Tournament Game Notes
2012 MVC Tournament Bracket
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After clinching the eighth and final spot in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament with a sweep over Indiana State last weekend, the University of Evansville will travel to Carbondale, Ill., to face No. 5 seed Creighton on Thursday, at Charlotte West Stadium. The matchup will represent the opening game of the double-bye, single elimination tournament, hosted by Southern Illinois. First pitch is set for 11:05 am.
The winner of the UE-CU game will play No. 4 seed and tournament host Southern Illinois (34-19, 16-10 MVC) later on Thursday at 4:05 pm. Should Evansville win against the Salukis, the Aces will return to the field on Friday to face No. 1 seed Northern Iowa (38-15, 21-4 MVC) in the semi-final game at 12:05 pm. The winner of Friday would then advance to the championship game, which is set for 2:07 pm on Saturday.
Evansville will be looking for revenge against the Bluejays, who swept the Aces with a 3-0 record during the regular-season series. Meeting Creighton on March 21 and 22 in Omaha, Neb., the Aces dropped a pair of one-run games in Saturday’s doubleheader before falling 7-0 in the finale. The Aces’ threatened late-inning comebacks in both of Saturday’s games, coming back to put both games within one run in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.
The Aces (18-36) enter the MVC Tournament riding the momentum of a three-game winning streak, after posting three straight wins over Indiana State to finish eighth in the MVC with a Valley record of 8-19.
Freshman
Kayla Fortner leads the Aces’ offense and finished the regular season ranked fourth in the MVC with a batting average of .364. Leading Evansville in nearly every offensive category, Fortner has most recently moved into fifth place in the UE single-season record books with 26 walks this season.
Sophomore
Katie Sears finished the regular season batting .301 from the left side, leading the team with a .364 batting average in Valley play. She is tied for first in the Valley and 25
th in the NCAA with four triples on the year and leads the conference with 0.08 triples per game. Sears also improved her season stolen base attempts to 16-for-20 this past weekend, ranking sixth in the Valley standings for total swiped bags and averaging 0.6 stolen bases per game.
Catch the Action
The MVC will be providing free video streaming on Valley Live, the conference's video streaming program. The championship game will be televised live on FOX Sports Midwest with R.C. Mc Bride and Laura Leonard, who will be calling the action for all tournament games.
*Live stat links will be activated after the previous game is completed.
***Click here to go to the MVC Championship Central
Scouting the Bluejays
Creighton University Bluejays (27-24-1, 15-11 Missouri Valley Conference)
Creighton is coming off a 1-2 showing against Missouri State last weekend, dropping both halves of the doubleheader before overcoming a pair of two-run deficits in the last two innings to salvage the series finale, 5-4, in eight innings.
Hitting:
Ellen Homan is swinging a hot bat for the Bluejays, taking an 11-game hitting streak into the tournament after tallying a .727 batting average (8-11) against the Bears last weekend. On the season, Creighton is hitting .294 as a team with six batters hitting above .300. The team has totaled 53 home runs this year, led by Alexis Cantu who ranks first in the Valley with 16 long balls this season. The least likely to steal in the conference, Creighton has only collected 37 stolen bases, led by Allie Matthewson who is 13-for-16 in attempts.
Pitching:
With five arms on staff, Creighton ended the regular season with a 3.63 ERA, led by Becca Changstrom who leads the team with a 2.28 ERA in 175.1 innings of work. Ranking sixth in the Valley with 168 strikeouts on the year, Changstrum fanned 15 Aces in her 14.0 innings against Evansville this year. Changstrom has gone a 4-0 in four starts against Evansville, owning a career ERA of 0.75 against the Purple Aces.
