Aces open up against Illinois State on Thursday
The quest for the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Championship begins on Thursday as the University of Evansville softball team will take on Illinois State in the opening round of the tournament in Carbondale, Ill.
First-round action begins for the 6th-seeded Purple Aces at 1:34 p.m. on Thursday as they face the #7 seed Redbirds. All games will be televised live on ESPN3. With a win in the opening round, UE would advance to face the three seed – UNI – at 6:34 p.m. tomorrow. The winner of that game faces second-seeded Drake on Friday at 2:34 p.m. while the championship game of the single elimination tournament will be on Saturday at 1:04 p.m.
Evansville finished the regular season with a 24-25 mark while going 12-14 in the MVC. The league mark tied the Aces for 5th place in the conference; Bradley clinched the No. 5 seed with the tiebreaker. The record and seed this year mark the best for the program in the last nine years. It is also the first MVC Championship appearance for the team since 2013 when the squad advanced to the championship game against UNI.
A late surge in the regular season saw shortstop Michal Luckett lead the squad with a .312 batting average. The junior recorded a hit in 9 of her last 22 at-bats including a 2-2 effort with three RBIs and three steals in the second game of the series at Loyola.
Also making an impact in the series road win was Morgan Florey. The freshman tossed a complete game in the opener on Saturday and matched that success at the plate. She notched four hits in six plate appearances in Chicago, hitting two home runs and knocking in three runs. Florey also drew four walks in the three games.
Illinois State completed the season with an 18-32 mark and posted a 10-14 MVC record. Riley Strandgard led the way for ISU, hitting .361 on the season and an impressive .405 in Valley play. Freshman Allison Spencer had a solid weekend for the Redbirds as they faced UNI on the road. She recorded a hit in four of her 10 at-bats in the series.
In April, the Aces and Redbirds squared off in a series in Normal as UE took two out of three games. Chandra Parr led the way, notching six hits in 10 at-bats while scoring five times. She also finished with two home runs that weekend. Morgan Lambert also finished the series above .500, notching six hits, including a double and a home run.
