Softball Sweeps Butler - 4/16

[SycEm]

Softball wins 2 more today with a sweep of Butler at Price Field, taking Game 1 3-2 and winning Game 2 6-5 on a walk-off HR by Sam Markowski. Megan McCurdy pitches the opener and strikes out 10 in the complete game win. ISU gets back-to-back homeruns from Lindsey Starwalt and Meredith Simpson in the win. Simpson also had an RBI double.
In Game 2, Fr. Stephanie Jonson gets the start and goes 4 innings, giving up 4 earned runs. ISU finds themselves down 5-1 going into the 6th. Jr. Sam Markowski gets a 2 run HR to make it 5-3. Then in the bottom of the 7th, Sr. Katie Iocoangeli gets a lead-off double. Next two batters fly out, but Sr. Kelsey Anderson gets an RBI single up the middle to make it 5-4. Markowski then comes back up and hits another 2-run HR for the win.

Sycamores have now won 5 in a row and 7 of their last 8. UNI comes to town this weekend for a big conference series for positioning toward the conference tourney.

 

[ISUCC]

boy, first the excitement from the WSU series, and now this, I bet it was a pretty exciting feeling for the team.

You're right though, ISU MUST sweep UNI to get a better seeding for the MVC post season. UNI is in last place.

 

[SycEm]

Current MVC Standings through Wed. night - top 8 make the tourney:

1. Creighton 10-2
2. SIU 10-4
3. Illinois State 8-4
4. Drake 8-5
5. Missouri State 8-7
6. Wichita State 9-8
7. Evansville 5-9
8. Indiana State 4-9
9. UNI 3-9
10. Bradley 3-11

Thursday - Bradley plays a single game at UNI

Weekend Series:
UNI at Indiana State
Creighton at SIU
Missouri State at Evansville
Bradley at Drake
Wichita State at Illinois State

Sycamores have 3 games with UNI, Creighton, and Evansville left along with a single game with Illinois State.

 

[SycEm]

Bradley at UNI cancelled tonight due to rain - so those standings are correct going into the weekend.

 

[ISUCC]

NCAA softball RPI

Softball RPI's thru April 16th

http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/weeklyrpi/2008WSBrpi3.html

44 Creighton Missouri Valley 30-13 5-7 13- 4- 0 12-2 0-0
55 Illinois St. Missouri Valley 16-15 4-8 9- 7- 0 3-0 0-0
64 Drake Missouri Valley 18-17 7-11 9- 5- 0 2-1 0-0
70 Wichita St. Missouri Valley 27-19 5-10 8- 3- 0 14-6 0-0
82 Missouri St. Missouri Valley 19-12 5-7 6- 1- 0 8-4 0-0
100 Southern Ill. Missouri Valley 23-15 2-8 10- 4- 0 11-3 0-0
110 Evansville Missouri Valley 18-15 4-10 9- 2- 0 5-3 0-0
113 Bradley Missouri Valley 11-17 6-8 5- 3- 0 0-6 0-0
144 UNI Missouri Valley 16-20 5-7 6- 8- 0 4-5 1-0
176 Indiana St. Missouri Valley 13-20 2-9 6- 5- 0 5-6 0-0

 

[SycEm]

I think this is a "down" year in the MVC for softball also. It is certainly compact from top-to-bottom, but the best teams are not what they were. Here are numbers from last year - WarrenNolan data since the NCAA doesn't archive:
RPI Team MVC Record, Overall Record
21 Illinois State 18-7-1, 44-17-1
30 Southern Illinois 17-7, 41-16
41 Creighton 19-4-1, 40-14-1
64 Wichita State 18-9, 37-28
84 Evansville 12-13, 33-20
112 Bradley 8-15, 26-23
114 Indiana State 6-16, 22-27
147 Missouri State 10-14, 21-29
168 Drake 6-17, 16-36
190 Northern Iowa 5-17, 19-32