MVC SB Tournament Watch

[flyingMoose]

Game Four

Missouri State 1-2 Drake

Solo homers scored all the runs in this game with Drake's second coming in the second inning to take the 2-1 lead, and they held on from there.

Tomorrow UNI takes on Southern Illinois at noon followed by Illinois State and Drake.

[flyingMoose]

Game Five

Southern Illinois 1-0 Northern Iowa

The first hit by the Salukis was a homer to lead off the fifth, and it held up. Pitching dominated as there were only five hits in the game.

[flyingMoose]

Game Six

Drake 0-3 Illinois State

Jordan Birch scatters ten hits and Lizzie Andrews drives in all three runs, one with a solo homer, to send the Redbirds to the championship game against Southern Illinois.

The game is tomorrow at 2pm on Fox Sports Kansas City.

[flyingMoose]

Championship

Southern Illinois 3-13 Illinois State

The Redbirds, led by two three-run homers by Laura Canopy, score all of their runs in the first three innings, and earn the MVC automatic bid to the NCAA Softball Tournament. Jordan Birch scattered ten hits for Illinois State, the pre-season pick to win the conference championship.

Northern Iowa, the regular season champion, should have a good chance to receive an at-large bid to the NCAAs.

[flyingMoose]

Illinois State is the only Valley team in the Tournament, no at-large bids. The Redbirds are in the Columbia Regional with Missouri, Massachusetts and Depaul. The Tigers, the #9 national seed, are their first-round opponent. The regional begins on Friday.

[flyingMoose]

Illinois State entered the Columbia Regional as the #4 seed and fared well, although they did not win it. After losing to Missouri 6-0 in their opening game, they came back through the elimination bracket, defeating UMass 1-0 and DePaul 3-0, to face Missouri again. This time the game was closer, losing to Missouri 2-1. The Tigers next host a super regional against LSU.