Softball Finally Home After 24-Game Road Trip

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Game #25 • March 16, 2016 • 4:00 pm • Omaha, Neb. • CU Sports Complex

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After 24 straight games away from home to start the season, Creighton (15-9, 0-0 BIG EAST) finally returns home to play its first game of the spring in Omaha when it takes on Kansas (15-9, 0-0 Big 12) on Wednesday at 4 pm. The game will be contested at the CU Sports Complex in Omaha, Neb.

Follow the Action
Live stats for Wednesday's game vs. Kansas can be found via links on GoCreighton.com, or at Creighton.StatBroadcast.com.
   Scoring updates and infographics will be provided via Twitter at @BluejaySoftball.
   Free live video for the game can also be found at GoCreighton.com/Watch.

Scouting Creighton
Creighton Softball has won 10 of its last 11 games to improve to 15-9 on the season. All 24 of those games have been away from home, including 21 neutral-site contests.
   Sydnee Eck has been named BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week three times this season and leads the pitching staff with a 9-4 record. She's allowed just 68 hits and 16 walks in 77.2 innings of work, and owns 109 strikeouts on the spring. Freshman Michal Hylton (4-1, 3.83 ERA in 38.1 IP) and senior Micaela Whitney (2-4, 3.16 ERA in 37.2 IP) also give CU some depth on the mound.
   Tash Coffiel hit .444 (8-18) in Florida to take over the team lead in batting average at .386. Allie Reinhart leads the club in doubles (5) and ranks second on the team in batting average (.353) and RBI (13). Providing much of the power in the middle of the line-up has been junior Jen Daro, who hits .328 and has five homers and 23 RBI to date.

Scouting Kansas
Kansas is 15-9 this season, having won eight of its last nine games over the past two weekends. That includes a 5-0 win over Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday and a 5-3 victory over Butler on March 5th.
   In the circle, Andie Formby has led the way with a 7-1 record and a 1.73 ERA. She owns three shutouts and five complete games in nine starts, and has walked just 11 while striking out 56 in 60.2 innings this year. Ania Williams (4-2, 2.45 ERA) and Monique Wesley (4-1, 3.00 ERA) also have been big contributors for the Jayhawks.
   Daniella Chavez paces the KU offense, leading the team in batting average (.413), hits (31), home runs (8), RBI (32), slugging percentage (.773) and on-base percentage (.506). Erin McGinley (.387), Chaley Brickey (.371, 5 HR, 11 RBI) and Shannon McGinley (.362) are the other hitters on the team to hit .225 or better to date.
Series: Kansas leads, 43-24-1
Last meeting: The teams split a doubleheader in Omaha on April 15, 2010. Creighton won the opener 8-0 before Kansas took the nightcap, 6-5.

Home Opener History
Creighton is 14-8 in home-openers under Brent Vigness, including a 10-1 mark in its last 11 tries. All-time, Creighton is 28-11 in home openers.
   Wednesday's game will take place on March 16th. It's the earliest date (by calendar) for Creighton's home opener since the 2008 team's home lid-lifter vs. North Dakota on March 13th.

McKelvy Delivers
Mileah McKelvy had the best game of her young career on March 5 vs. Niagara when she went 2-for-3 with two homers and five RBI in a Bluejay victory.
   The outburst came after she entered the contest with three career hits and one career RBI in her first 13 games played.
   McKelvy is the first Bluejay freshman with multiple home runs in a game since Amy Baker launched two round-trippers vs. Northern Iowa on April 17, 2010. Baker had three multi-home run games as a freshman and graduated in 2013 with a school-record 58 home runs overall.

Rebel Yell
Creighton has played some of its best softball of the season at the Rebel Spring Games in recent springs.
   This was the fourth straight season Creighton has spent its spring break in Florida at the Rebel Spring Games, and it has now gone 35-5 in those trips.
   In those games Creighton owns a collective ERA of 0.98, allowing just 38 earned runs in 271.1 innings. At the plate the Bluejays are hitting .270 in those Florida games, hitting 269-for-997 in the 40 games.
Year   W-L   AVG   R   HR   ERA
2016   9-1   .266   45   4   1.33
2015   9-1   .304   63   8   0.74
2014   11-1   .264   47   4   0.77
2013   6-2   .241   29   9   1.15

Magic Number 5
Creighton is 9-0 this season when scoring five runs or more, and was won its last 13 games dating to last season when that happens.
   That moves Creighton to 172-16 since 2007 when that happens. In the same time span Creighton is 131-180-2 when scoring four runs or fewer.

Non-Conference Similarities?
Wednesday will mark Creighton's 25th non-conference game of the season, one more than the program played last year during a season heavily affected by weather delays and cancellations.
   This year's team is 15-9 in non-conference action this year, just like last year's team finished.
Creighton vs. Non-Conference Teams
Year   W-L   AVG   R   HR   ERA
2015   15-9   .288   124   21   3.13
2016   15-9   .260   105   9   3.09

Eck Wins Third Weekly BIG EAST Award
Junior RHP Sydnee Eck was named BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 22, Feb. 29 and March 7
   During those three weeks, Eck went 7-1 with a 2.70 ERA in eight appearances. She struck out 68 batters in 46.2 innings of work, allowing just 43 hits and 10 walks.
   Eck became CU's first hurler to be named BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week in consecutive weeks since Becca Changstrom was honored by the BIG EAST on March 17 & 24, 2014, and is the first Bluejay softball player to be honored three straight weeks since at least the 2003 season.

