Shocker SB at Creighton

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers close out the regular session at Creighton with a spot in the Valley tournament in the balance. The Shockers are currently two games clear of Bradley, who host Missouri State, for the last spot in the tournament. The Shocks begin their doubleheader at 4pm with a single game tomorrow at noon. Due to field conditions in Springfield, the Braves and Bears play a single game today at 4pm and a double header tomorrow at noon.

Creighton are atop the Valley with a record of 13-6. They are led in the circle by Becca Changstrom who has almost two-thirds of their innings on the season and slightly more than that in conference play. In conference only, her ERA is 1.48 with a WHIP of 1.11. The Jay's offense (again, conference only stats for the rest of this note) is led by Amy Baker with an OPS of 1.255 and 7 HRs. Four others have an OPS above .800.

Erin, Hayley and Danika have OPS above .800 for the Shockers. Katie has an ERA of 3.56 with a WHIP of 1.61.

The note in the morning paper says that the Shocks own all the tiebreakers, but I am not so sure. The latest Softball Procedures available online are for 2010, and the tie-breaking procedure may have changed, but ... . The first tie-breaker is head-to-head and we split two games with Bradley. Next is the record against the #1 seed, presumably Creighton, who are one game ahead of Drake. Bradley took one game from Creighton, so if we are swept and the Braves take two from Missouri State, it would appear that Bradley would get the eighth and last spot in the tournament. As the weekend progresses, I am sure all will be made clear.

[1972Shocker]

Katie gives up a lead off double in the botton of the 4th but escapes without any damage as the game remains scoreless after 4 complete.

Shocks with only 1 hit and the Jays with only 2 hits to this point. Shocks had runners on 1st and 2nd on a walk and a single with 1 out in the 2nd but could not score.

MSU scored 3 in the top of the 4th at Bradley and they lead 3-0 after 4 complete.

[1972Shocker]

Creighton's Liz Dike scored on an inside-the-park home run to lead off the botton of the 6th to put Creighton up 1-0.

The live stat report did not indicate where the ball was hit but I'm just guessing it may have been a ball where a Shocker outfielder missed a diving attempt at a catch or a couple of Shocker outfielders collided going for a ball or something along those lines. Inside the parkers are pretty rare in softball.

[flyingMoose]

Missouri State finish their win at Bradley, 3-0. They play a doubleheader at noon tomorrow.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks loaded the bases in the 7th on two infield singles and a walk with two outs putting the game on the bat of Abby Furstenberg. Unfortunatley, Abby struck-out swinging to end the game.

MSU did beat Bradley 3-0 which puts the Shocks magic number for getting into the Valley Tournament at 1.

[flyingMoose]

There has been a schedule change for our series with Creighton. We will only play a single game today with the doubleheader at noon tomorrow.

[1972Shocker]

Here is what happened on Creighton's game-winning inside the park home run:

The pitchers duel extended into the sixth inning when Dike hit a high fly ball to right centerfield that rode the wind and ricocheted off the top of the fence nearly 30 feet allowing Dike to slide in a step ahead of the throw home from Danika Miller.

[flyingMoose]

Game 2

Shockers 1-3 Creighton

Melanie singled in Kasie Eich, a pinch runner for Abby, in the sixth to put the Shocks in the lead. Abby had walked and Kasie was sacrificed to second.

After one out in the bottom of the seventh, Sloan gave up a tying home run. After a single, Katie came on to pitch and gave up a game-winning, walk-off two-run homer.

[flyingMoose]

Missouri State 3-1 Bradley

The Braves get two on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh but cannot push across the tying runs. With the loss by Bradley, the Shockers are in the Valley tournament.

[1972Shocker]

Katie Armogost makes the Bradley result meaningless as she pitches the Shocks to a 2-1 win in the finale of the series non a 3 hitter.

The Shocks banged out 8 hits but only managed 2 runs in the top of the 1st on a 2-run homer by Erin Carney.

Katie, with the way things have gone for her this year probably figured that's about all she would get and she made it stand up allowing a solo homer in the bottom of the 6th for Creighton's only run of the game.

Glad Katie will have the opportunity to pitch in the Valley tournament. She pitched much better this year than her record would indicate.

FWIW, Bradley did win the final game in their series with MSU 3-1.

[Hovpen]

Glad Katie will have the opportunity to pitch in the Valley tournament. She pitched much better this year than her record would indicate.

Yes she did.