Shocker SB v Illinois State

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers continue conference play this weekend, hosting Illinois State. The standard weekend schedule has a DH starting at noon on Saturday with a single game on Sunday starting at 11am.

The Redbirds have an overall record of 13-12. Against teams that were at least RV at the time, their record is 1-5, the win being over Missouri at the same Arizona State tourney the Shockers played in. They have a runs-ahead loss to LSU at a tourney hosted by the Tigers. One of their (non-ranked) losses is to Arizona State in the tourney referenced earlier. Historically, Illinois State plays the most aggressive non-conference schedule of any of the teams in the Valley. Their conference mark is 3-0, having swept Indiana State last weekend.

Offensive leaders for the Redbirds are Jordan de los Reyes (OPS of 1.108 and five homers), Shannon Felde (1.195 on about half of the Illinois State games - injured earlier?), Alyssa Wiebel (.999) and Riley Hale (.965).

Leaders in the circle are Sarah Finck (ERA of 2.68 and WHIP of 1.46) who has almost two-thirds of the innings, and Ali Domkuski (6.20 and 2.35). Domkuski has the second most innings, yet has only about one-sixth of the innings pitched. Last weekend, Finck pitched the first and third games with Domkuski and another splitting the middle game.

The Shocks are led in the circle by Katie who has an ERA of 2.40 and a WHIP of 1.31. Jenni's numbers have improved to 4.74 and 2.32. As noted in another thread, her Nebraska outing looked much like the old Jenni.

The offense continues to be led by Laurie (1.074 and six homers). Other strong contributors are Paige (.984 and six homers), Macklin (.934 and six homers), Mackenzie (.920) and Madison (.911 and four homers).


Not directly related but not worth a separate thread either, the Head Coach at Indiana State was relieved of his duties after last weekend's series with Illinois State. No replacement has been named as of this writing.

[1972Shocker]

Sounds like this could be a competitive series. Hopefully, Jenni is nearing a full recovery. She looked pretty solid against Nebraska. Hopefully, the Shocker defense holds up they are making things more difficult then it needs to be. They in particular failed Jenni against Nebraska but they are a resilient bunch with the ability to overcome late deficits with their bats.

Good luck Ladies.

[1972Shocker]

Not a good day for the Lady Shocks as they drop a pair of home games to Illinois State 5-3 and 8-3 to fall 2 game behind the Redbirds in the Valley race.

Makes the game tomorrow pretty important for the Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks didn't mess around today and picked up a badly need 11-3, 5 inning run rule game over Illinois State. Mackenzie Wright drove in 6 runs and Laurie Derrico added 3 RBI as the Shocks provided Katie Malone more than enough run support to get the job done.

I imagine that HCKB wasn't totally pleased with yesterday's effort so it was great to see the Ladies bounce back with a vengeance today.

[flyingMoose]

Game Three

Illinois State 3-11(5) Shockers

The Shocks grab a runs-ahead win over the Redbirds to take the final game of the weekend series.

Madison opened the Shocker second with her sixth home run and Mackenzie closed the second with a grand slam, all four of those runs being unearned, to give the Shocks an early 5-0 lead.

The Shockers loaded the bases with no one out in the third, but a force out at home and a line-drive DP ended the inning. Felde replaced Finck after an inning-opening walk.

The Redbirds got one of their runs in the fourth, but Laurie responded with a three-run blast, her eighth, to move the Shocker lead to 8-1 after four.

Strandgard, the Preseason All-Conference pick at shortstop, had a two-run homer for Illinois State in the fifth, but the Shockers scored three runs in the bottom half without registering an out to close out the game.


Katie gave up six hits and no walks along with six strikeouts to run her record to 15-7. All three runs were earned.

Among the thirteen hits by the Shockers, Mackenzie had a double and home run for six RBI, Macklin had a double and a single, and Kelli and Paige each had two singles. Madison and Laurie are the other extra-base hits with their home runs, the three RBI by Laurie being the other multiple RBI game.


The Shockers next host a DH with Mizzou on Wednesday starting at 4pm.

[flyingMoose]

Other Weekend Series

Bradley 2-1 Evansville

Drake 0-3 Southern Illinois
The loss of Newman for the year appears to be devastating for the Bulldogs, although they are starting with the toughest part of their schedule, having played preseason #2 and #3.

Loyola 0-3 Missouri State
The Bears only gave up one run on the weekend.

Northern Iowa 1-2 Indiana State
The Sycamores scored six runs in the bottom of the last to take the deciding game of the series. They won the first game of the series by scoring two in the seventh to tie, winning the game in the ninth. An assistant coach has been promoted to interim head coach.

[WuDrWu]

Did anyone see the play in the outfield that led to the 1st Redbird run? 2 outs, line drive to center, WSU player runs in and dives to make the catch. I thought it was called an out. ISU argues, umps get together, safe.

Never seen that before, best as I can tell without replay. Saw the replay a dozen times, never once thought I could see evidence that she didn't catch it. No doubt it was close, either way.

