Softball Hosts Drake to Open Seven-Game Homestand

The Starting Lineup – Storylines for the Drake Series

• The Bears opened conference play earlier this week with a two-game set at Southern Illinois. Missouri State dropped both games by scores of 2-5 and 5-7. Tess Weakly (Sr., Elsberry, Mo.) led the way for MSU against the Salukis with two hits, a home run, three RBI and a .714 slugging percentage. As MSU’s travel partner, SIU will return the final game of the series in Springfield on Wed., April 26. 
• Missouri State defeated #23 Wichita State last week at the Shocker Classic, 2-1, to mark MSU’s third consecutive season with a victory over a top-25 opponent. Gracie Johnston (Sr., Augusta, Kan.) was stellar in the circle against the Shockers as she earned the complete-game victory, allowing no earned runs and scattering eight hits while striking out five. 
• Olivia Krehbiel (Sr., Lee’s Summit, Mo.) leads the way for MSU offensively so far this season with a .293 batting average, 17 hits, 6 doubles, 14 RBI and 10 walks. Meanwhile, Weakly leads MSU with 4 home runs and a .526 slugging percetnage.
• Krehbiel’s grand slam against South Dakota St. on 2/25 marked the third of her career, as she joined Staci Wattie and Jessica Acton as one of only three Bears in program history to accomplish the feat in their careers. She also became just the third player in program history to drive in six or more runs in a single game with six RBI versus SDSU. 
• Freshman Abby Ford (Fr., Ozark, Mo.) leads Missouri State with 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts on the season. Her 16 swipes rank first in the Missouri Valley Conference and 15th nationally. 
• Kenzie Derryberry (So., Bentonville, Ark.) leads the Missouri Valley Conference with six sacrifice bunts, and her 0.27 sacrifice bunts per game rank 11th nationally. 
• Head coach Holly Hesse is in her 35th season at the helm of the Bears program. She ranks second in the MVC in overall career victories with 881 and second in MVC career victories with 379 league wins. Hesse entered the season ranked 17th among all active NCAA Division I coaches in career victories and is currently 881-852-2.
• Missouri State was picked to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference this season by the MVC coaches. 
• The Bears return 11 position players and 3 pitchers from last season’s squad, while welcoming five newcomers (four freshmen, one transfer). At the plate, the Bears return two of their top four hitters from a season ago in Alex Boze and Krehbiel, who batted .325 and .282 respectively, as they both led the team with 11 home runs and 31 RBI. In the cirlce, Missouri State looks a lot different as it lost 83% of its innings pitched from a year ago, with the departures of Steffany Dickerson and Madison Hunsaker. The Bears return three pitchers from last season’s staff, while adding two new arms to the mix for 2023.
• With the retirement of long-time associate head coach Sue Frederick, the Bears welcome assistant coach, Kasey Griffth, to the tenured staff of head coach Holly Hesse and associate head coach Beth Perine. Griffith spent the last 10 years at Drake, where she served as assistant coach since the start of the 2015 season. Griffith works closely with the MSU hitters and infielders, and serves as the first base coach. 
• Missouri State finished the 2022 season with a 28-20 overall record and finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season standings with an 18-7 conference ledger. The Bears went on to take home the MVC Tournament title and advanced to their seventh NCAA Tournament in program history.

Series History
 Missouri State trails the all-time series against Drake, 53-58-1, including a 16-24-1 ledger in Springfield. Last season, MSU dropped the series on the road at Drake two games to one. In the first game of the series, the Bears dropped a close contest 0-2, before bouncing back with a 13-4 (5) run-rule victory over the Bulldogs in the second game of the doubleheader. In the series finale, Drake secured the series with an 8-0 victory in five innings over MSU. 
    The last series in Springfield in 2021 saw Missouri State sweep the Bulldogs by scores of 5-4, 4-1 and 14-4 (5).