Aces Welcome Bears To Cooper Stadium
A full slate of schedule changes have been announced as the University of Evansville softball team prepares for a big MVC weekend against Missouri State at Cooper Stadium.
Thursday’s contest at Butler has been canceled due to the weather in Indianapolis. The weekend home Missouri Valley Conference series against the Bears have now been moved to Friday and Saturday due to the anticipated weather in town on Sunday.
Friday’s doubleheader will begin at 1 p.m. inside Cooper Stadium while the start time for Saturday will be determined.
Evansville won its second MVC series in a row over the weekend, taking two out of three from Loyola in its first conference road series of the season. Morgan Florey picked up two more wins in the circle while Brittany Hay went 5-10 in the series. Florey has picked up the win in each of her last four appearances as she helped UE to a 4-3 win in the series opener and a 7-1 triumph in Saturday’s rubber match. Ashleigh Downing and Jaime Nurrenbern pitched very well in a 2-0 loss in game two on Friday, allowing just six hits in the contest. UE stands at 11-19 overall and an even 4-4 in the Valley.
Brittany Hay entered the UNI series mired in a 3-25 slump at the plate, lowering her season average to .234, since then, Hay has put together a 5-game hit streak while raising her average to .266. She has scored six runs over the streak and excelled at Loyola, going 5-10. Hay has been at her best in clutch moments as her two home runs in the streak have proven to be the difference in a pair of UE victories – her homer in game one at Loyola gave the Aces some much-needed insurance in a 4-3 win while the long ball against UNI came with the game tied in the bottom of the 5th inning. She continues to lead the team with her six home runs and 22 RBI.
Freshman Lindsay Renneisen has been producing at the plate when it matters the most; Renneisen is batting .264 on the season but has upped that tally significantly in MVC play. Through eight league games, she is batting .320 with eight hits in 25 trips to the plate. Since March 9, the Louisville native has seen her average rise from .204 to .264.
Renneisen, along with fellow freshman Eryn Gould, has started each game this season. Allison Daggett and Elyse Hickey have seen action in 28 games apiece in 2018.
Starting pitcher Morgan Florey has earned the win in each of her last four appearances in the circle for the Aces, taking two wins apiece against UNI and Loyola. In six league starts this season, she has allowed just 12 runs, eight earned, in 39 innings of work; that translates to a 1.44 ERA. The last four appearances have seen her go 4-0 while allowing three earned runs in 25 innings. Florey is 4th in the NCAA with 177 strikeouts while ranking sixth in strikeouts per seven innings with 10.7.
Missouri State comes into the series with a 20-14 mark and is just ahead of the Aces in the league standings at 5-4. The Bears dropped two out of three games to UNI last weekend. Darian Frost paces the Bears with a .337 average while Kaitlin Beason is just behind at .333. In the circle, pitchers Erin Griesbauer, Steffany Dickerson and Holly Kelley have combined to win 17 games while each has an ERA at 2.72 or under.
