Moline's Musings

Softball Notes

Posted by: Brian Moline

Thursday, April 9, 2009 2:14 PM

The Illinois softball team carries a three-game winning streak into tonight's non-conference matchup against the Bradley Braves.  You can hear the game live on News-Talk 1400 WDWS.  Eric Loy and I will call the game.  Some random notes as we approach first pitch time:

I caught up with freshman pitcher Monica Perry yesterday before practice.  How important has Monica been to Illinois' 21-10 start?  She has 16 of the team's 21 wins, and has thrown 156.1 of the team's total of 210.1 innings this season.  That's almost three quarters of the team total, 74% to be exact.  I expect to see Perry in the circle tonight against Bradley.  You can hear my conversation with Monica on tonight's Sportstalk with Steve Kelly at 5 pm.  If you're outside our listening area, you can hear the podcast shortly after the end of the show.

The first softball RPI report of the season has been released by the NCAA, and the Illini check in at number 26.  If they're able to hold that position through the rest of the Big Ten season, they should get the program's first NCAA Tournament berth since 2004.  It's not an easy road the rest of the way in the Big Ten, as the Illini still have to face RPI top 20 teams Michigan, Northwestern and Ohio State.  They also have series remaining against conference doormat Indiana (RPI #182), Minnesota (#110) and Purdue (#92).  The series with Ohio State is in Columbus this weekend, and it would be huge for the Illini to take one of those two games.

I've always been intrigued by the difference in strength between the Big Ten's baseball and softball teams.  In baseball for the past several years, the conference has gotten only one team into the NCAA tournament.  By contrast, the Big Ten is one of the better softball conferences in the country.  This week for example, the Big Ten has five of the top 26 teams in the country according to RPI.  Michigan leads the way at #7, followed by Northwestern (#12), Ohio State (#16) and Iowa (#18).  The only conferences that fare better are the SEC (7 of the top 22) and Pac 10 (5 of the top 10).  I'd be interested in people's thoughts on why that might be.  Thanks for reading.

bmoline@wdws.com

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