Shocker SB v Southern Illinois

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers host Southern Illinois on the next-to-last weekend of conference play. The doubleheader starts at noon on Saturday with the single game beginning at noon on Sunday, Senior Day for the Shocks. Other series this weekend involving the top half of the league are Illinois State at Missouri State and Northern Iowa at Bradley.

The Salukis are 25-20 overall and 13-8 in the Valley. They have lost two to UNI, swept Drake, won one of three against Missouri State and Illinois State, two of three from Bradley and Evansville and swept Loyola. Using season statistics, the offense is led by Jana Spivey, a Preseason All-Conference pick who has a BA of .340 and an OPS of 1.003, Kelsey Gonzalez (.336 and .860) and Shaye Harre (.318 and .974).

Katie Bertelsen has just over half of the Southern Illinois starts, but is getting two-thirds of the starts in conference play. Her ERA is 3.76 with a WHIP of 1.50. Taylor Orsburn (lately) and Shaye Harre (earlier) are getting the other start of a conference series. Orsburn has an ERA of 2.67 and a WHIP 1.42, while Harre's numbers are 6.05 and 1.93.

In the Valley, Brittany with a BA of .554 and an OPS of 1.495, Cacy (.433 and 1.324) and Liz (.367 and 1.039) continue to lead the Shocks on offense. In the circle, Sloan has an ERA of 2.42 with a WHIP of 1.19 with Katie having numbers of 2.92 and 1.43. Jenni, use exclusively in a relief role now it appears, has an ERA of 5.03 and a WHIP of 1.35.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Bredbenner will be on Sports Daily at 10:20 this morning.

[flyingMoose]

Coach Bredbenner will be on Sports Daily at 10:20 this morning.

I am late to the party. What did she say?

[1972Shocker]

I am late to the party. What did she say?

You would probably be better served to listen to the podcast later today than to rely on my memory.

Bruce's first question was what things had to be addressed when she took the job to get the program moving in the right direction. I believe the fist item she mentioned was getting a better work ethic instilled in the team. She also said they team needed to be held accountable for their performance both on and off the field.

Bruce was very complimentary of the program and seemed genuinely interested and he did a good job with the interview.

They talked about the positive impact Cacy Williams has had on the team as well as well as many of the other younger players. HCKB also spoke highly of Melissa Jaegers and her skill as a defensive catcher.

They talked about the pitching and HCKB stated that you can only hit so much and you will only go as far as your pitching will take you. She said they have kind of done it by committee this year and that will probably continue for a couple of more years. She said they probably will be looking to the JUCO ranks for pitching help for the next two years. She said their top high school pitching prospects are sophomores this year so they will have to continue to piece the pitching together for a couple more years. She said Sloan was starting to figure things out and has been better lately.

She said they have had to prove they are getting better as program before a lot of the better high school pitchers would show them much interest. She said she thinks the success this year has greatly helped her to at least be able to get her foot in the door with higher quality pitching prospects.

She talked about the importance of this weekends series with SIU in terms of the Valley regular season championship and acknowledged that the Valley is probably a 1-bid league this year so winning the Valley Tournament will be the only route to an NCAA bid. She said at least this year she is not getting any of the blame for the Valley being a 1-bid league unlike the past 2 years.

I thought HCKB did a really nice job today.

[1972Shocker]

@flyingMoose one other thing that I was unaware of and I thought was pretty important so I am reporting it in a separate post:

Tickets to the Saturday's DH and to Sunday's game are $1 each if purchased in advance.

Great deal. I did get online and purchased 2 tickets for both days. There is a $2.00 charge for the print-at-home option and a $5.00 charge for the will call options. I assume if you are able to go by the ticket office today you can buy the tickets without the extra delivery charges.

My 2 tickets for the 3 games cost me a total of $8.00 with the print-at-home charges. Still a pretty sweet deal.

[flyingMoose]

... she is not getting any of the blame for the Valley being a 1-bid league unlike the past 2 years.

