March 25, 2011
LEADING OFF
-The No. 16/T13 Missouri Tigers continue their 10-game road trip with a stop in Lubbock, Texas for their first Big 12 weekend series of the season. Missouri will face No. 20/19 Texas Tech at 2 p.m. CT on Saturday and at Noon CT on Sunday at Rocky Johnson Field.
-The Tigers broke the school record for most consecutive wins after sweeping Kansas on Wednesday to open Big 12 action. After starting the year 1-2, Mizzou has won 21 straight and 23 of their last 34 to improve to 24-3 on the year.
-Mizzou opened conference play with a doubleheader sweep over Kansas on Wednesday. The Tigers took game one by a 3-2 final, with Chelsea Thomas going the distance, striking out 11, walking zero and giving up just two unearned runs. Megan Christopher and Abby Vock led the offense with back-to-back home runs. Missouri took a wild game two that saw five lead changes. Ashley Fleming homered in the first inning while Catherine Lee hit the game winner in the top of the sixth, both two-run blasts. Kristin Nottelmann improved to 11-0 and Chelsea Thomas picked up her third save.
-The Tigers now have 12 shutouts on the year, all coming in their last 19 games. The team's earned run average is 1.07, best in the Big 12. They are also only walking just 1.26 batters a game, the best in the conference. The staff's .163 opponent batting average is tops amongst Big 12 teams as well. The team is third in the league in strikeouts per seven innings, as they average 8.81.
-Nine of the team's last 17 wins have come by the mercy rule. In the month of March, the Tigers have outscored their opponents 137-17. Mizzou is averaging 7.21 runs a game this month after averaging 3.88 in the month of February.
-Thomas and Nottelmann have been absolutely lights out this year. After starting 0-2, Thomas is now 10-2 with a 0.37 ERA. She has 127 strikeouts and just 12 walks with a .118 opponent batting average. She has three saves on the year, most in the Big 12, and has allowed only one earned run - three runs total - in her last 62.0 innings pitched. Nottelmann is a perfect 11-0 with two saves and a 1.11 ERA. She has 70 strikeouts to only 15 walks while limiting opponents to a .160 batting average. Thomas' ERA is best in the league, while Nottelmann's is sixth.
-Fleming has been the Tigers' best hitter this year, as she currently leads the squad with a .425 batting average. She's leads all Tigers in home runs (6) runs (29), doubles (nine), runs batted in (31) and slugging percentage (.822). She's walked 12 times to only six strikeouts, and has stolen 10 bases in as many attempts. Her sixth home run of the year came in the first inning of game two against Kansas, putting the Tigers up 2-0 at the time.
-Sophomore Jenna Marston drew an incredible nine walks in six games last week. She now has 23 on the year, tied for third most in the Big 12. She took 22 walks all of last season. The school record for most walks in a season is 43. Marston is on pace to draw 45 walks through the regular season.
-Catherine Lee's fourth home run of the season turned out to be the game winner for the Tigers in game two with Kansas on Wednesday, as she put the Tigers up 6-5 in the top of the sixth. Lee had six home runs all of last year and is currently third on the team with a .619 slugging percentage this season.
SCOUTING TEXAS TECH
Texas Tech enters the weekend with a 35-1 record and the best winning percentage in the Big 12 at .972. They opened the season with 24-game winning streak before losing to Alcorn State, 4-2. Since then they've rallied off 11 in a row. They have played 25 of their 36 games at home this season, going 24-1 in those games. They currently sit at No. 20 in the NFCA/USA Today Top 25 and 19th according to the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.
The Red Raiders lead the Big 12 in batting average (.392), on base percentage (.478) and slugging percentage (.622). Their team ERA is 2.10, eighth in the league. Opponents hit .218 off them and they strike out 5.70 batters per seven innings while walking 1.72. Four of their starters are hitting over .400, led by Cydney Allen who leads the conference with a .460 average. She's also belted 11 home runs and driven in 41 while slugging .920. Sandy James leads the team with 12 bombs, while Logan Hall has 47 RBI. Brittany Talley and Kelsey Dennis split time in the circle, as they've combined to appear in 30 of the team's games. Talley is 11-1 with a 1.73 ERA, 50 strikeouts and 15 walks in 77.0 innings pitched. Dennis has a perfect 10-0 record to go with her 2.05 ERA. She has 55 strikeouts to 14 walks in 58.0 innings.
Missouri is 26-14 all-time against Texas Tech. The Tigers swept the Red Raiders last year in Columbia, winning 3-1 and 5-2. Missouri has won 13 of the last 14 meetings, with Texas Tech's last win coming by a 5-3 score at the 2008 Big 12 Championships.
FOLLOW LIVE
Each game will feature live scoring and play-by-play through GameTracker. Links to GameTracker can be found on the softball schedule page at mutigers.com
SOFTBALL WINS RECORD 21ST IN A ROW
The No. 13 Tigers won their 20th and 21st straight games in Wednesday's doubleheader sweep over Border Showdown rival Kansas, breaking a 16-year-old school record for most consecutive wins set by the 1995 squad who won 20 straight games.
In game one, the Tigers fought off a late Jayhawk rally to hang on to a 3-2 victory. Chelsea Thomas won her 10th straight start, going the distance while allowing four hits, two runs – zero earned and striking out 11. Tied 0-0 in the top of the third, seniors Megan Christopher and Abby Vock broke the tie with back-to-back home runs, giving each of them two on the season.
Missouri completed the sweep with a 6-5 victory in the second game that saw five lead changes. Kristin Nottelmann picked up the win, improving her to 11-0 on the season. She gave up five runs – two earned, struck out five and walked two. Ashley Fleming hit her sixth home run of the season in the first inning – a two run blast – to give the Tigers the early advantage.
The Jayhawks took their first lead of the day in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three unearned runs on a bases clearing triple with two outs. Missouri regained the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the third, getting RBI doubles from Marston and Maddison Ruggeberg.
Two straight home runs on the bottom of the fifth by the Jayhawks put them back ahead of Mizzou. With two outs, Liz Kocon delivered a 2-0 pitch deep over the right field wall, and Mariah Montgomery followed with a blast to dead center, putting Kansas up 5-4. Lee belted a two run home run in the next half inning to give Missouri the lead once again. With a runner on first, Lee sent the 0-1 pitch over the right-center field fence to make it 6-5 Tigers.
Thomas entered the game in the sixth inning, looking to preserve the lead for the Tigers. She struck out two batters and worked around a leadoff walk in her first inning of action. She finished off her third save of the year with another pair of strikeouts in the seventh.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Missouri heads across the state of Texas to Denton as they take on North Texas in a doubleheader on Wednesday starting at 4 p.m. CT.
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.
Rhea Taylor RECORD TRACKER
Senior Rhea Taylor has rewritten the record books again, as she set a new school record for hits in a career and broke the Big 12's career stolen base mark this season. 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. At the Missouri Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament, 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 Missouri Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament, 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, March 9.
Here's a look at what records she's tracking down this season:
-Batting Average: Already the all-time leader at Mizzou with a .414 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 .364, 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 fifth all-time amongst Big 12 hitters with 276 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 has 207 for her career and is up to third 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.