Sept. 21, 2006

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THIS WEEK IN UNI SOFTBALL

September 18-24

Saturday:         vs. Iowa, 10 a.m.

                        at Iowa State, 2 p.m.

Sunday:           vs. Iowa, 2 p.m.

                        vs. Drake, 4 p.m.

The University of Northern Iowa softball team began its fall season with a pair of wins in four games over the weekend, picking up victories of Grand Valley State and Kankakee Community College.  The Panthers also scored a 3-3 tie with DePaul before falling, 4-0, to Valparaiso in their weekend finale.  This weekend, the Panthers head to Ames, Iowa, to battle three intra-state rivals in the Big Four Tournament.

LEADING OFF

•    UNI's batch of freshmen pitchers got off to a hot start over the weekend, with Sarah Bakey (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley), Jen Larsen (Moline, Ill./Moline) and Ashley Lepley (Albia, Iowa/Albia) combining to allow only eight runs over 25 innings pitched.  Bakey and Larsen gave up only four hits and struck out nine batters in seven innings against Kankakee Community College, while Lepley pitched three innings of no-hit ball against Grand Valley State.

•    Junior transfer Heather Tartar (Fairbury, Ill./Prairie Central) drove in three runs against Grand Valley State, going 2-for-4 at the plate.  Junior Stephanie Aguero (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) drove in a pair of runs to help the Panthers to a 3-3 tie against DePaul, while sophomore Kelly Papesh (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) had two RBI to power UNI past Kankakee.

•    The Panthers face their three intra-state foes this weekend at the Southwest Athletic Complex in Ames.  The last time UNI ventured to Iowa State's home field, the Panthers scored a 6-1 win over the Cyclones that included  11 hits and a dramatic triple play turned by infielders Stephanie Aguero and Jamie Kelling.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS

•    The Panthers face Iowa twice this weekend, with the Hawkeyes taking the teams' only meeting last season, a 10-0 win in Iowa City.  The Hawkeyes, led 20th-year head coach Gayle Blevins, are coming off a 39-22 season that ended in NCAA Regional play.

•    The host Cyclones do battle with the Panthers at 2 p.m. Saturday, the teams' first meeting since UNI scored a 6-1 win at the Southwest Athletic Complex to earn a split of the squads' season series.  Iowa State finished with a 23-28 record last spring, in coach Stacy Gemeinhardt's first season at ISU.  The Cyclones return 14 players from that squad, including seven seniors.

•    Drake enters the weekend with a 3-1 fall record following its own Bulldog Classic last weekend.  The Bulldogs return five players from a squad that finished with a 24-30 record last spring, including a 10-12 mark in Missouri Valley Conference play that earned the team its third consecutive berth in the State Farm MVC Softball Tournament.  The Bulldogs are led by Rich Calvert, who enters his fifth season as head coach.