TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State Softball returns home after a 5-3 Spring Break trip to Florida to open the Missouri Valley Conference season at home on Friday afternoon vs. Illinois State. Friday's game will be the first of three this weekend, with a doubleheader scheduled for noon and 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, which fans can catch live on ESPN3.
The Sycamores currently stand at 13-9 and host 10-12 Illinois State for the first Valley action of the season. Indiana State is coming off an impressive 5-3 Spring Break road trip to Florida with games in Clearwater and Clermont. ISU opened with the USF Under Armour Showcase, in which the Sycamores went 4-1 with wins over LaSalle (12-4, 6 inn.), Yale (15-3, 6 inn.), Mount St. Mary's (5-4) and Holy Cross (5-3), while losing a tough battle to Providence, 15-11, in eight innings. In those five games, ISU exploded for 48 runs on 59 hits and a team .378 batting average. Indiana State closed its stay in the Sunshine State with losses to Cleveland State (8-4) and Army (7-0) and a win vs. Monmouth (6-5).
Sophomore catcher
Brooke Mann was named the MVC's Player and Newcomer of the Week on Monday following her exploits down in Florida. Mann led ISU with a .600 batting average, .733 on-base percentage, .950 slugging percentage and 12 RBI in eight games, in which she put up a slash line of .833/.895/1.417 while knocking out two three-run dingers. On the season, Mann is second on ISU's roster and sixth in the Valley in batting average (.390). She leads the Valley in RBI (26) and also ranks highly in the MVC in home runs (T-2nd, 5), walks (3rd, 15), slugging (3rd, .695), on-base (4th, .519).
Also key down in Florida was the play of freshman pitcher
Della Gher. The freshman native of Paris, Ill., graduated high school one semester early in December and currently leads the Valley in saves with four. She entered last weekend with a 12.90 ERA and brought that all the way down to a team-leading 3.55 after a superb showing in seven appearances across ISU's eight games in Florida. Overall, she put up a 0.78 ERA down in Florida, going 1-0 to improve to 2-0 on the season and recording all four of her MVC-leading saves in 18.0 innings pitched.
First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Softball team, make sure to check out
GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including
Facebook and
Twitter.
