Within the League
Northern Iowa is leading the Valley with 11 wins and 1 loss to Indiana State. Missouri State also has 11 wins and has recorded 3 losses. The top four in the league have notched 10 wins or more. Eight schools have an overall winning percentage of .500 or higher. 
     
Among the National Leaders
Jordy van Der Werf from Bradley leads the nation with 19 Caught Stealing By. Annie Tokarek from Indiana State is ranked 5th with 13, and Illinois State’s Dayna Kennedy is ranked 29th. Grace French from Bradley is ranked first in the nation for Doubles with 16. SIU’s Elizabeth Warwick is ranked 11th and Anna Carder is ranked 20th. Grace French is also ranked 12th in the nation for Doubles Per Game, and Elizabeth Warwrick closes follows in 20th. In Batting Average, SIU’s Elizabeth Warwick is ranked 51st with .412 and Emma Austin, also from SIU, is ranked 63rd with .402. Murray State’s Jenna Veber leads the nation in Hit Batters with 1. Evansville’s Megan Brenton ranked 14th nationally in Earned Run Average with 1.11.
 
RPI Update
The NCAA RPI report from Monday has three MVC teams ranked in the Top 100 and seven teams in the Top 150. Southern Illinois and Belmont lead the conference.  The Salukis come in at 64th and the Bruins rank 75th and Missouri State moved up to 78th. Indiana State is now ranked 130th, UNI is 135th, and Illinois State and Murray State are now tied for 143.  The MVC is ranked 15th nationally as a conference with a rating of 97.9. 
 
Upcoming MVC Schedule
This week all twelve MVC teams with continue their league play.
 
Tuesday, April 11-
Valparaiso at Northern Illinois
Evansville at Indiana State
Southern Illinois at SEMO
Murray State at Belmont
Drake at UNI
Bradley at Illinois State
 
Wednesday, April 5-
UMKC at Missouri State
Loyola at UIC
Iowa at Drake
 
 
Weekend Series-
Illinois State at Drake
Southern Illinois at UNI
Evansville at Murray State
Indiana State at Belmont
Valparaiso at Bradley
UIC at Missouri State 
 
Belmont
Belmont produced their first sweep of the season over the UIC Flames with an exciting nine inning shutout 2-0 win to start off the series. The Bruins defeated UIC 7-0 on Thursday and again on Friday 9-2. On the weekend the Bruins produced 18 runs on 28 hits and 15 RBI. Belmont recorded five doubles, three coming from Brenna Blume. The Bruins are set to host Murray State Tuesday, March 11 for the second meeting of the season. 
 
Bradley
The Braves were swept by Drake this past weekend but look to keep pushing with a single game against Illinois State and a series against Valparaiso this week. Freshman Kierston McCoy shined offensively last week with a batting average of .438 in her last five games, collecting five singles, one double and one triple. Grace French is currently tied for first in the nation for doubles with 16, and Jordy van der Werf is tied for runners caught stealing with 19. 
 
Drake
The Bulldogs extended their winning streak to four contests, their longest such run of the year, with a three-game sweep of Bradley in Peoria. Drake was led by ace pitcher Mackenzie Hupke’s two victories in the opening and closing games. A plethora of Bulldogs contributed offensively led by Emma Dighton’s five RBI, Haylee Lehman’s .500 batting average, and Lehman’s four runs. The Bulldogs will begin a challenging week with a road tilt at rival UNI on Tuesday, Apr. 11 before hosting in-state rival Iowa on Wednesday, Apr. 12.
 
Evansville
Turning it around: Friday’s series against Southern Illinois was a struggle for the Purple Aces as the Salukis took a 17-1 victory in five innings.  In those five frames, SIU accumulated 17 runs on 14 hits.  Following the performance, the Aces made sure it would not happen again.  Over the ensuing 14 innings of the series, Evansville held the Salukis to just three runs on 16 hits.  After averaging 3.4 runs per inning on Friday, SIU was held to just 0.21 runs/frame in the final two games.  UE responded with two clutch performances to take the series and deal SIU just their sixth and seventh losses of 2023.
 
