Weekly Softball Notes
3/15/2000 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 15, 2000
TOP STORY:Michigan State travels to Boca Raton, Fla., this weekend, March 17-19, to compete in the Florida Atlantic Invitational. MSU's first game of the weekend will be against Tennessee-Chattanooga at 5 p.m., a team the Spartans defeated 4-1 one week ago at the Speedline Invitational. The Spartans will also play in the nightcap, facing the Scarlet Knights from Rutgers at 7 p.m. On Saturday, MSU plays at 2 p.m., against Florida Atlantic, and at 6 p.m., against Colgate.
Spring Break Recap:
MSU traveled to Tampa, Fla., last week, March 5-12, for its annual spring break trip. The Spartans had a successful week, posting a 10-3 overall record, including a 4-3 mark in the Speedline Invitational to claim the consolation title. Michigan State opened the week with doubleheaders against Ball State, Boston University and Temple. The Spartans swept all six games, improving their mark to 10-5 before the start of the tournament.
Thursday, MSU split in its first day of action at the Speedline Invitational. After being shutout by the Terriers of Boston University 1-0, the Spartans bounced back to take game two from Tennessee-Chattanooga, 4-1. MSU dropped its next two games to Florida Atlantic and Florida on Friday, 6-5 and 7-0, respectively.
The Spartans rallied to defeat Virginia Tech, 3-2, in the bottom of the seventh off on a Stacey Phillips home run on Saturday. The win propelled MSU into the consolation round of the tournament, where it won the next two games to finish 4-3 in the tournament. In the game one of the consolation round, the Spartans came back to defeat conference foe Purdue, 5-4 in eight innings. In game two, MSU held off a four-run rally by Penn State in the seventh inning to preserve a 5-4 victory.
Experience The Key For 2000:
Seventh-year head coach Jacquie Joseph returns 13 players and six starters from last season's NCAA tournament team.
Junior Shealee Dunavan, a second-team all-region selection, is the top returnee after hitting .383 with 36 RBI last season.
Senior Carrie Fry, a second-team All-Big Ten honoree, returns after hitting .316 a year ago. Seniors Stacey Phillips (first base) and Margaret Hollis will also play key roles this season. Joseph also returns her entire pitching staff, led by senior Erica Strutz, who was 27-14 a year ago with a 1.97 ERA.
Sophomores Becky Gray (13-7 last season) and Keri DeJong (7-2 this season) will back Strutz on the mound.
The Coach:
Jacquie Joseph is in her seventh year as the head coach. The Spartan mentor has posted a record of 216-159 (.576) at MSU and has a career mark of 352-292 (.547) in 11 years in the collegiate ranks.
Joseph spent five years as the head coach at Bowling Green prior to being named the fourth head coach in MSU history.
The Flint native has guided MSU to four-straight 30-win seasons, 40 victories in two of the last three years and two NCAA Tournament appearances (1997, 1999).
Joseph completed a four-year term as president of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association in December of 1998 and currently serves on the Board as the past President.
Phillips Takin' the World By Storm:
Senior Stacey Phillips is certainly making the most of out her last year as a Spartan. Phillips has seven home runs this season, which is already good for fourth on the single season charts. She also has 21 RBI, only 26 away from the single-season record she set in 1998.
Phillips not only has impressive numbers, but more importantly, she is coming through in the clutch. With the Spartans down 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh against Florida Atlantic, Phillips blasted her second home run of the game, a grand slam, to cut the lead to 6-5. The very next day, facing a 2-1 deficit again in the bottom the seventh, Phillips hit a two-run homer over the leftfield fence to give the MSU the win, 3-2.
Phillips is hitting .355 with nine RBI with runners in scoring position this season. On the spring trip, she hit .409 (18 for 44) with 12 RBI.
Dazzlin' DeJong:
Sophomore Keri DeJong knows how to make the best of a situation. With Becky Gray out most of the first 20 games due to a sore arm, DeJong has stepped into the rotation just fine, posting a 7-2 record with a 2.25 ERA.
DeJong threw the 13th no-hitter in Spartan history in her first outing of the season, shutting down Eastern Illinois, 10-0. She leads the team in strikeouts with 62, and opponents are only hitting a meager .185 against her.
Shea Must Be Butter, `Cause She's on a Roll:
Junior Shealee Dunavan has not missed a beat from last year, hitting for a .378 average with nine RBI so far this season. Dunavan also leads the team in hits (28) and doubles (three). Three of her RBI couldn't have come at a better time for MSU in last Sunday's game against Purdue in the Speedline Invitational. WIth two outs and the Spartans trailing by three in the bottom of the fourth, "Shea" hit a bases loaded triple to center field to tie the score at four. The game remained tied until the eighth inning, when MSU scored the game-winning run to win by the final score of 5-4.
Six Down, 21 More To Go:
Senior Erica Strutz had a career year, last season, but is looking for even a better season in her senior campaign. She is definitely on the right track. Strutz's record is currently 6-2 with a 3.00 ERA. The six wins for the season move her into second place on the all-time wins chart, only 21 behind Stacey Smith, who holds the record with 68 victories.
Strutz had her best outing of the year against conference foe Purdue on March 12 at the Speedline Invitational, pitching 7 1/3 innings of relief for the win. She allowed no runs on five hits, and also struck out eight Boilermakers.
Scouting the Florida Atlantic Invitational:
The Florida Atlantic Invitational will feature five teams including MSU, two of which the Spartans faced last weekend. Game one on Friday will be a rematch against Tennessee-Chattanooga (17-11). Michigan State took the first game 4-1. On Saturday, MSU looks for revenge against Florida Atlantic (27-12) after losing to the Owls 6-5 last Friday. The Spartans also play Rutgers and Colgate. MSU holds a 4-2 advantage over Rutgers in the all-time series, while the Spartans and Raiders have split in their only two meetings. Last year, Michigan State posted a 3-1 record in the FAU Invitational. MSU defeated Florida Atlantic, Florida State and Princeton after losing its first game to Pittsburgh.