Vigness Wins #700
Head Coach Brent Vigness is in his 23rd season as head coach at Creighton, where he owns a 701-500-3 record. He is the winningest coach in Creighton history in any sport and picked up his 700th victory against South Dakota State on March 10th.
   Vigness has a career record of 849-571-4 in 28 years overall, which includes five seasons at Assumption (Mass.) College.
   Vigness is assisted by two of his former players, Renae Sinkler and Alexis Cantu.
   Below is a look how long it's taken Vigness to reach each 100-win milestone at Creighton:
Win #   Date   W-L-T
100   4/23/97   100-100-0
200   5/6/00   200-168-0
300   3/12/04   300-252-0
400   2/17/07   400-305-1
500   4/4/09   500-345-2
600   4/21/12   600-422-3
700   3/10/16   700-500-3

Daro at the Bat
Junior first baseman Jen Daro had a huge weekend at the Troy Cox Classic from Feb. 19-21. In five games in Las Cruces, Daro combined to hit 6-for-12 at the plate with 13 RBI.
   She homered once in Creighton's 11-3 win over Campbell on Saturday, Feb. 20, and twice more in the Bluejays' following game that day, a 6-1 win over Western Michigan. Prior to Daro, the last Creighton player to homer in consecutive contests was Alexis Cantu—a current assistant on Creighton's coaching staff—in 2014.
   Cantu had also been the last Bluejay with multiple three-run home runs in the same game, having done so on April 6, 2012 at Wichita State as part of a game with three home runs.
   Daro's three different three-run homers over the course of two games on Feb. 20 are made more impressive when learning that CU hit seven total three-run homers in 2015.

Covering the Bases with Erin McGonigal
Fans who enjoyed following Creighton Softball along with Erin McGonigal last season can do so again this year, as the senior infielder chronicles the Bluejays' 2016 season in her "Covering the Bases" blog. Blog updates can be found online at GoCreighton.com.

Strength of Schedule
The Bluejays' schedule features eight opponents who made NCAA Tournament appearances last season, including five teams which won their respective regular-season conference championships: BYU (WCC), Cal State Northridge (Big West), New Mexico State (WAC), Oklahoma (Big 12), and St. John's (BIG EAST).
   Creighton's matchups with Oklahoma and New Mexico State in the Troy Cox Classic marked the fifth and sixth occasions already this season that the Bluejays faced off with teams that finished last season with RPI rankings better than 70: Tennessee (9), Oklahoma (12), New Mexico State (43), Cal State Northridge (51), BYU (56), and UC Riverside (70).
   One of Creighton's toughest tests of the year came immediately out of the gate with a season-opening matchup with perennial power Tennessee to begin the Kajikawa Classic on Feb. 11. In the contest, Creighton trailed by a slim, 3-0, margin until the sixth inning when Tennessee scored twice to seal a 5-0 victory. Last season, the Volunteers posted a 47-17 record and clinched the program's seventh Women's College World Series bid.

On the Road Again
Creighton's first 24 contests this season will take place away from home, as the Bluejays take part in four consecutive tournaments: Kajikawa Classic (Feb. 11-13; Tempe, Ariz.), Troy Cox Classic (Feb. 19-21; Las Cruces, N.M.), North Texas Invitational (Feb. 27-28; Denton, Texas), and Rebel Spring Games (March 5-10; Kissimmee, Fla.).
   After travelling for the first month of the season, 13 of Creighton's next 19 contests will take place at home inside the confines of the Creighton Sports Complex.

Creighton Picked Fifth in BIG EAST
As announced by the BIG EAST Conference on Feb. 1, Creighton was tabbed fifth in the Preseason Coaches' Poll, just one point shy of Seton Hall for fourth place. Last season's regular season and tournament champion, St. John's, was unanimously chosen to top the poll. The Red Storm received all seven available first-place votes for a total of 49 points, as the league's head coaches ranked the teams one through seven and were not allowed to vote for their own programs.
   With two All-BIG EAST selections returning, Creighton will look to build off of last year's 22-21 campaign. Allie Reinhart led the Bluejays with a .396 batting average, 21 hits and 12 RBI in conference play last season. Blake Ringle finished second on the team with 10 long balls, four of which came in BIG EAST action. Including Reinhart and Ringle, the Bluejays return 15 players from a year ago. Creighton welcomes seven newcomers to the roster: Aujanae McCoy, Tara Fallahee, Bry Flanagan, Kelly Mardones, Michal Hylton, Val Bertrand and Mileah McKelvy.

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Players Mentioned

Valentina Bertrand

Tash Coffiel

Jen Daro

Sydnee Eck

Tara Fallahee

Bry Flanagan

Michal Hylton

Kelly Mardones

Aujanae McCoy

Erin McGonigal

Mileah McKelvy

Allie Reinhart

Blake Ringle

Micaela Whitney