Spring Break Trip Begins at Alabama for Softball

Dates	March 1-3, 2019
Location	Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Rhoads Stadium (3,940)
Tickets	Alabama Ticket Office
Tournament Schedule (MSU only)
*Friday*	vs. St. Francis (PA); 2:30 pm ET/ 1:30 pm CT Live Stats Webstream (Facebook Live)
	at No. 6 Alabama; 5 pm ET/ 4 pm CT Live Stats SEC+ on WatchESPN
*Saturday*	vs. St. Francis (PA); 12 pm ET/ 11 am CT Live Stats Webstream (Facebook Live)
	vs. Southern Mississippi; 7 pm ET/6 pm CT Live Stats Webstream (Facebook Live)
Sunday	at No. 6 Alabama; 5 pm ET/ 4 pm CT Live Stats SEC+ on WatchESPN
Game Notes	Michigan State \| St. Francis \| Alabama \| S outhern Miss
MSU Softball Social Media	Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram

THE WEEK AHEAD
• Michigan State heads south for back-to-back weekend tournaments over the University's Spring Break. MSU starts off in Tuscaloosa, participating in the Easton Crimson Classic at the University of Alabama. MSU will play both No. 6 Alabama and St. Francis (PA) twice, and has a single game against Southern Miss.

LOGISTICS
• Links for live statistics can be found on MSUSpartans.com on the Spartan schedule page.

• MSU's games against the host Crimson Tide will have a webstream on the WatchESPN App, while the three neutral-site games will have a webstream via Facebook Live. Links for all five can be found on the softball schedule page of MSUSpartans.com.

• Spartan Sports Network continues its coverage of Spartan softball in 2019, and begins its coverage of MSU at the Miami (Ohio) Tournament March 16-17. SSN will provide a live broadcast from every game, home and away, for the remainder of the season. Matt Tjapkes is back for his fifth season on the call.

THE MATCHUPS
• MSU will face St. Francis (PA) twice over the weekend, once each on Friday and Saturday. The Red Flash have captured the last two NEC Championships, and are off to a 7-7 start under first-year head coach Jess O' Donnell.
     SFU went 2-3 last weekend at the Gardner-Webb tournament, splitting with Bowling Green and ETSU and falling to the host team.
    MSU and St. Francis have met just once previously, a 16-0 Spartan victory in March 2003.

• Host Alabama plays Wednesday at UAB before hosting the Easton Crimson Classic this weekend. The Crimson Tide is ranked No. 6 in this week's NFCA poll with a perfect 15-0 mark to start the season, including two wins over No. 24 Minnesota and one over No. 8 Arizona.
    Patrick Murphy is the only coach the Crimson Tide has ever known, now in his 21st season in the Alabama dugout. MSU and Alabama have met just once in the all-time program histories, an 8-0 win for the Crimson Tide in 2007.

• Southern Miss has a midweek game as well, hosting Southern University on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles are coming off a split with Jacksonville State on Sunday, and own an 8-5 record.
     Wendy Hogue is in her fifth season at the helm, and returned 10 letterwinners for her 2019 squad. MSU and Southern Mississippi are meeting for the fifth time in program history on Saturday, with the Spartans owning a 4-1 mark all-time. MSU won the last matchup in 2012 (3-2 in eight innings), while Southern Miss last earned a victory in 2001 (2001). The three previous meetings of the teams came in the mid-1980's.



TEAM NOTES
• The Spartans entered the 2019 campaign with five returning starters after losing six seniors to graduation at the conclusion of 2018. MSU carries 21 on its roster, including five returning starters: seniors 3B Kaitlyn Eveland and LF Ebonee Echols, junior 2B Melanie Baccay, and sophomores RF Katie Quinlan and SS Caitie Ladd.

• Michigan State struggled through a second straight 0-4 weekend at Grand Canyon's Purple Classic after dropping four at the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in Atlanta. MSU is still looking for consistency both offensively and from its pitching staff.

• All 17 field players have had at least one plate appearance this season, 15 have started at least one game, and all four pitchers have seen action.

• MSU improved its weekend batting average to .274 at GCU after a .238 batting average in Atlanta oat the ACC-B1G Challenge. The Spartans stranded 27 runners over the four games, and has stranded a total of 99 over the first 13 contests.

• The Spartans have drawn a total of 59 walks this season, good for the second-most behind Northwestern (70). MSU also ranks second in the Big Ten in sac flies (6) and fifth in stolen bases (16).

• While MSU's team batting average of .254 ranks 10th in the Big Ten, MSU is seventh in on-base percentage (.381) and 10th in slugging pct. (.371) The Spartans are also seventh in doubles (18) and tied for fifth with three triples.

• MSU is a 16-for-17 on stolen base attempts, and went the first 10 games of the season without a runner being caught stealing.

• MSU's relatively young pitching staff has had a rough pair of weekends. MSU's pitching staff had an ERA of 9.17 at GCU, and now a season ERA of 4.70. The Spartans struck out 14 and issued just nine free passes, but allowed 31 base hits (14 extra-base hits) over the four games.

• MSU's 29 walks allowed by its pitching staff this season is the sixth-fewest in the Conference.

• Michigan State head coach Jacquie Joseph is in her 26th season at the helm of the Spartan softball program, and is the longest-tenured coach in program history, along with being the second-longest-tenured head coach in MSU's athletics department.

• Joseph is the third-longest tenured head coach in the Big Ten Conference, behind Carol Hutchins (Michigan, 35th season) and Rhonda Revelle (Nebraska, 27th season)

• Joseph's staff consists of pitching coach Ben Sorden, hitting coach Corrie Hill, and volunteer Bruce Lenington. Sorden begins his second season with the Spartan pitchers, while Hill and Lenington joined the staff in the fall of 2018.

