Jennies to Play Six Teams from the Northern Sun in Regional Crossover

• The Jennies had arguably their most successful season in 2015 with a 49-16 record and MIAA regular season and tournament wins as well as a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight.
• UCM went 3-3 last week and 2-2 in the MIAA. The Jens split with former MIAA foe Truman State and swept Northwest Missouri, but dropped both ends of a doubleheader with Missouri Western.
• This will be the Jennies second foray into games with the Northern Sun. Central Missouri went 2-3 at the Kelly Laas Tournament hosted by St. Cloud State back in February.
• The Missouri Western Crossover is the final tournament of the season for the Jennies who will play only doubleheaders until postseason.
• Central Missouri is 5-3 in their first MIAA games of 2016. They went 21-5 last year on their way to the MIAA regular season and tournament crowns.

Last Time Out
WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Jennies used a balance offensive attack to sweep Northwest Missouri Saturday afternoon at Jennies Field.
Game One: Central Missouri 6, Northwest Missouri 4
Northwest Missouri started off the scoring in the first inning with a single to center field. The Bearcats had the bases loaded, but starting pitcher Emily Robinson forced a ground out to end the threat.
The Jens tied the game at one in the bottom of the second when Hailey Crabtree doubled home Alex Leonhart.
Northwest Missouri retook the lead in the top of the third inning with a three run rally to go up 4-1. The Jens got on back in the bottom half of the inning with an Emily King homerun over the right field wall.
The bottom of the fourth inning proved to be fruitful for the Jennies. Crabtree launched a home run to right center to lead off the inning. Central Missouri tied the game when Lauren Mabe brought home Allie Jo Rogers with a two out double. Leonhart followed that up with a double of her own to give the Jens a 5-4 lead. Leohart scored the final run of the game on a wild pitch.
The Bearcats threatened in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with one out, but pitcher Allison Tonyan worked out of the jam with a fly out and a ground out.
Tonyan picked up the win to move to 2-4 on the year.
Game Two: Central Missouri 7, Northwest Missouri 6
The Jens got on the board first in game two when Mabe brought home Rogers on a ground out in the first inning. The Bearcats responded in the second inning with a two run single to take the lead. Northwest Missouri tacked on another run with a homerun in the third inning to increase their lead to 3-1. The fifth inning saw the Bearcats increase their lead to 5-1 on a double and a sac fly.
The Jennies rallied in the fifth inning to take a 6-5 lead. UCM got the scoring started in the inning with a single from Rogers. The next two runs came from walks that forced home runs, with the fourth and fifth runs coming from wild pitches.
Northwest Missouri loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh, but only managed one run. Rogers scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to give the Jens a 7-6 victory.
Jordan Johnson went the distance for the Jennies striking out three while allowing six runs.
The wins improved UCM's record to 13-12 overall and 5-3 in the MIAA.
The Jens will be back in action March 18 at the Apple Market Softball Classic in St, Joseph, Missouri and will face Winona State in game one.

Quick Hits
Anderson vs. the Northern Sun
• Jennies coach Susan Anderson is 25-16 all-time against the Northern Sun as Coach of the Jennies. She is also 11-9 against these six teams.

Jennies at a Neutral Site
• The Jennies have played 12 of their first 25 games this season on a neutral site. Central Missouri has gone 5-7 in such games and were 17-10 in 2015.

Stealing the Show
• Central Missouri has been off and running since the first game this season. They are third in the MIAA in team stolen bases with 41 through 25 games.
• Ali Jo Rogers is chief among them stealing 22 bases in the team's first 25 games to lead the MIAA. Rogers set the all-time singles season record for stolen bases last season with 49 and is the all-time career leader. She became the first Jennie to ever reach 100 career stolen bases last season and has 112 for her career in 125 attempts.

Getting Started
• Though the Jennies have hit just .247 through their first 25 games, UCM has done a good job of getting on base to lead off innings. Batters leading off innings are hitting .395 (66-for-167) to start the season. Rogers, the team's leadoff hitter for all 25 games is 20-for-42 (.476) when starting an inning. She also has led off two games with home runs.
• The Jennies are also doing a good job of getting on the board early in games. UCM has 18 first-inning runs, tied for the most of any inning this season. They are 7-3 when leading after the first and 11-3 when scoring first.

Power District
• With the wind blowing out at Jennies field last week, the Jennies were able to play a little long ball, smashing seven home runs. UCM got homers from Lauren Mabe, Katie Giacone, Emily King and two from Allie Dishinger in Mondays split. King hit her second of the week and Hailey Crabtree connected for her first career dinger against Northwest Minnesota State.  
• One of the side-effects of swinging for the fences is a penchant for striking out, which the Jennies have done this season. They are fourth in the conference having been struck out 125 times and five starters have already struck out more than 10 times.

The New 1-2 Punch
• Last season seniors Katie Shockley and Jakki Prater combined for 42 wins in the circle. Going forward, UCM is relying on a pair of freshman to fill their shoes on the rubber, Emily Robinson and Jordan Johnson. Those two are a combined 11-7 this season with a 2.64 ERA. The last freshman pitcher to lead the team in wins was Sarah Espy in 2010 with 12 win.
• Though both have been successful, Robinson and Johnson have found success in different ways. Robinson is much more of a strikeout pitcher with 49 punchouts in 66 innings pitched. Johnson pitches more to contact as evidenced by her 22 strikeouts in 67.2 innings. Robinson has also found a great deal of success pitching to left-handed hitters. Lefties have a .203 batting average against Robinson in 74 at bats.
• Coming on in relief Allison Tonyan threw four shutout innings against Northwest Missouri to pick up her second win of the season. The team has also used Katie Giacone twice out of the pen for the first time in her career.

Goose Eggs
• Through the Jennies first 25 games, nine have ended via shut out. Central Missouri has been on the winning side four times while have been shutout on five occasions. All of last season, the Jennies had seven shutouts, with UCM going 6-1.

Streaks Ahead
• After having her 11 game on-base streak halted last week, Ali Jo Rogers has started another. She has collected a hit in three straight games. That isn't the longest current reached-base streak however as Emily King and Jill Lucas have both reached base in five consecutive games.

Scouting the Opposition
Winona State:
Series History:  The two teams have met just once previously in their history, back in 2008 at the NCAA North-Central Regional. The Warriors came out on top 2-1.
Scouting Report: The Warriors have started out the year at 14-4. Last week the Warriors went 7-3 in 10 games at the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla against teams from around the country. They also went 1-3 at the St. Cloud Dome Tournament against MIAA teams.
The Warriors have gotten it done in the circle this season with a team ERA of 1.66 which is 15th in the NCAA and leads the NSIC. Hannah Hythberg is 6-2 with a 0.83 ERA and 31 strikeouts. Alex Walker is sitting at a 1.91 ERA and 3-1 record. McKenna Larsen is 5-1.
Winona State has a team batting average of .286. Reed Karsten leads the team at .422 and also has a team-high two home runs. Jamee Schlies also has 20 hits and is hitting .364 with a .426 on-base percentage and nine stolen bases.

Mary:
Series History:  Like Winona State, the University of Mary holds a 1-0 series lead over the Jennies with their only meeting coming in 2008. Mary won the regular season matchup 6-5 at the Missouri Western Crossover.
Scouting Report: Mary has started the year with a 5-9 record. They last played two weeks ago in Clermont, Fla. where the Marauders went 5-4 in nine games. Mary opened the season on a five-game losing streak.
Mary has two hitters batting over .400 for the season. Taylor Mendez has a .413 average while Alana Norman has a team-high 21 hits in 52 at bats. Mendez has played long-ball as four of her 19 hits have cleared the fences. Shawnee Zink has a team-best nine RBI.
Taylor Lara has been the ace of the Marauders staff with a 2-2 record and 1.85 ERA. Mary pitches to a lot of contact having struck out only 31 batters in 88.2 innings pitched. MeLanie Rodriguez also has two wins in the circle.

