May 11, 2011
LEADING OFF
-The No. 6 Missouri Tigers enter their final week of the regular season with a stop back down in Stillwater, Okla., for a makeup game against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Action takes place at 1 p.m. CT on Thursday at Cowgirl Stadium. The game was rescheduled when the original May 1 game was rained out.
-In the rankings this week, Missouri jumped from eighth to sixth in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, the highest they've been this season and highest overall since week seven of last year when they were fourth. Mizzou stayed put at No. 9 in the USA Today/NFCA rankings this week Missouri still sits in fifth in the latest RPI poll, released last Wednesday. The Tigers are 18-6 this year against team's in the top-50 in RPI.
-The Tigers earned a split against then-No. 3 Texas last week, falling 2-0 in the opener before bouncing back and winning 6-3 in the finale. Texas' Blaire Luna stifled the Missouri offense, giving up just two hits - both to Nicole Hudson. The Longhorns got two solo home runs off Chelsea Thomas. The Tigers bounced back in game two, tagging Luna for six runs on 10 hits to salvage the split. Hudson led the way again, going 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBI. Jenna Marston went 2-for-2 at the plate with a pair of runs scored and two driven in. Chelsea Thomas got the win, her 25th of the year, striking out eight in the process.
-With the win on Sunday, Missouri kept their Big 12 title hopes alive. If the Tigers win out, they will be co-Big 12 champions at the absolute worst. If they win out and Texas falls to Baylor on Sunday, Missouri would be outright champs. If Mizzou drops a game and Texas wins, the Longhorns would take the crown and Missouri would finish second.
-Saturday's loss snapped Mizzou's 35-game home winning streak, which was the longest active streak in all of Division I softball.
-2,404 fans were in attendance for Saturday's contest, breaking the previous University Field record of 1,712, set last year during the Super Regionals against Oregon.
-Nicole Hudson is currently riding a five-game hitting streak, and she has at least two hits in each game of that streak. On March 30, Hudson was hitting .250 overall. Since then, she's hitting .438 with six doubles, six home runs and 22 runs batted in to raise her season average to .343.
-With her fourth strikeout of game two last Wednesday, Chelsea Thomas set a new single-season record for most strikeouts with 287. She finished the game with eight, giving her 291 on the year. She broke Erin Kalka's record of 286, set in 2004. Thomas now has 53 wins in her career, eighth-most all-time. She also now has the ninth-most complete games in a career with 47. Her 545 career strikeouts are fifth-most ever at Mizzou. She's now tied for sixth with two others for most wins in a single season (25), and is seventh all-time with 24 career shutouts.
-Rhea Taylor is just one hit away from 300 in her career, which would make her just the second Big 12 player ever to reach that milestone. She also swiped three bags last Wednesday and two more this past weekend, putting her in the top-10 for most stolen bases in a single season for the fourth time in her career.
-With a career high 48 RBI, Ashley Fleming is tied for 10th with teammate Marla Schweisberger for most runs batted in in a single season. Last year she drove home 44, and now has the 10th-most all-time at Missouri with 108 in her career. She's also tied for the Big 12 lead with 15 doubles, tied for fourth-most in a single season at Missouri and five shy of setting the record.
-Jenna Marston has drawn 33 walks this season, tying her for fourth-most in a season. Marston is just three walks away from moving into second place. Missouri has had eight players in program history draw 30 or more walks in a single season, and three have come in the past two years. Jen Bruck's total of 43 walks in 2008 is the current record.
-Entering the season with just two career home runs and a .208 batting average, Abby Vock is hitting an astounding .315 this year with four home runs and 12 RBI. Her on base percentage is more than .100 points higher than her best season at .445, and her slugging percentage is almost .150 points higher than her best year ever at .494. After having just eight hits last season and 20 the year before, Vock has matched that total this year alone with 28.
-The Tigers have 18 shutouts on the year, 12 of which came in the month of March. They are walking just 1.57 batters per seven innings, the best in the conference. The staff's .168 opponent batting average is best amongst Big 12 teams. The team is second in the league in strikeouts per seven innings, as they average 9.29, and is tops in the conference and second in the NCAA with a 1.30 earned run average. The team's 1.23 ERA during conference play is the best in the league.
SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE
The Oklahoma State Cowgirls - currently ranked 20th by the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 and 22nd by ESPN.com/USA Softball - currently stand at 37-14 on the year and 8-7 in the Big 12, good for sixth place in the league. Since falling 5-0 to the Tigers on April 30, the Cowgirls have gone 0-2, getting swept at Texas A&M last weekend.
The Cowgirls are hitting .298 as a team with five players over .300. Alysia Hamilton leads the way at .397 with five home runs and 32 runs batted in. Mariah Gearhart is currently at .367 with 33 steals in 35 attempts, while Chelsea Garcia and Julie Ward have each hit 11 home runs and driven in over 40 RBI each.
Kat Espinoza is the No. 1 pitcher in the circle for the Cowgirls, as she's 20-6 on the year with a 2.35 ERA. In 167.0 innings she has 131 strikeouts and 56 walks, while opponents are batting .191 off her.
Missouri trails in the all-time series by a 38-56 margin. The Tigers have won the last two matchups by 5-0 finals, which includes the victory on April 30 of this season.