Illinois State
Illinois State started the week with a doubleheader sweep of Bradley in Peoria before returning home to face Missouri State. The Redbirds and Bears battled at Marian Kneer Stadium as both teams entered the weekend on 10-game win streaks. Illinois State took game one of the series, but Missouri State bounced back to take game two and the rubber match to win the series. The Redbirds will finish up the series with Bradley at home on Tuesday, April 11 at 5 p.m. CT and then head to Drake for a three-game weekend series with the Bulldogs.
 
Indiana State
The Sycamores went 2-2 last week including an extra inning, walk-off win over Evansville and a victory over UNI which gave the Panthers their first MVC loss of the season. Lauren Sackett threw a complete game and struck out 11 hitters in the win over UNI. Isabella Henning was the hero against Evansville, launching a walk-off blast to opposite field to win 3-2 over the Aces. 
 
 
Missouri State 
With a series victory on the road at Illinois State, Missouri State has now won four consecutive MVC series with the Bears owning a 12-1 record in their last 13 games overall. MSU improved to 18-2 on the season when scoring three or more runs and 18-1 on the year when allowing fewer than three runs. The Bears return home for an eight-game home stand to close out their 2023 home slate as MSU currently owns a 7-0 record in Springfield. Missouri State will host Kansas City on Wednesday in midweek action before welcoming new Valley member UIC to Killian Stadium for a three-game series over the weekend.
 
Murray State
Murray State softball takes the win over Middle Tennessee in a midweek clash and got their second Missouri Valley Conference series sweep win over Valparaiso. Taylor Jackson puts the Racers up early with a two RBI single down the middle before Lindsey Carroll hits a double to score Lily Fischer in the first inning. Gracie Osbron hits a sacrifice fly for an RBI to put the Racers up 4-3 in the second. Fischer and Carroll add two more, with an RBI each, in the fifth inning. Hannah James earned the win after allowing only one hit and a walk through three innings and posting five strikeouts through 12 batters faced. Ailey Schyck blew the horn to the Racers' offense as she hit a two-RBI home run to left field, scoring Lindsey Carroll in the bottom of the second. The Racers' offense did not look back as Carroll hit an RBI single in the fourth inning. Schyck hit her third RBI to score Carroll before Lackey hit a two-RBI single to make it four runs in the fourth inning. Jenna Veber started in the circle, only allowing two hits and a walk. She reached a career milestone of 40 wins. Hannah James came in the fifth inning and stuck out eight batters through the nine faced. She reached her career milestone of 700 strikeouts to further cement herself as the Racers' all-time leader in strikeouts. Hannah James pitched a perfect game to close it in the fifth inning. She stuck out nine out of 15 batters faced to post her fifth career perfect game. Taylor Jackson, who posted a career-high five RBI game to earn the 8-0 run-rule win over Valparaiso to clinch the series. Gracie Osbron was first to put the Racers on the board after scoring Adison Hicks in the third inning. Jackson then hit a two-RBI single in the same inning to put the Racers up 3-0. The Racers had a big offensive inning in the fourth as Jadyn Thompson hits a single to score Shelby Durbin home. Osbron and Lily Fischer walked to load the bases before Jackson hit a 3 RBI double to make it 7-0 for the Racers. Lindsey Carroll then hits and RBI single to make it 8-0. Jadyn Thompson opened up and led the Racers' offense with a tripe on her first pitch in the first inning. She scored a run with an RBI from Gracie Osbron. The Racers scored three more runs in the second inning with RBIs from Saxon Radcliffe, Erin Lackey and Thompson. MSU adds two more in the fourth inning as Thompson hits an RBI triple to left field to score lackey before Osbron scored Thompson again to make it 6-0. 
 
Northern Iowa
UNI continues to lead the MVC despite suffering their first loss of the season over the weekend. The Panthers ended up with a 2-1 series win over the Indiana State Sycamores while on the road in Terre Haute. With two more wins under their belt, UNI heads into a difficult home stretch at Robinson-Dresser Sports Complex. The Panthers first welcome in-state rival Drake to Cedar Falls for their first of three matchups on Tuesday night. Then UNI hosts the second place Southern Illinois Salukis in a potential battle for first in three games over the weekend. 
 
