SIUE will face Riverwomen in first round

TONY AMMANN
SPORTS EDITOR

The SIUE softball team has had a season to remember in 2000, but it all means nothing now.

The Lady Cougars will travel to Romeoville on Friday to take on the University of Missouri-St. Louis in the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament.

SIUE, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, has gone 3-1 against the Riverwomen this season, including a 12-0 shutout on April 12.

The only loss to UMSL came at the hands of Riverwoman hurler Kathleen Rogoz, who ranks third in the GLVC with a .61 earned run average. UMSL will likely send Rogoz to the mound in Friday's contest.

"I can't imagine that they wouldn't," head coach Sandy Montgomery said. "If they don't, they're not very smart."

In the two games in which the Lady Cougars have faced Rogoz, SIUE has just 12 hits and struck out nine times.

"She's smart," Montgomery said. "She's got a good change-up and when she's got that change-up going, she's tough."

Rogoz will have to bring her best game Friday as she faces a Lady Cougar team that is first in hitting in the GLVC with a .336 team batting average.

SIUE also leads the conference in runs scored, hits, total bases, slugging percentage and stolen bases.

Montgomery hasn't named the starting pitcher for SIUE on Friday as of yet, but no matter who is on the mound, the Lady Cougars have a good chance of pulling off a victory.

Senior hurler Sara Obrecht has been the heart of the pitching staff this season, leading the Lady Cougars with a 1.15 ERA and 18-6 record. A statistic that may be more important than her ERA is that Obrecht has gone the distance in every game she has started this season.

Sophomores Dawn Farmer and Katie Young have also pitched well for SIUE this season. Farmer and Young have combined to go 19-9 in 2000 and have seven shutouts between them.

The key to Friday's game may be defense.

"They're very prone to errors," Montgomery said. "Defensively, if you hit the ball hard at them, eventually they are going to make some errors."

Ironically, UMSL and SIUE are not that far apart when it comes to defense. The Lady Cougars are fourth in the conference with a .958 fielding percentage, while the Riverwomen are fifth with a .948 fielding percentage.

According to Montgomery, getting the first run on the board Friday will play a large part in the final outcome of the game.

"I think it's important in whatever game you're playing at this time of the year to get off to a good start," Montgomery said. "It's tournament time and you need to set the tone early."

Montgomery also said tournament play is much different than play during the regular season.

"There's a lot more at stake," Montgomery said. "Every team does it. There are games you coast and still win. But when tournament time comes, you can't do that."

The game Friday will start at 9 a.m. in Romeoville.

Regardless of how the Lady Cougars finish in the GLVC tournament, the 2000 season has been one to remember.

Overall, there have been three single-season records set by Lady Cougars so far, and five have a good chance of being broken throughout the rest of the season.

One of those records belongs to Sophomore Erin Newman. Newman has led the conference in hitting throughout the entire season and set a new single-season mark in doubles with 25. Newman also has a realistic chance of breaking four more records before the 2000 season ends.

Katie Waldo also set two records of her own in her first season in a SIUE uniform. Waldo set new single-season records in steals and hits in her freshman season and with three more seasons left for the Lady Cougars, those records could fall as early as next season.

But for this season, the goal for SIUE is to get a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. The Lady Cougars rank third in the region and with a good showing in the GLVC tourney, a bid will be assured.