Blaine Kinsey
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.—After a cold and rainy midweek game against Illinois State Wednesday, the Indiana State softball team will hit the road for their final MVC road trip of the season when they travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa to face the Panthers of Northern Iowa. The Sycamores enter the weekend with a 14-28 record and 3-13 in MVC play while the Panthers hold a 16-21 overall record and 6-6 in Valley play. The Sycamores are nearing two MVC milestone as junior Morgan Allee needs just five stolen bases to tie the MVC record of 37 steals in a season and as a team, the Sycamores need 15 steals to tie the MVC team record of 100. Sophomore Megan Stone also leads the MVC in doubles with 10 while freshman Alexa Cavin leads the Valley in sacrifice bunts with 12. As a team, the Sycamores lead the MVC in multiple categories including sacrfice's, stolen bases and fielding double plays turned. Live stats for all games along with full box scores and recaps will be available online at GoSycamores.com. A free live audio stream for all three games will also be available online at GoSycamores.com.
Last Time Out
The Sycamores are coming off a 12-4 loss on the road Wednesday evening at the hands of the Redbirds of Illinois State. The second game that was scheduled was postponed due to poor weather conditions. The Sycamores got on the scoreboard first in the second inning and battled back twice before falling 12-4. Sophomore Megan Stone went 2-2 at the plate with an RBI and run scored while junior Shelby Wilson finished 2-3 with two RBI's and a run scored for the Sycamores. Junior Morgan Allee also stole her MVC leading 32nd base of the season and is now five away from tying the MVC record.
A Little History—Northern Iowa
The Sycamores and Panthers have previously met 76 times with the Panthers holding the 50-26 all-time series advantage over the Sycamores. The two teams first met during the 1983 season when the Panthers won a 6-2 contest. Last season, the Panthers won all-three games of a series in Terre Haute.
Scouting The Panthers
The Panthers enter the weekend with a 16-21 overall record and 6-6 in MVC play having last seen the field in a doubleheader sweep of Wichita State on April 13. The Panthers are led this season by Nicole Fisher who is batting .324 on the season with a .422 on base percentage. In the circle for the Panthers, Jamie Fisher leads the UNI pitching staff with a 2.15 ERA and 13-11 record over her 166.1 innings pitched with 131 strikeouts.
MVC Leaderboard
Many Sycamores are near the top of the MVC leaderboard in multiple statistical categories. Junior Morgan Allee leads the Valley with 32 stolen bases while sophomore Megan Stone leads the MVC with her 10 doubles and freshman Alexa Cavin also leads all MVC players with 12 sacrifice bunts. As a team, the Sycamores lead the MVC in stolen bases with 85 and sacrifice bunts with 50 and are third in fielding percentage at .965. ISU is also third in the MVC in walks with 128 and third in hit by pitches with 29. Defensively the Sycamores lead the MVC in Fielding double plays with 18, with five more than second.
School Records Fall
With five stolen bases as a team on Wednesday, April 3 against Illinois, the Indiana State softball team brok a 14 year old school record as they tallied a total of 67 stolen bases. The previous record was set in 1999 when they stole 64. The Sycamores still have 13 games remaining on their schedule and lead the MVC with a current total of 85. Last season the Sycamores stole 53 bases in 53 games played. The Sycamores are also on pace to break the Missouri Valley Conference record of 100 stolen bases in a single season.
Making National Strides
At the sixth NCAA national softball statistical rankings release on Monday, April 15, the Sycamores had multiple players near the top of the national lists. Junior Morgan Allee was 10th in Division 1 in stolen bases per game and seventh overall in stolen bases with 31. As a team, the Sycamores are ranked 12th nationally in stolen bases per game and are 24th in double plays turned per game and have 18 overall.
Moving On Up
Just 42 games into her Sycamore career, junior Morgan Allee has already written her name into the ISU record book in stolen bases. Allee leads the Sycamores with 32 stolen bases on the season holds the record for most stolen bases in a single season at ISU breaking the previous record of 28, held by Amy Vaira, set in 1994. Despite it being her first season in a Sycamore uniform, Allee is now seventh all-time on the ISU career stolen bases list. Allee is also seventh in NCAA Div. 1 in stolen bases per game. Allee is also just five stolen bases away from breaking the MVC record of 37 with 13 games left to play.
Team Records About To Fall
Despite currently holding a record under .500, as a team, the Sycamores are writing themselves into ISU history. The team has already broken the ISU stolen bases record and hit by pitch record and is currently on pace to finish the season in the top 10 of six other statistical categories in the ISU record book.
Batting Average—.255 (6th)
On Base Percentage—.349 (1st)
Stolen Bases—85 (1st)
Home Runs—23 (2nd)
Walks—128 (2nd)
Hit By Pitch—29 (1st)
Sac Flies—6 (6th)
Runs Scored—158 (10th)
Walk This Way
The Sycamore batters have been extremely patient at the plate so far this season and as a team have received 128 walks, which ranks second all-time at ISU. Seven Sycamore batters have also recieved double digit walks in senior Halee Myers (14), sophomore Megan Stone (14), freshman Alexa Cavin (13), junior Shelby Wilson (14), sophomore Megan Bunting (12), sophomore Ashley Dickerson (13) and junior Morgan Allee (12). Last season as a team the Sycamores recieved 118 walks in 53 games.
First Career Home Runs
Just past the halfway point in the 2012-13 season, four different Sycamores have hit their first career home run's. Freshman Abbie Malchow hit her first home run during the finale of the series against Wichita State while junior Morgan Allee hit her first collegiate homer in the first game against Missouri State. Senior Halee Myers also hit her first home run of her collegiate career on Wednesday night in the Sycamores 6-5 win over Illinois. On April 9 against IUPUI, senior Alex Lucas also hit her first home run.
