Shockers @ Illinois State - Winner Takes All

[1972Shocker]

From pitching coach Samantha Sheeley before today's DH in Normal:

Samantha Sheeley@samanthaleigh78h What's the point of it all if u can't handle business under pressure? Why work so hard if the intensity of competition overshadows ur skills?



Apparently the Lady Shocks are good listeners.

[1972Shocker]

Report on today's games from the Illinois State website.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, kudos and congrats to Shocker hitting coach, Samantha Ricketts. She has deserves a standing O and a curtain call for the job she did with the Shocker hitters this year.

:applouse:

[Hovpen]

I see no reason to rest on todays play. One more ladies for the road tomorrow.

[ShockTalk]

Congratulations Ladies. Just outstanding to win your 1st ever MVC Championship after being picked to finish 8th in the preseason by the league coaches.

Speaking of coaches anyone want to guess who will be the MVC COY?

Didn't realize the Lady Shockers had not finished 1st under Walton. Need to make the NCAAs and make this the greatest season in Lady Shocker softball.

Just so you know @1972Shocker:, I'm officially excited about this team.

[ShockTalk]

From the Illinois State pre-game report:



Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the Shockers performance this year and today in particular is that this is a young team from a program that simply is not used to winning championships playing on the road against the team that has more Valley Championships than any other, that has substantially more experience on the roster and that was coming in on a 9-game winning streak. Perhaps our secret sauce was our youth. These Shockers didn't understand that they were the underdogs.

Also, you generally build fast-pitch softball teams with pitching. This team's pitching was OK, but certainly not dominating. But these young Shocker hitters can get the job done most of the time and they really came on strong in Valley play.

Even though there is a game to go, here's some interesting conference only stats for the Shocker hitters:

1st in batting average by 20 points @ .336 and 1st in total bases.

2nd in Slugging, runs scored, home runs, and Sac Flies.

3rd in On Base %, Stolen Bases, and Sac Bunts.

2nd fewest SO.

The ladies also led the league in conference Fielding % at .982, 10 points higher than 2nd place.

In league play, there was only 4 runners picked off in the whole league....WSU picked off 3 of them.

As for the pitching in conference play, OK equals 3rd place in ERA, 1st in Saves, and tied for 2nd in fewest Walks. The Lady Shocks pitchers stumbling block was Home Runs, allowing the most in league play with 29, 5 more than the 2nd most and 20 more than Loyola who allowed the fewest.

[ShockTalk]

Cacy Williams follows a 2-out 6th inning single by Kelli Spring out of the 9-hole with a 2-run homer giving the Shocks a little breathing room up 7-3.

As I said after her 7th inning homer in Game 1, if the Shocks can hold on to this lead Cacy will be the league's POY.

Is POY based on overall or league play? Brittany stacks up very well with Cacy in conference play.

Player...............AVG GP-GS AB R Hits 2 3 HR RBI TB SLG BB SO OB%

Fortner, Brittany .494 26-26 83 23 41 10 0 5 26 66 .795 08 02 .543
Williams, Cacy... .447 26-26 85 29 38 06 0 9 19 71 .835 18 12 .548

Sorry for the format.

[flyingMoose]

Pantagraph game article

[1972Shocker]

Is POY based on overall or league play? Brittany stacks up very well with Cacy in conference play.

Player...............AVG GP-GS AB R Hits 2 3 HR RBI TB SLG BB SO OB%

Fortner, Brittany .494 26-26 83 23 41 10 0 5 26 66 .795 08 02 .543
Williams, Cacy... .447 26-26 85 29 38 06 0 9 19 71 .835 18 12 .548

Sorry for the format.

Brittany did tear it up in conference play. However, I personally give the edge to Cacy because she always seemed to come through in the clutch and in the most important series of the season (this weekends games with the Redbirds) she has shined the brightest. Either one would be deserving. Brittany will no doubt be a 1st teamer. The great thing is both of these young ladies are only sophomores.

Actually, it is entirely possible that Cacy and Brittany could split the vote and allow another player such as ILS Senior Laura Canopy or SIU Senior Jayna Spivey to get the POY award.

FWIW Coach Bredbenner has also stated that Cacy is her POY.

“The player of the year has to be a person that’s made a big statement for that team,” Bredbenner said. “She’s my player of the year. She’s by far the best newcomer, easily.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/03/343...#storylink=cpy

[1972Shocker]

goShockers.com report

[1972Shocker]

I would link the Wichita Eagle game report but it's not really worth the effort.

[1972Shocker]

Game 3 GameTracker

May be tough for both teams to get up for today's game. The Shocks need to descend from Cloud 9 and the Redbirds may still be traumatized from the assault the Shocks laid on them yesterday.

My guess is that Shocker senior Sloan Anderson will get the start today.

[1972Shocker]

Is POY based on overall or league play? Brittany stacks up very well with Cacy in conference play.

That's a good question to which I do not have a good answer. I don't know if the Conference provided guidelines to voters in that regard or if they just leave it up to the voters. What makes sense to me is to look at both overall and conference stats but to give more weight to the performance in conference play. How much weight you give could be somewhat subjective from voter to voter.
How it is actually done I do not know. I'm still scratching my head over how Alex Harden was selected as the Valley Women's Basketball POY.

The one thing I do know you don't go from 10th to 8th to 1st (after being picked to finish 8th) in a sport like softball on the strength of one player. The Shocks had a lot of contributors this year and a lot of key newcomers that made that happen.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks jump out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st. Cacy Williams reached on an error and 2 batters later Brittany Fortner goes yard.

Sloan is in the circle for the Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

Cacy Williams and Brittany Fortner having their only little intra-squad competition going with a "whatever you can do I can match it" as Cacy goes yard with 2-outs in the 2nd inning to put the Shocks up 3-0.

One thing both Cacy and Bittany do is hit the ball hard to all fields.

Cacy's blast prompts the Redbirds into an early pitching change as McKenzie Vissering replaces Redbird's starter Regan Romshek who is the No. 1 in their pitching rotation.