THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (13-15, 3-5 WIAC) are scheduled to be at the University of Northwestern, (12-16, 7-1 UMAC) Wednesday, April 20 in a game that had been postponed twice this season. Stout then returns home to resume WIAC play by hosting UW-River Falls, (11-17-1, 2-5-1 WIAC) Thursday, April 21, at 4 p.m. Thursday is Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day.
UW-STOUT: Catcher
Rachel Thomas is leading the Blue Devils at the plate, hitting .362 (34-94) with eight RBI. Thomas has a league-leading four triples and has a team-best eight stolen bases. Pitcher/first baseman/designated player
Beth Wood is posting an average of .357 (30-84) and has a team-high 15 RBI. Freshman
Kaylee Francois is averaging .327 (18-55) with 13 RBI. Francois cracked the first home run of her college career in a win over UW-Whitewater earlier this season and has also punched two triples. First baseman
Heather Bol is hitting .316 (25-79) and has 14 RBI.
Alicia Meyer has seen action in 19 games and is hitting .333 (13-37) with 10 RBI and a team-best two home runs. Two-time first team all-WIAC pitcher
Tori Workman (6-8) continues to deal, rolling up 81 strikeouts over 97.2 innings pitched, ranking first in the conference in innings pitched and second in strikeouts. Workman owns the Blue Devil career strikeout record and continues to add to it, currently recording 478 strikeouts. Wood (5-5) has started 11 games in the circle, working 55.0 innings.
McKayla Brunner (2-2) has seen considerable time as a hurler after only being able to throw one game last year. Brunner has started five games.
BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT: After falling 5-4 in eight innings in the first game, UW-Stout bounced back to take a 3-2 win over the University of Northwestern last night in St. Paul, Minn.
Heather Bol hit a two-run home run and
Kaylee Francois hit an RBI double in the fourth inning of second game to give Stout enough margin for the win. The Eagles came back to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Tori Workman went the distance for the second game win, recording her 53rd career win, tying the school career record held by Karen Lien and Carolyn Bare.
WIAC PRESEASON POLL The Blue Devils were selected to finish fifth, according to a WIAC preseason poll. UW-Whitewater was picked first, followed by UW-Oshkosh, UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse. UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Platteville were chosen sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
RECORD BEATER: When UW-Stout collected 25 runs in a 25-0 win over Southern Vermont University, March 15, it established a school record for most runs scored in a single game. The Blue Devils scored 11 runs in the first inning alone. Stout finished the game with 13 hits, but only three hits were extra base hits, with a double by
Alicia Meyer and triples by
Sara Griesbach and
Kelly Austin. Stout drew nine walks in the contest and twice Blue Devil batters were hit by a pitch. The previous record was 20 runs scored against Wisconsin Lutheran in 2000. Austin is thought to have tied a school record when she scored four runs against Southern Vermont.
WORKMAN WORKING THE Ks: Pitcher
Tori Workman holds the school record for most strikeouts in a single season (160) and recently set the school record for most career strikeouts, surpassing Karen Lien's 409 strikeouts. Lien, a Blue Devil Hall of Fame member, pitched from 1992-95. Workman currently has 473 career strikeouts and moved up to seventh on the WIAC career strikeout list, moving past UW-La Crosse's Sally Wenzel (432 - 2000-03). Karen Guckenburg (504 - 2000-03) of UW-Stevens Point is sixth on the list. Ronessa Stampfli (2005-08) of UW-Oshkosh has a firm grip on the WIAC career record with 1019 strikeouts. