WARRENSBURG, Mo. (April 8, 2019) - Central Missouri Jennies Softball is set to play their first of three MIAA doubleheaders this week Tuesday afternoon at Pittsburg State.
Opponent
Pittsburg State Gorillas (18-21, 6-8 MIAA)
Where
Pittsburg, Kan. - PSU Softball Complex
When
Tuesday, April 9 - 2 p.m.
Leading Off
• Central Missouri Softball is back on the road this week for three conference doubleheaders.
• The Jennies will play at Pittsburg State tomorrow afternoon for a midweek doubleheader.
• They'll then stay on the road this weekend to take on the Oklahoma schools Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma.
• Central Missouri went 3-3 last week to improve to 22-12 and 8-2 in the MIAA. They were 3-1 in MIAA competition.
• Central Missouri was picked to finish third in the 2019 MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll. The Jennies tallied 141 points in the poll.
• 2019 will mark the 48th season of Jennies softball. It will also be the 13th season under the direction of Head Coach
Susan Anderson.
Scouting the Opposition
Pittsburg State
• The Jennies will take on a Pittsburg State team that is 18-21 overall and 6-8 in the MIAA.
• They snapped a six-game losing streak with a doubleheader sweep of Lincoln last Saturday.
• The Gorillas regular starters in the circle are Halle Brin and Shelby Smith. They've started 38 of the Gorillas 39 games played.
• Brin is 10-10 with a team-best 2.73 ERA. She's thrown 125.2 innings and struck out 92 batters.
• Smith is 8-9 on the year with a 4.56 ERA in 116.2 innings.
• At the plate, PSU is a home run hitting team with 26 which is third in the MIAA.
• Kaity Kukowski leads the team with eight long balls and 27 runs batted in.
• Kala Holder has six round trippers and driven in 25. She also leads the team hitting .394 with a .531 on base percentage.
• Pitt State leads the league with 62 stolen bases. Three Gorillas have at least 10 led by Ali Gutc with 14.
• As a team, PSU is hitting .275 and has a team on-base percentage of .355.
• The Gorillas are nearly even when it comes to run differential. They've scored 198 while opponents have scored 189 times.
• Defensively, Pitt State has a .958 fielding percentage which is right in the middle of the pack in the MIAA.
Quick Hits
Anderson vs. the Gorillas
• The Jennies and Gorillas have had a decent fued of late. Coach Anderson has faced PSU 29 times in her time at UCM and holds a 20-9 record. The Jennies swept the series at home last year, snapping a four-game losing streak to the Gorillas.
Last Time Out
• The Jennies finished .500 last week, but 3-1 in the MIAA. They started out being swept on the road at Drury in a nonconference game. They then came back home to split with Washburn and sweep Emporia State.
Milestones
•
Alexa Bradley is at 87 career appearances. With two more she'll make the UCM all-time top-five. She also needs 12 more innings to make the UCM top-10.
•
Hailey Crabtree and
Lauryn Deer are 10 hits away from 150. They'd be the 24th and 25th Jennies to ever reach that milestone.
• Deer is also moving up the all-time stolen base list. She has 56 which is sixth all-time and 11 away from the top-five.
MIAA Leaders
•
Lauryn Deer is tied for fourth in the MIAA with 47 hits. She is also second with 20 stolen bases.
• Right behind Deer in stolen bases is
Ashlyn Cook who is third with 15.
•
Hailey Crabtree's six triples are the most in the MIAA.
• Now that she has enough innings to qualify,
Gentry Wishard leads the MIAA with a 1.73 ERA and .221 batting average against.
•
Alexa Bradley is sixth in the league with a 2.67 ERA.
• As a team, the Jennies are third in the MIAA with a .324 batting average and fourth with a 3.44 ERA.
Leading Off
• The Jennies have a done a great job leading off innings this season. The leadoff hitters are reaching base 42.9% of the time.
Kaitlyn Markin has reached base nine times in the 15 plate appearances leading off an inning and leadoff hitter
Lauryn Deer is 23-50.
• UCM is also starting games off strong. They have scored 57 combined runs in the first two innings. They've jumped out to leads in 22 of their 34 games and are 17-5 when scoring first.
Finishing Strong
• The Jennies have been red hot in the latter part of games of late. They've scored 30 runs in the sixth inning and are outscoring opponents 12-3 in the seventh inning.
• They scored seven runs in the sixth inning or later in their four MIAA games last week.
• The Jennies haven't lost a game yet this season when leading after four innings as they are 14-0. They're also 17-0 when leading after six innings.
Who's Hot
•
Jessica Sader led UCM hitting .375 last week with six hits.
•
Aubrey Daniel saw her first action of the season and picked up a hit in three straight games, including a home-run and the game-winning suicide squeeze bunt.
•
Taylor Dames had the first two home run game of her career last weekend.
Free Softball
• Last weekend, the Jennies went to extra innings in three of their four games winning all three.
• This season, UCM is 4-0 in extra inning games.
• Their three one-run, extra inning wins gives them a winning record in one-run games at 5-3.
Up Next
• The Jennies will stay on the road going to Oklahoma to take on Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma Friday and Saturday.