Southern Illinois 
The Southern Illinois Salukis went 2-2 on the week as they won the midweek matchup against Saint Louis 10-2 before dropping its second MVC road series of the season losing two out of three in Evansville. The bats started extremely hot for Southern as they put up 10 and 17 runs in the two wins before only scoring three runs combined in the final two against some stiff Evansville pitching. Elizabeth Warwick drove in seven of SIU’s 17 runs on Friday, tying a program record for seven RBIs in a single-game.
 
UIC
Senior Christina Toniolo had her best week in the circle for the Flames, pitching 17.1 innings over three appearances including going all nine innings in an extra innings defeat to Belmont Thursday night. Red-shirt senior Maica Ingles landed four hits throughout the week to continue to lead the Flames offensively with 23 hits. After a non-conference match-up against Loyola on Wednesday, the Flames travel to Springfield, Missouri to take on Missouri State over the weekend. 
 
Valparaiso
Valpo senior Lauren Kehlenbrink came up with a pair of big early hits last week. On Tuesday at UIC, Kehlenbrink connected on a 2-run homer in the first inning which stood as Valpo's lone runs of the game in a 2-1 win. Then, in the series opener at Murray State on Friday, Kehlenbrink delivered a first-inning RBI triple - the first triple of her career.
 
This week's Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week is Elizabeth Warwick of Southern Illinois, the Pitcher of the Week is Hannah James of Murray State, and The Newcomer of the Week is Alexis Pupillo of UNI . 


MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
Elizabeth Warwick, Jr., OF, SIU
Junior outfielder Elizabeth Warwick stayed hot at the plate for Southern Illinois as she went 9-for-14 with three doubles, three walks, three stolen bases, and 12 RBIs. In Wednesday’s 10-2 win over SLU, Warwick went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a grand slam for her second home run of the season. Warwick carried that momentum into the Evansville series as she began weekend play on Friday with three more hits while tying Southern Illinois’ single-game RBI record of seven. On the year, she’s now batting .407 with 13 doubles and 36 runs batted in. 
Other Notable Performances:  Jess Willsey (UE), Haylee Lehman (DU), Addison McElrath (UNI), Lindsey Carroll (MUR), Maica Ingles (UIC), McKenzie Vaughan (MSU), Emma Barnes (BEL), Isabella Henning (INS)
 
MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PITCHER OF THE WEEK: 
Hannah James, R-Sr., Nicholasville, Ky., Murray State
James went 2-0 and had a save through the week. She Pitched a perfect game on game two in series against Valparaiso with nine strikeouts through 15 batters faced. James came in the fifth inning and stuck out eight batters through the nine faced. She reached her career milestone of 700 strikeouts to further cement herself as the Racer’s all-time leader in strikeouts. She now has 704 career strikeouts. Hannah James pitched a perfect game to close it in the fifth inning. She stuck out nine out of 15 batters faced to post her fifth career perfect game. This would be James’ fifth perfect game of her Racer career. James only allowed one hit and a walk through 11.1 innings pitched. 
Other Notable Performances: Megan Brenton (UE), Mackenzie Hupke (DU), Samantha Heyer (UNI), Hannah Ross (ILS), Christina Toniolo (UIC), Mackenzie Chacon (MSU), Emma Summers (BEL) 

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK:
Alexis Pupillo, C, Fr., UNI (Crystal Lake, Ill.) 
Pupillo has entered the Top 100 nationally in home runs on the season after adding two more to her resume against Indiana State this weekend. Pupillo's home runs came in the same game and almost in the exact same spot at Price Field going to the right side of the scoreboard. She got the Panther offense going early with a solo home run in her first at-bat of the day. Pupillo found the other side of the wall in right field to give UNI the initial lead. Her second home run of the game came in the bottom of the fourth when Pupillo found almost the exact same spot as in the first inning, giving UNI a commanding 7-1 lead. Pupillo ended up having a perfect Easter Sunday against the Sycamores going four for four with two singles and two home runs. In 12 at-bats over the weekend, Pupillo had seven hits, scored four runs, brought in three RBIs and stole one base to slash .585/.583/.1.083 for an OPS of 1.666.
Other Notable Performances: Jess Willsey (UE), Jaydn Thompson (MUR), Anna Walker (UIC), Abby Ford (MSU), Maya Johnson (BEL), Lauren Sackett (INS)


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