I'm lost - I have no idea what she was trying to say with this.

[1972Shocker]

I'm lost - I have no idea what she was trying to say with this.

I think she was basically saying that the bottom of the league generally gets the blame for pulling down the leagues RPI and making it more difficult for top of the league to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Nothing I posted should be assumed to be a direct quote. It was almost totally paraphrased so again I would suggest you listen to the podcast when you have time.

[flyingMoose]

I think she was basically saying that the bottom of the league generally gets the blame for pulling down the leagues RPI and making it more difficult for top of the league to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Thanks, makes sense. I doubt conference and team RPIs can be found for the multi-bid years, but it would be interesting. Some years an at-large bid has been the #1 seed, and one year it was the #2 seed who I suspect had a noticeably better RPI than the #1 seed.

[1972Shocker]

I just re-confirmed with the ticket office that the $1 tickets for this weekends softball games must be bought by 5:00 pm this afternoon. Either at the Koch Arena ticket office or online.

[flyingMoose]

... I would suggest you listen to the podcast when you have time.

http://audio.kfhradio.com/a/90862673...tl-4-25-14.htm starting at the 1:29:45 mark for about thirteen minutes.

Senior Day is Saturday, not Sunday.

[1972Shocker]

http://audio.kfhradio.com/a/90862673...tl-4-25-14.htm starting at the 1:29:45 mark.

Was I close?

[1972Shocker]

Looks like they will actually be celebrating Senior Day on Saturday.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=209480067

[flyingMoose]

Southern Illinois 2-1 Shockers

Southern Illinois 10-3 Shockers


Illinois State 6-2 Missouri State

Illinois State 7-3 Missouri State


Northern Iowa 2-1 Bradley

Northern Iowa 0-1 Bradley


With these results, the standings of the top five are:

Shockers 17-6
Illinois State 15-5 0.5 GB
Southern Illinois 14-8 2.5 GB
Bradley 13-10 4 GB
Northern Iowa 12-10 4.5 GB


Drake split their doubleheader at Indiana State, and Evansville split their doubleheader at Loyola.

[flyingMoose]

Game One

Southern Illinois 2-1 Shockers

Katie started this game. Both teams scored in the first inning. The Salukis had a single, stolen base and single for their run. The Shocks scored without benefit of a hit. Cacy walked and was safe at second on a fielder's choice that the SIU coach argued vociferously. Cacy then advanced on a ground ball and score on PaigeL's sac fly.

Although the Shocks did not score in the second, both Ali and Ashley singled, and it looked like a promising day. It was not to be. Melanie's single in the third and Brittany's single in the sixth were the only other hits. Though the Shockers hit a few balls hard, they also hit a lot of weak ground balls and pop ups.

In the SIU fourth, PaigeL threw out a runner at the plate who was trying to score on a single, keeping the game tied. But no one could do anything about the Saluki homer in the fifth by the nine-hole batter. Jenni came on in the sixth after Katie gave up a soft single to right and kept SIU at bay. With two outs and no one on in the bottom of the seventh, I was very surprised that Ashley, the slapper, hit rather than one of the two on the bench who have demonstrated home run power.


Game Two

Southern Illinois 10-3 Shockers

Cacy led off the first with a homer for the Shocks, but the Salukis countered with two homers of their own in the second. That brought Jenni to the circle in relief of Sloan.

The Shockers scored two in the third to tie the game at 3-3. Cacy and Melanie singled to start the inning. Then an error and later a ground ball scored the runs.

The roof caved in in the fifth. Base hits brought Katie on, but SIU scored two. They scored four more in the sixth with Sloan back in the circle during the inning. The Salukis tacked on one more in the seventh. For the game, they had ten runs on seventeen hits, including seven doubles and two home runs. We had very nice catches in the outfield by Ashley and PaigeL, or it could have been worse. Cacy had four hits for the Shocks. The pitching committee had no answers for the Saluki bats.

[flyingMoose]

@1972Shocker:, comments on the games?