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MURRAY — One of the most anticipated college softball series in the nation this weekend will be in Murray.
That is when a pair of teams who won their respective conferences last year will meet at Racer Field. Last year’s Ohio Valley Conference champion, Murray State, will host defending Missouri Valley Conference champ Northern Iowa, starting with a doubleheader this afternoon in what will amount to the Racers’ Valley debut. A single game will follow on Saturday.
Last year, Murray State won 40 games and went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. UNI was 32-13, but a loss to Missouri State in The Valley Tournament ended the Panthers’ season.
“We’re the defending champion in the league where we came from. Northern Iowa (11-9 this season) won the regular season title, so they’re going to come in here ready to go,” said Murray State Head Coach Kara Amundson, whose team won its tuneup for this weekend on Wednesday, 2-0, over visiting Western Illinois. “Plus, they’re playing in warmer temperatures than I’m sure they’re used to this time of year in the northern part of the country, so, yeah, we’ve got to be ready to go too.”
Murray State (15-9) actually has faced a Valley team this season. Illinois State was one of its guests for the annual Racer Classic last weekend and won both of its meetings with the host team, and by scores that would lead one to believe the Redbirds dominated.
Amundson, though, said the final scores of 7-1 and 6-1 were deceiving.
“We just gave those games away,” she said, admitting that those scores look anything but encouraging. “Absolutely and I understand and agree, but, from my perspective, we had innings where we just handed the game over to them. We had things like back-to-back walks, walking in runs, home runs with 1-2 counts and not executing pitches.”
Both of those losses came in games where the Racers surrendered a big inning. That did not happen Wednesday as Murray State did not commit an error and its pitchers only allowed three hits.
While the Racers’ offense did have a habit of leaving runners on base, they did get a two-run home run from third baseman Lily Fischer in the first inning .
Today’s doubleheader is set to start at 2 p.m. with Saturday’s single game set for a 2 p.m. start as well.
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