[flyingMoose]

Did anyone see the play in the outfield that led to the 1st Redbird run? 2 outs, line drive to center, WSU player runs in and dives to make the catch. I thought it was called an out. ISU argues, umps get together, safe.

Never seen that before, best as I can tell without replay. Saw the replay a dozen times, never once thought I could see evidence that she didn't catch it. No doubt it was close, either way.

I watched just the key parts of the game on ESPN3 Replay. I thought she trapped it - it looked like a short hop into her glove from the camera behind home plate. But definitely very close.

The big part of this play is that the umpire who would have had the best look - the one near second base - did not go out (and should have!). He would have a great angle from the side. With his not going out, the call belongs to the home plate umpire, and he has to more or less look straight at the play - the worst angle. It looked like nobody made an "first" call (maybe the plate umpire did), and they eventually decided by committee. I recognize the names of the two guys working in this crew, and they are both very experienced umpires. Even with a quality crew, goofy things happen sometimes.

[1972Shocker]

Did anyone see the play in the outfield that led to the 1st Redbird run? 2 outs, line drive to center, WSU player runs in and dives to make the catch. I thought it was called an out. ISU argues, umps get together, safe.

Never seen that before, best as I can tell without replay. Saw the replay a dozen times, never once thought I could see evidence that she didn't catch it. No doubt it was close, either way.

Yes, I watched the game on replay last night. Quite frankly I really could not tell for sure from what was shown on the ESPN3 stream. Fortunately, it really had no impact on the outcome of the game.

[WuDrWu]

Wow.....that's just an outstanding breakdown of the events. Thanks @flyingMoose:!

[xazshox]

The centerfield catch background

A photographer posted 3 pix of the catch on FB showing the ball was caught. Furthermore, the outfielder involved, Ashley Johnson, later said that she caught it and that's good enough for me.

[1972Shocker]

Illinois State seems to be pretty similar to the Shocks. A good hitting team with perhaps one reliable, although not overpowering, pitcher.

Sarah Finck has a 2.70 ERA, .264 opponents BA and has pitched 62.3% of Illinois State's innings. The Redbirds have a .300 team batting average.

Katie Malone has a 2.55 ERA, .264 opponents BA and has pitched 69.1% of Wichita State's innings. The Shockers have .324 team batting average.

The Shocks do have a power advantage with a .506 slugging % to .435 for the Redbirds. The Shocks have 31 home runs to 17 for the Redbirds.

Unfortunately, the Shocker bats took a bit of a day off on Saturday especially in key situations.

[xazshox]

Most Recent Shocker Report for Softball

Kristi Bredbenner was on the last Shocker report. She answered my concern about the defense by giving it a grade of an F so far. The Shox made 4 errors in the win over the U of Ne but managed to score 5 runs in the 6th inning to win 7-5. Not only did they make 4 errors, but they also made a couple of mental errors as well. As a result, Krisit had them spend a lot of time on defense last week during spring break, so hopefully that area of their game will improve now.

[1972Shocker]

Was watching some of the highlights from the final game of the Illinois State game. Was watching perhaps the key at bat of the game when Mackenzie Wright came to the plate in the bottom of the 2nd with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Mackenzie fell behind in the count at 1-2 and after fouling off a pitch she did something somewhat unusual in today's game. She took off both her batting gloves. She worked the count to 3-2 including fouling off several additional pitches. Finally, Sarah Finck got a pitch up in the zone and Mackenzie hit a line drive of the left center field wall. Took about 3 seconds for that ball to leave the park. Mackenzie went gloveless in her other two at bats as well which resulted in a walk in front of Laurie's 4th inning home run and a 2-run bloop double that landed right on the RF foul line in the deciding 5th inning. I anticipate a continuance of the bare handed approach for Mackenzie.

As far as the non-catch ruling on the bloop to Ashley in the 4th I still couldn't tell for sure from the replays shown but I sure didn't see any basis for overruling the out call either. However, I'm almost certain she caught that ball. The reason being is that would have been the 3rd out of the inning. The Baseball and Softball Gods have ordained that whenever a fielder ends the inning on a great play they will lead off the ensuing at bat for their team. Who lead off the bottom of the 4th. Yes, it was Ashley. Providing definitive proof that she did, in fact, catch that ball as the 3rd out of the inning. Whether or not the Softball Gods will exact any revenge on the umpires for messing with long established game traditions remains to be seen.

[flyingMoose]

As far as the non-catch ruling on the bloop to Ashley in the 4th I still couldn't tell for sure from the replays shown but I sure didn't see any basis for overruling the out call either. However, I'm almost certain she caught that ball. The reason being is that would have been the 3rd out of the inning. The Baseball and Softball Gods have ordained that whenever a fielder ends the inning on a great play they will lead off the ensuing at bat for their team. Who lead off the bottom of the 4th. Yes, it was Ashley. Providing definitive proof that she did, in fact, catch that ball as the 3rd out of the inning. Whether or not the Softball Gods will exact any revenge on the umpires for messing with long established game traditions remains to be seen.

Just LOL fantastic!