Coach Bouman Reaches Milestone
During a 6-5 over over the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois, head coach Shane bouman reached a coaching milestone as he scored his 200th career coaching victory. In his second season, Bouman has recorded 32 victories since taking over the reigns of the Sycamore program.
Dickerson Gets The Save
In her first ever appearnce as a collegiate pitcher, sophomore Ashley Dickerson entered the circle for the Sycamores Wednesday evening against Illinois in a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh. After a leadoff walk, Dickerson got a pop out and a grounded into a double play to secure the win for the Sycamores and earned the save.
Using The Long Ball
So far this season, the Indiana State softball team has recorded 23 total home runs and is second on the ISU Team Records list, 11 away from first. The 23 home runs also is nine more than the Sycamores season total from one year ago. Seven Sycamore players have accounted for ISU's home runs as sophomore Megan Stone leads and junior Shelby Wilson each have eight. Junior Morgan Allee and freshman Abbie Malchow each have two while senior Halee Myers, senior Alex Lucas and senior Mackenzie Connelly each have one. Stone and Wilson's eight home runs also put them second on the single season records list, just three behind first and Stone's 10 career home runs rank her fifth all-time at ISU, just two away from fourth.
Wearing Pitches
Sycamore batters have been a target for opposing pitchers while in the batters box. As a team, the Sycamores rank second in the MVC in hit by pitches with 29. That number also ranks first on the all-time ISU record book. Individually, junior Shelby Wilson ranks fourth in the ISU career record book with 10 hit by pitches and junior Morgan Allee ranks 6th with eight. Allee's eight hit by pitches also put her in second place on the ISU single season list, just two behind first.
Small Ball
The Sycamores have played small ball through the first part of the season and after 42 games, they lead the Missouri Valley Conference in total sacrifices with 56. Freshman Alexa Cavin leads the Sycamores and the Valley with 12 total sacrifices while senior Halee Myers also has eight. A total of 11 different Sycamore batters have also recorded a sacrifice so far this season.
Even Better In Valley Play
Sophomore Megan Stone is second for ISU with a .372 batting average but has been even better in the four Missouri Valley Conference series the Sycamores have played in. Through 16 MVC games, Stone holds a .429 batting average going 18-42 at the plate with five home runs. Stone also has a .478 on base percentage in Valley games and a .786 slugging percentage with nine RBI's and 33 total bases.
Stone Is MVC Player Of The Week
Sophomore Megan Stone was named MVC player of the week for the week of March 25, marking the first Sycamore player to recieve a weekly award since Lindsey Beisser won MVC pitcher of the week, twice, last season. Stone is also the first Sycamore player be named player of the week since the 2009 season when Katie Armour did it April 27, 2009.
Swinging Those Bats
The Indiana State softball team came out of the gates swinging to open the 2013 season and are averaging nearly seven hits a game. The Sycamores have out hit their opponents nine times and are 7-2 when doing so. The Sycamores also have three players batting over .300 on the season, including Shelby Wilson at .375, Megan Stone at .372 and Morgan Allee who is batting .346.
Wilson & Scott Are All-Tournament
After wrapping up play at the Blues City Classic this past weekend in Southaven, Miss., two Sycamore players were named to the All-Tournament team for their efforts. Sophomore Ashli Scott was named 1st Team All-Tourmanet after making one start and three apperances for ISU with a 0.58 ERA with a 1-0 record over her 12 innings pitched. Scott also recorded a season high in strikeouts with seven in her relief appearance against Nicholls State. Junior Shelby Wilson was also named 2nd Team All-Tournament after going 5-12 at the plate with two RBI's and a run scored with three stolen bases.
Returners Are Key
While they lost four letter winners and three starters to graduation, the Indiana State fielding alignment features much of the same as last year. The Sycamores return junior Shelby Wilson and sophomores Megan Stone and Ashley Dickerson to hold down the infield with newcomer Morgan Allee to fill the final sport. The Sycamores also return three key outfielders who spent significant time in the position during the 2012 campaign in: seniors Mackenzie Connelly and Halee Myers as well as sophomore Megan Bunting.
Off To A Hot Start
After starting the 2013 season 4-0, the Indiana State softball team started off on one of the hottest starts in recent memory. The Sycamores four straight wins to open a season is the most since the 1990 season when they won 14 straight games to open the season. The Sycamores 9-0 win is also just the sixth time in program history that an ISU team has shut out an opponent in a season opener since 2003. It also marks the first win in a season opener since the 2009 season. With a win in their MVC opener against Wichita State on March 16, the Sycamores also became the first team to win a MVC opener since the 2008 season when they also defeated Wichita State.
Follow ISU Softball Online
Keep up to date with Sycamore softball all over the web this season. Full stats, box scores and recaps will continue to be available on www.GoSycamores.com. Every home game along with select road games can also be heard world wide free of charge online at GoSycamores.com and select home games will offer a free webcast. However, you can also follow the Sycamores on Facebook at Facebook.com/SycamoreSoftball with the Indiana State University Softball fan page or on Twitter at Twitter.com/IndStSoftball.
On To The Next One
Following the weekend series at Northern Iowa, the Sycamores will have a busy midweek slate with a doubleheader against Butler in Indianapolis on Wednesday before playing their last seven games of the season at Price Field. The Sycamores will play Illinois State in a single game on Thursday before hosting Evansville in a three-game weekend series. The Sycamores will then wrap up the regular season with a three-game series at Price Field against the Salukis of Southern Illinois.