FOLLOW LIVE
Live stats and play-by-play will be available via GameTracker, found on the Softball schedule page at mutigers.com. Fans can also follow @MIZLive on Twitter to get updates.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Missouri returns home to close out the regular season when they host Iowa State this weekend. Saturday's contest begins at 2 p.m. CT, with Sunday's finale beginning at Noon. Mizzou will honor their nine seniors during Sunday's Senior Day.
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.
HUDSON DUBBED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Missouri sophomore third baseman Nicole Hudson has been named the Big 12 Player of the Week for the second time this season, as announced Tuesday by the Big 12 Conference. This is the second award of Hudson's career, both coming this season, as she was named Player of the Week on April 19.
Hudson hit .692 on the week, going 9-for 13 at the plate in four games. The Webb City, Mo., native hit safely in every game, picking up at least two hits in each contest. She went 4-for-6 in a doubleheader against Western Illinois, scoring three runs, hitting a double, walking once, driving home a run and picking up a stolen base.
Against No. 3 Texas, Hudson picked up the only two hits off Blaire Luna in Saturday's contest, as she singled and doubled. On Sunday, Hudson powered the offense to a 6-3 win against Luna by going 3-for-4 at the plate with a home run, a double and matching her career-best with four runs batted in. She posted a .733 on-base percentage and a 1.154 slugging percentage on the week. On March 30, Hudson was hitting .250 for the season. Since then, she's hitting .438 with six doubles, six home runs and 22 runs batted in to raise her season average to .343.
MIZZOU SPLITS WITH NO. 3 TEXAS
Missouri and Texas split their two-game series last weekend, leaving the Big 12 championship up for grabs. The Horns won game one by a 2-0 final, with Mizzou winning game two 6-3.
The Horns hit two solo home runs and the Tigers mustered just two hits off Blaire Luna on Saturday who tossed a complete game shutout. She struck out six Tigers and only walked one. Chelsea Thomas took the loss, falling to 24-5 on the season after giving up two runs in seven innings of work. She allowed four hits, walked one and struck out seven.
Texas got on the board with a solo shot by leadoff hitter Taylor Hoagland, who hit her 14th home run of the season with two outs in the top of the third. The game stayed at 1-0 until the top of the seventh inning, when Courtney Craig led off the inning with Texas' second solo home run of the year. The blast was Craig's seventh of the season, and put UT up 2-0.
The No. 8 Missouri Tigers bounced back with a 6-3 win over the No. 3 Texas Longhorns on Sunday, salvaging a split and keeping their Big 12 title hopes alive. Nicole Hudson led the offense by going 3-for-4 on the afternoon with a home run and four RBI. Rhea Taylor picked up a pair of hits and scored twice, while Jenna Marston went 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs scored and two driven in.
Texas jumped out ahead with a run in the top of the first inning on a fielder's choice RBI by Amy Hooks. Missouri answered back with one of their own on an RBI base hit by Hudson in the bottom of the first. Taylor singled to lead things off and moved to second on a Texas throwing error on the play. Marston laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, and Hudson sent a 1-1 pitch back up the middle to bring in Taylor.
Taylor Thom hit a two-run home run for Texas in the top of the third with two outs, scoring Hoagland, who singled with one out. Not to be outdone, however, was Hudson, who tied things up with a two-run homer of her own in the bottom half of the inning. Marston led off the frame with a walk, as she fell behind 0-2 but worked the count back to full before drawing the base on balls. Hudson then sent the third pitch she saw over the fence in dead center field, knotting the game up at 3-3.
Mizzou took control of the game with some timely two out hitting in the bottom of the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Megan Christopher, Taylor Duplechain came in to pinch run and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Abby Vock. Duplechain would move to third on a ground out, and came in to score on a base hit by Marston through the left side of the infield. Hudson then followed by splitting the gap in left-center field, bringing Marston all the way around from first and putting the Tigers up 5-3. Another two out RBI by Marston added some extra insurance for the Tigers, as she pushed Missouri's lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
TWO TIGERS EARN ACADEMIC HONORS
Two Missouri softball players were selected to the Capital One Academic All-District 7 first team, as announced Thursday afternoon by the College of Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA). Junior Ashley Fleming and sophomore Jenna Marston were named to the district team for the first time in their career. The last time Missouri had two All-District members was in 2007, when Leanne Bowers and Kathy Masterson were each placed on the team. The Tigers' two first team selections this year ties them for second-most amongst Big 12 schools.
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 .406 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 .353, two others are tied for third all-time at .352), Taylor could also graduate as the Big 12 Conference's record holder as well. She is currently right behind former Husker Ali Viola, who hit .409 from 1996-98.
-Hits: Taylor is now second all-time amongst Big 12 hitters with 299 hits, just one shy of becoming the second Big 12 player ever to get 300 hits in a career. She finds herself 29 hits shy of tying 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 now has 223 for her career and is up to third all-time in the Big 12. She's currently nine behind OU's Amber Flores, who had 232 in her career. If she matches her yearly average of 61 runs, she'll find herself ahead of Dickson with 244 career runs scored.
She also recently jumped into the Big 12's all-time top-10 in total bases. With 404 in her career, Taylor surpassed Kelly Osburn, former Baylor Bear, who had 395. She's third all-time in the conference with 15 triples in her career.
THOMAS BREAKS SEASON STRIKEOUT RECORD
Redshirt sophomore Chelsea Thomas set the new school record for most strikeouts in a single season in the fourth inning of the second game againts Western Illinois on Wednesday. Her 287th career strikeout moved her passed Erin Kalka, who struck out 286 batters during the 2004 season.