PLAYER NOTES - PITCHERS
• MSU's returning pitchers threw just 66.1 of 336 innings a year ago. The staff makeup is intriguing, however, as it features junior Jordan Watson, sophomore McKenna Gregory, redshirt freshman Leah Shipp, and JUCO transfer sophomore Alli Walker.

• Gregory tossed a staff-high 9.2 innings over three games at GCU, striking out seven and walking just two. Overall, she owns a 4.30 ERA and 0-3 record in seven appearances, throwing 14.2 innings, striking out nine, and walking three.

• All seven of Gregory's appearances this season have come in relief. She leads the league in relief appearances and tied for 16th in appearances overall.

• Walker was second on the staff in terms of innings (7) at GCU, starting two of the four games. She surrendered 13 base hits and walked six, striking out three. She allowed 14 earned runs, compared to just five through the first two weekends of the season.

• Walker owns a 5.13 ERA on the season and 1-3 overall record in a staff-best 28.2 innings. She ranks ninth in the Big Ten in appearances (9), 15th in innings pitched, and is tied for 14th with five starts.

• Leah Shipp made two appearances (both starts) and threw 5.1 innings at GCU. She surrendered nine runs and struck out three, walking just one. Shipp has a 5.70 ERA in 23.1 innings, striking out 10 and walking five.

• Jordan Watson made one appearance in Phoenix, going 1.2 innings in relief and surrendering three earned runs and scattering five hits. She owns a 2.94 ERA and 1-1 record.

PLAYER NOTES - FIELD PLAYERS
• While five starters return to the 2019 lineup, the Spartans are still a youthful bunch with just two seniors among those five: LF Ebonee Echols and 3B Kaitlyn Eveland.

• Both Eveland and Ebonee Echols are among MSU's top-10 all-time in several career categories. Eveland ranks third with a .347 career batting average, behind school recordholder Patti Raduenz (.372, 1993-96) and 2018 graduate Lea Foerster (.368, 2015-18); Echols ranks 10th (.317). The duo ranks 10th (Echols, 103) and 11th (Eveland, 102) on the all-time RBI list in the Spartan annals.

• Eveland is tied for eighth all-time at MSU in walks (71).

• Eveland hit .333 over the four games at GCU, with four base hits, a pair of walks, and two stolen bases. On the season, shes hitting .333 with a team-best 13 base hits and leading the team with nine walks. She has five RBI and is 4-for-4 on stolen bases.

• Eveland has reached base in all 13 games this season, while Charla Echols has reached base in each of the last 10. Eveland and Katie Quinlan have four games this season with multiple hits, the most of any players on the team.
• Ebonee Echols is MSU's career record holder and shares the Big Ten record with 24 career triples. She also shares the Big Ten single-season record of 11, set in 2017.

• Ebonee Echols has 163 base hits, good for 24th on MSU's all-time list, ranks seventh with 117 career runs scored, tied for ninth in extra-base hits (59) and is tied for eighth with 37 career stolen bases.

• Ebonee Echols owns a .310 batting average on the season, is second on the team in RBI (9) and is 14th in the Big Ten rankings in slugging percentage (.655). She also has the most multiple-RBI games (3) of any player on the team in 2019.

• Sophomore Caitie Ladd had a slow start to the season, but came alive in Phoenix with a .417 battering average, with two doubles, a triple, and a home run and six RBI. She also walked once and had a sac fly.

• Ladd has improved her batting average to .235, and is second on the team in extra-base hits (5), tied with Ebonee Echols. She leads the team with 10 RBI, which is 16th in the Big Ten.

• Charla Echols is batting .400 on the season, tied for 10th in the Big Ten. She is tied for fifth in the B1G in doubles (5), ranks fifth in on-base percentage (.550) and 10th in slugging percentage (.667). She owns the teams' longest active (3) and overall (6) hitting streaks this season.

• Katie Quinlan hit .333 on the weekend and on the year is hitting .302. She shares the team lead with 13 base hits, has six walks and is 5-of-6 on stolen bases; she ranks fifth in the league in steals and is tied for sixth in steal attempts.

• Sophomore Riley Paxson has made her way back into the starting lineup while dealing with the lingering effects of an off-season injury. She had three base hits, two walks, and two RBI (.333).

• Paxson ranks seventh in the league in hit by pitch (3) and boasts a .500 on-base percentage to go with her .267 average.

• Mackenzie Meech ranks second on the team in RBI (9). She saw defensive action last weekend in both right field and at first base, and on the year is hitting .269 with a pair of doubles.

• Senior Lexi White had a pair of base hits - including a double - last weekend in the DP spot. Overall, she's batting .318 with a double, a home run, and three RBI.

• Abby Joseph started three games at GCU, smacking her first career triple and getting a stolen base. She is hitting .231 and has appeared in 10 of 13 games.

• Kelly Zackrison had a double and four RBI in the games in Atlanta, and on the season has appeared in 10 games. She is versatile, able to play in any outfield position and has provided key pinch hits off the bench.

• Laney Joyner had a pair of big base hits last weekend, smacking a double and her first career home run. She has a pair of RBI and has started 10 games this season, and has started to produce more consistently on offense.

• Shae Schreckengost started three of the four games at GCU behind the plate, and had her first career RBI with a sac fly against Grand Canyon. She plays steady behind the plate with 10 putouts on the weekend and 12 over six appearances this season.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Melanie Baccay

Charla Echols

Ebonee Echols

Kaitlyn Eveland

Lea Foerster

McKenna Gregory

Abby Joseph

Laney Joyner

Caitie Ladd

Riley Paxson

Katie Quinlan

Shae Schreckengost

Leah Shipp

Alli Walker

Jordan Watson

Lexi White

Kelly Zackrison