Wayne State:
Series Histroy: Wayne State and UCM have met 12 times previously including twice last year at the St. Cloud Dome Tournament and the Missouri Western Crossover. The teams split with WSC taking the game in St. Cloud 6-4 and the Jennies winning 5-1 in St. Joe.
Scouting Report: The Wildcats dropped their first five games of the season and stand at 4-10 thus far. The Wildcats just played eight games in Florida where they went 3-5.
The Wildcat bats have been hot early, especially Lexie Loos who's hitting .500 with 26 hits in 52 at bats. She's scored 14 runs and is a perfet 6-for-6 on stolen base attempts. The Wildcats are hitting .305 as a team with seven regulars hitting better than .300. Shelby Wobken has a team-best three home runs and 13 RBI.
Wayne State pitching has struggled to this point in the season with a team ERA of 6.49. Casey Miller has three of the team's four wins but also sports a 5.40 ERA. She's averaging nearly a strikeout per inning with 59 strikeouts in 59.2 innings pitched.

Minnesota State-Mankato
Series History:  These two teams first met back in 1980 and have squared off on the diamond 17 times. The Mavericks hold a 10-7 all-time lead in the series. They shut out UCM 6-0 earlier this season and also in 2015.
Scouting Report: The Mavericks have been on a roll of late winning 10 of their last 11 and nine of 10 in Clermont, Fla. They stand at 13-5 this season. Their only loss in Florida was a 3-2, nine-inning affair with Southern Indiana.
On the rubber, Coley Reis has given UCM fits her last two starts. She's blanked the Jennies through 13 innings and allowed just two hits in two starts against UCM. It isn't just the Jens she pitches well against, she has an 8-3 record and 1.71 ERA with 107 strikeouts in 65 innings which is fifth in the NCAA. Not to be overlooked is Libby Bemis who sports a 1.90 ERA and 5-2 record with 49 punchouts.
With such a strong staff, the Mavericks offense doesn't need to score an awful lot. Karli DesLauriers has a team-high .449 batting average. MSU is hitting .319 as a team and their 2.94 stolen bases per game (53-62) is fourth in the NCAA. Dana Mogren and Samantha Buhmann leads the team with 12 RBI.

Concordia-St. Paul:
Series History:  The Jennies have gotten the better of this series history, claiming a 6-2 stake. The Jennies won 8-7 last year over the Golden Bears when Alex Leonhart capped a three run seventh inning with a walk off single, but Concordia took a 6-2 win earlier this season.
Scouting Report: The Golden Bears haven't played in nearly three weeks with their last set of games comming at the end of February. They had just strung two wins together including a 25-8 win in their last game over Minnesota-Crookston. CSP is 6-8 this season.
Concordia's pitching has struggled with a .612 team ERA. Linzy Heim has four the team's six wins and Haley Schanks the other two. Their offense has kept them afloat with Nicole Thompson hitting .468 and Justine Schattner batting .420. Schattner's 18 RBI leads four Golden Bears with more than 10.

Sioux Falls:
Series History: These two teams met for the first time last year, playing a doubleheader that the Jennies swept 4-3 and 6-1 in Clermont, Florida. Ali Jo Rogers had five hits and four RBI in the two games.
Scouting Report: The Cougars just wrapped up a 10-game stretch back in Florida where they went 7-3. Sioux Falls won their first four games this season and are 13-5 to start the year.
The Cougars have a balanced offensive and pitching attack with a .335 team average and 2.09 team ERA. On the rubber, Brenna Black has a team-best 7-2 record and 2.01 ERA. She pitches to a lot of contact striking out just 12 in 55.2 innings. Not to be outdone is Kerrigan Hoshaw who is 6-3 with a 1.99 ERA and team-best 43 strikeouts.
Hoshaw is also batting .429 for the Cougars and has three home runs. Sioux Falls has launched 15 homers already this year led by Alyson Netty's five and 17 RBI. Brooke Stetzler has a team-best .431 batting average and is a perfect 10-for-10 on stolen base attempts.