MOREHEAD, Ky. – The Morehead State softball team has been making incremental improvements throughout the season and is poised for a breakthrough. After having dropped 10 of its 20 games by one or two runs and having led in 11 contests without pulling out a victory, this weekend's series with Western Illinois may be coming at the right time.
The two schools will square off on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. ET, and then again on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at the Mary Ellen McKee Stadium in Macomb, Ill.
Morehead State (1-19/0-6) is used to playing Western Illinois (6-16/1-4) in must-win situations and last year, the Eagles swept the series at home. It is far from a "must-win" scenario, but this weekend presents the best chance so far this season to snap out of its slump and given its history with the Leathernecks, there is no time like the present.
"We've had a strong week of practice and we're ready to get after it this weekend at WIU," said MSU head coach
Megan Griffith. "We are looking to bring the fight and lessons from last weekend into this one with strong defense, good pitching and a competitive offense."
It will be the final three games of what has turned out to be a six-game road swing. The Eagles were supposed to have traveled to Northern Kentucky for a mid-week doubleheader on March 11, but those games were postponed. Consequently, MSU's only road outings since then were its three-game series against SIU Edwardsville, which won 4-3, 3-1 and 5-3. In each case, the Eagles led or were tied entering the sixth inning, only to watch the Cougars rally to the victory.
The results dropped the Blue and Gold to 10 straight defeats and the team is only 1-16 away from home this season, including 0-5 in true road games.
Morehead State's offensive numbers have tapered off a bit of late. The team is now hitting .260, averaging 4.4 runs per game, with 12 home runs and seven stolen bases. On the flip side, its pitching has improved and the team's ERA is 7.54. Defensively, it has a .956 fielding percentage. The Eagles' opponents are batting .365, averaging 8.05 rpg, with 13 home runs, 26 stolen bases, a 3.38 ERA and a .943 fielding percentage.
Junior infielder
Sela Pickford had her 11-game hitting streak snapped last weekend against SIUE. Junior infielder
Sage VanDemark now has the longest such mark at four games.
Junior outfielder
Maddy Christopher continues to lead the way with a .365 batting average, 17 runs, , two doubles and both a .392 slugging and on-base percentage. VanDemark is next with a .328 batting average, nine runs, five doubles, three home runs, 15 RBI, seven walks, a .537 slugging percentage and a .392 on-base percentage. Junior catcher
Sydney Farmer owns a .292 batting average, with 16 runs, seven doubles, three home runs, a .569 slugging percentage and a .314 on-base percentage. Pickford is hitting .275 and adds 14 runs, five doubles, three stolen bases, a .348 slugging percentage and a .315 on-base percentage. Senior outfielder
Taikibrea Campbell leads the team in home runs with four.
Freshman
Allicen Harris tops the pitching staff. She has a 0-8 record, with a 5.05 ERA, 23 strikeouts and seven walks in 43 innings. Junior
Ainsley Stubbs is 1-6, with a 7.41 ERA, 45 strikeouts and 32 walks in 51 innings. Senior
Rylie Burney is 0-5, with a 10.50 ERA, 22 strikeouts and 29 walks in 34 and two-thirds innings.
Western Illinois has dropped its last three and nine of its last 10. The Leathernecks fell 8-0 in six innings at Kansas City on Wednesday. Prior to that, they fell twice at home to Southern Indiana (15-4 in five innings and 4-2) last Saturday. The team's lone win this month came over the Screaming Eagles 5-3 in the series opener on Friday. It also dropped both ends of a March 9 doubleheader with Southeast Missouri State 14-2 and 4-3. Its first game with SEMO was canceled.
WIU also had a scheduled Tuesday road outing at Drake postponed. The Leathernecks are 1-2 at home this season.
The two teams do have one similar foe this year. MSU fell to Indiana State 5-0 and 11-3 in five innings at Memphis, while Western Illinois dropped a 10-0, five-inning decision to the Sycamores at Lindenwood.
WIU finished 11-37 overall and 7-20 in the Ohio Valley Conference last year. The Leathernecks were picked to finish in ninth in the OVC this spring.
As a team, WIU is hitting .294, with 4.18 rpg, eight homers, 15 stolen bases, a 6.04 ERA and a .955 fielding percentage. Its opponents are hitting .338, while averaging 6.73 rpg, with six homers and 34 stolen bases, a 3.94 ERA and a .956 fielding percentage.
OVC 2025 co-Player of the Year Payton Brown is one of five hitting above .300. The junior infielder/utility player is batting .388, with 19 runs, six doubles, five homers, 21 RBI, nine walks, six stolen bases, a .701 slugging percentage and a .462 on-base percentage. Freshman utility player Angie Ortiz is hitting .377, with 12 runs, four doubles, 11 RBI, eight walks, a .508 slugging percentage and a .458 on-base percentage. Senior infielder Kam Utendorf boasts a .342 batting average, with 21 runs, a .338 slugging percentage and a .608 on-base percentage. Junior infielder Sophia Sanchez follows with a .323 batting average, 14 runs, seven doubles, six RBI, 13 walks, three stolen bases, a .468 slugging percentage and a .447 on-base percentage. Senior infielder Maria Luna is hitting .313, with eight doubles, 15 RBI, seven walks, a .484 slugging percentage and a .389 on-base percentage.
Sophomore Libby Spaulding has a 4-7 record, with a 3.96 ERA, one save, with 40 strikeouts and 31 walks in 53 innings. Sophomore Audrey Clark is 0-3, with a 6.03 ERA, 24 strikeouts and 31 walks in 31 and one-third innings. Junior Lillie Wools is 1-3, with a 6.40 ERA, 13 strikeouts and 29 walks in 27 and one-third innings.
Alisa Goler is in her sixth year as the team's head coach. She has a 66-189 record.
Courtesy of a three-game sweep last spring, Morehead State leads the series 5-2-1. The Eagles won 10-6, 16-6 in five innings and 6-5. In 2024 in Macomb, Ill., MSU won 10-2 in six innings and 5-1, before falling 3-2 in the finale. MSU nearly swept that series as well, except the Leathernecks won game three on a bottom-of-the-seventh infield ground out as Malia Robertson barely beat out the tag at home plate.
Prior to that, the two teams played a doubleheader on March 26, 2014, in Macomb, Ill. WIU won the first game 10-3, with the second game ending in a 3-3 tie, being called after six innings due to darkness. Morehead State leads the series in Illinois 2-1-1.
Live stats for all three games will be available at the link:
https://goleathernecks.com/sidearmstats/softball/summary.
ESPN+ will carry all three contests. Game one can be found at the link
https://shorturl.at/dpFfH, with game two at
https://shorturl.at/390V3 and game three at
https://shorturl.at/5k1gm.
Morehead State will return home to host Tennessee Tech next Saturday and Sunday for the Golden Eagles' final trip to Morehead as members of the Ohio Valley Conference. Saturday will be a doubleheader with game one at noon and game two at 2:30 p.m. Sunday will be a single contest at noon.
