Aces welcome Missouri State to Cooper Stadium
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A Friday and Saturday Missouri Valley Conference series is on the docket for the University of Evansville softball team when the Purple Aces face Missouri State in a 3-game set at Cooper Stadium. Friday’s doubleheader opens the weekend at noon with Saturday’s finale set for a 12 p.m. start; all three games will be on ESPN3.
 Last Time Out
– UE dropped three contests last weekend in its series at Illinois State
– The first and final games of the weekend saw the Redbirds win in walk-off fashion, both by final scores of 3-2
– Game two on Saturday saw ISU take a 9-0 victory
– Marah Wood belted her team-leading fifth home run of the season in Saturday’s opener at ISU
– Mackenzie McFeron had one of the top offensive games in her career in the finale, going 3-4 in her first collegiate 3-hit game
Raising Her Level
– Through the opening 12 games of the MVC slate, senior Mackenzie McFeron leads the team with a .379 batting average and carries a 5-game hitting streak
– Her efforts in conference have seen her season average rise to .302
– She had the first 3-hit game of her career in the April 10 finale at Illinois State
– McFeron has 11 RBI in her career with eight of them coming in 2022
– She connected on one of the biggest hits of the season, hitting the game-tying double in the 7th inning of the opener at Loyola
– Four of those RBI came in the doubleheader sweep over Drake in March
– In game one, her triple in the sixth inning proved to be the game-winner in a 5-3 UE win that evened the weekend series
– McFeron did even better in the finale, belting a base-clearing walk-off double to seal a 12-3 victory and a series win
Still Going Strong
– Picking up a hit in all three games at Illinois State, Alyssa Barela improved her average to .333 in MVC play while adding two home runs and seven RBI in 12 games
– That is a huge disparity from her non-conference numbers, which saw her bat .176 with one homer and five RBI in 21 appearances
– Barela hit a game-tying single at Illinois State on April 10, which followed up a successful trip to Loyola in the weekend prior where she had a 2-3 effort in game two with a home run, double and three RBI
– With one out and two runners on in the bottom of the 9th on March 27, Barela belted a 3-run walk-off home run to give the Aces a 6-3 win over UNI
– She entered the March 4 home opener with four hits in her first 30 at-bats of the season before rebounding to hit .444 in the opening four home contests
Home Run Threat
– For the fifth time this season and first time in Valley play, Marah Wood hit a home run in the opener at Illinois State
– While her consistency has seen her record a hit in 17 of her last 23 games, she looks to make the jump on her power numbers, which have seen her register one homer and three RBI
– For the season, Wood is batting .270 with five homers and 19 RBI and is tied for third in the MVC with 10 doubles while her five homers is tied for 8th
