MVC Softball Championships - May 8-10

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The Sycamore Level
The Sycamores open play at the MVC tournament on Thursday at 12pm (ET) taking on the 5 seed - Wichita State. Tournament is being played in Carbondale this year - an interesting note, the host team has never won the MVC Softball Championship.

ISU swept the series from the Shockers this year, winning two one-run games: 1-0 and 4-3. In Game 1, ISU only managed 1 hit, a lead-off HR by Meredith Simpson, but Katie Armour kept WSU from scoring throwing a 2 hitter for 6 innings before giving way to Megan McCurdy in the 7th. In Game 2, ISU fell behind 1-0 in the top of the 4th inning on a solo HR, but answered back in the bottom of the 4th with a 2 run HR by Katie Armour. Wichita then got a 2 run HR in the top of the 7th to take a 3-2 lead, but the Sycamores responded in the bottom of the 7th with a lead-off single from Armour and then a 2 run walk-off HR by Kelsey Anderson to win 4-3. The Sunday game of the series was cancelled due to weather. Shockers have one of the better pitchers in the league in Sr. Ashly Bright - as she set a new single season MVC strikeout record. She struck out 13 in each contest with ISU earlier this season, but ended up with 2 losses.

If the Sycamores win the opener, they will then face the 4 seed - Drake - at 5pm (ET) on Thursday for the right to take on top seed Creighton on Friday.

Here is a link to the MVC Softball Championship Website

All Conference teams will be announced on Wednesday at the banquet. Jr. Meredith Simpson should get strong consideration at SS. Not sure if any others have much of a legitimate chance - perhaps Sr. Lindsay Starwalt in the outfield; So. Audrey Childress at some position (she has played multiple); Jr. Sam Markowski at Catcher. Those 4 seem to have the best conference stats for our squad. Sycamores have had ONE 1st Team All Conference player since 1995 - Darcy Wood in 2006. Simpson might break through this year.
 
Some links for the opening round game on Thursday at 12pm (ET) from Carbondale vs. Wichita State:

MVC Tournament Central
GameTracker live stats
Live Audio from ISU
Live Audio from Wichita State
Live Audio from Tourney Host SIU

The Sycamores and Shockers have split their last 10 meetings. Sycamores swept a weather shortened series this year in Terre Haute - 2 games to none. Shockers knocked ISU out of the 2nd round of last year's tournament 1-0 on a walk-off HR in the 7th inning. Shockers are 3-9 all time in 1st Round MVC games. Sycamores are 7-8 in 1st Round MVC games, including a 3-2 win in 8 innings last year over the 5 seed Evansville.
 
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