search “University of Missouri Softball Team” to track down the team's official page.
TAYLOR BREAKS SCHOOL HITS RECORD, BIG 12 STOLEN BASE RECORD
Senior Rhea Taylor has rewritten the record books again week, as she set a new school record for hits in a career and broke the Big 12's career stolen base mark. Taylor picked up three hits in a doubleheader against Drake, moving her within two of tying Mary Babb's 14 year old record of 262. Over the weekend, Taylor moved ahead of Babb with six hits in four games. The record-breaking hit came in her final at-bat against SLU, as she roped a triple to right-center field to put herself on top of the record book once again.
She also went 5-for-5 in stolen bases at the tournament last weekend, tying her for the most stolen bases in Big 12 history. She broke Texas A&M's Sharonda McDonald mark of 153 stolen bases, who set the record in 2007, with a stolen base in the first inning against Arkansas on Wednesday.
Here's a look at what records she's tracking down this season:
-Batting Average: Already the all-time leader at Mizzou with a .420 career batting average, a record that is theoretically impossible for give relinquish before the end of the season (Jenna Marston is second all-time at .359, two others are tied for third all-time at .352), Taylor should also graduate as the Big 12 Conference's record holder as well. She currently holds that mark, ahead of former Husker Ali Viola, who hit .409 from 1996-98.
-Hits: Taylor is now tied for sixth all-time amongst Big 12 hitters with 266 hits. If she matches her three season average of 82 hits a year, she would find herself tied with Norrelle Dickson of Oklahoma, the conference's all-time hits leader at 328.
-Runs: Entering the season as Missouri all-time runs leader and eighth in the conference, Taylor is expected to flirt with the Big 12's all-time record as well. Dickson, who played for OU from 2004-07 and also holds the league's hits record, is the current record holder at 234. Taylor scored twice against Arkansas, giving her 199 for her career and bumping her up to a tie for fourth all-time in the Big 12. If she matches her yearly average of 61 runs, she'll find herself ahead of Dickson with 244 career runs scored.
EARLEYWINE ONE SHY OF 200 TIGER WINS
With Missouri's nine straight wins, head coach Ehren Earleywine is just one win away from his 200th win as Tiger head coach. Already the second winningest coach in Tiger history behind Jay Miller (556-309 in 15 seasons), Earleywine has the second highest winning percentage for a Missouri head coach at .748, behind Miller and ahead of Barb Wright, who went 91-32 (.740) in two seasons for the Tigers. Entering the season with a career winning percentage of .734, Earleywine is the 14th winningest active coach in NCAA Division I softball.
THOMAS SWEEPS NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS
Redshirt sophomore Chelsea Thomas has been named the Division I National Player of the Week by both the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and USA Softball, as announced Tuesday. Thomas was also tabbed as the Big 12's Pitcher of the Week, announced by the league office.
Thomas had a phenomenal week for the Tigers in the circle, winning all three of her starts to improve her record to 3-2 on the season. On Wednesday, she threw the first perfect game for Missouri since 2002 and the first seven inning perfect game since 1991, as she set down 21 straight Drake batters, setting down 11 via strikeout, in Mizzou's 5-0 win. On Friday, Thomas threw a three hit, complete game shutout against SEMO as she walked only one batter and struck out 10 in the victory. She took a no hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a leadoff single.
She threw her second perfect game of the week on Sunday against Missouri State, tossing all six innings in Missouri's 11-0 run-rule victory over the Bears. She set a new seven inning school record with 15 strikeouts. Over the course of the week, Thomas struck out 36 batters and walked only one while opponents hit just .048 against her.
She now has six no hitters in her career (four no hitters, two perfect games), the most by any lone Tiger player in school history. On the season, Thomas has a miniscule earned run average of 0.60, as she's tossed three complete game shutouts this year. In 35.0 innings pitched she's allowed just 12 hits, three earned runs, and has limited opposing hitters to a .103 batting average. She has 57 strikeouts to just five walks and is averaging 11.40 strikeouts per seven innings.
Thomas is the second Missouri Tiger to be named NFCA National Player of the Week. Mary Babb won the award on May 4, 1997. She is the third USA Softball Player of the Week from Mizzou, as Janessa Roening won it on May 3, 2005 while Ashley Fleming took home the honors last season. Her Big 12 honor is the third of her career, as she was named Pitcher of the Week in both 2009 and 2010.
THOMAS' PERFECTION PUTS HER ON TOP
After not having a perfect game since 2002 or a seven inning perfect game since 1991, Chelsea Thomas threw two this past week, as she set Drake down in order on Wednesday's 5-0 win, before another game of perfection against Missouri State on Sunday, striking out 15 of the 18 batters she faced in the six inning affair. With that, Thomas now has more no hitters than anyone in program history with six (four no hitters, two perfect games). Karen Snelgrove, a former Olympian for Canada, had five no hitters in her career, four of those being perfect games which is tops in school history.
TIGERS CRUISE PAST ARKANSAS, 12-0
The No. 14 Missouri softball team belted out 12 runs on 8 hits, backing another dominating performance by redshirt sophomore Chelsea Thomas while run-ruling Arkansas by a 12-0 score in five innings.
Thomas (4-2) won her fourth straight game on another outstanding showing, as she struck out 10 batters in four innings while allowing two hits zero walks. She set down the last eight batters she saw on strikeouts. Her ERA is down to 0.54, and she's averaging over 12 strikeouts per seven innings.
Senior Rhea Taylor stole second base in the first inning to become the Big 12's new all-time stolen base leader. Taylor, now with 154 career bases, broke Sharonda McDonald of Texas A&M's record back in 2007.
Junior Ashley Fleming led the team offensively, going 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of runs, a home run and five driven in. She's tied for the team lead with three home runs on the year and leads all Tigers with 16 RBI.
HOME COOKIN'
Playing at University Field has been a major advantage for the Tigers since head coach Ehren Earleywine took over in 2007. In 107 games played at home under Earleywine, the Tigers have won 90 of them for an .841 winning percentage on their home field. Of their 17 losses, 13 of them came in two combined seasons. In Earleywine's first year the Tigers went 17-7 at home, and in 2009 they went 17-6. In 2008, Mizzou finished 22-1 at home while last year they went 31-3. So far this year the Tigers are 3-0.