Shocker SB v Missouri State

[1972Shocker]

The game merited a real article, not an In Brief summary, in today's print edition.

Also, the Scoreboard included yesterday's Valley scores and the current standings. Maybe some more ink along these lines is coming, or was it just a slow sports day?

The Eagles article is in the online edition as well. It also helps when the good stuff happens at home.

[xazshox]

Ashley Johnson

I should also mention Ashley Johnson, the frosh CF, who hits in the #8 spot in the lineup. She is a slapper type hitter. I don't recall WSU having this type of hitter in recent years. She went 3 of 3 in the game yesterday. She is a left handed hitter, so when she runs up in the box to slap at the ball with her bat, it gives her an extra advantage. In her 2nd at bat, she hit what looked like a routine ground ball in the hole, but she still beat it out for a hit. In her last at bat which was in the 5th inning, if I recall correctly, there was a runner on 1st & she executed the hit & run perfectly lining a shot into the spot the Mo State SS had just vacated to cover 2nd as the WSU base runner was coming that way. Both runners were safe. It's pretty cool when you have that kind of hitter in the lineup with all of that power hitting in front of her. It gives WSU a varied offense for sure!

[1972Shocker]

She is a left handed hitter, so when she runs up in the box to slap at the ball with her bat, it gives her an extra advantage.

Slappers are almost exclusively lefties at the plate. The advantage of the running start from the left side is the whole point of being a slapper. Not sure I have ever seen a righty slapper at least at the elite and college level. In any case, you make a good point. An effective slapper can be a real pain in the neck for opposing teams and really puts pressure on the defense. Ashley has had a very nice freshman year and should only get better.

[1972Shocker]

Certainly the meat of the schedule is coming up with 3 @ Drake, 2@MSU, 3 at home against SIU and finishing with 3 @ISUR.

That finishing stretch is made even tougher with 8 games on the road and only 3 at home.

The only remaining opportunity to get out and support this over-achieving Lady Shocker team is on April 26 and 27 when they host SIU. Hopefully, the weather is nice and a the Shocks draw some decent crowds that weekend.

The baseball team is playing Tulane in New Orleans that weekend so if we get good weather you can take a lawn chair (those can be setup pretty easily in the Wilkins stadium bleachers, purchase a hot dog or two, take your radio along and do a little multi-tasking at the ol' ball park. Sounds good to me.

[1972Shocker]

Katie Malone looks like a strong, strong girl. Especially for a freshman.

[flyingMoose]

Flying Moose, you must have an earlier version of today's Eagle than I do. The 1st page of the sports page has a big article about the game with Mo State.

My attempt at confusion was clearly successful. I referenced the print edition article, and then provided a link to the digital edition article :(, my point being that softball got a "baseball" article, not the typical one paragraph in the Sports In Brief section. I think they are the same article, but I did not try to compare the two. And the piece in the paper was part game article, part Brittany Fortner feature.

[flyingMoose]

Slappers are almost exclusively lefties at the plate. The advantage of the running start from the left side is the whole point of being a slapper. Not sure I have ever seen a righty slapper at least at the elite and college level. In any case, you make a good point. An effective slapper can be a real pain in the neck for opposing teams and really puts pressure on the defense. Ashley has had a very nice freshman year and should only get better.

The drawback to slappers is that it takes typically takes her hit and another to score someone from first. The slapper that can occasionally drive the ball into the gap (and I think Ashley can do that although she has no triples this year) is a real advantage. And you are correct, there are no righty slappers. You might see a righty execute a push bunt and get out of the batter's box quickly, but they do not slap like a lefty does.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks travel to Springfield this afternoon to play Games 2 and 3 of their series with travel-partner Missouri State with Game 1 starting at 3:00 pm.

The Shocks absolutely thrashed the Lady Bears in Wichita last week. No doubt the Shocks will head into today's games with a lot of confidence. Hopefully, it will be a determined confidence and not an over-confidence.

Completing a sweep of the Lady Bears would be huge with series remaining with 3rd place SIU and 2nd place ILS over the next two weekends.

:poster_shocks: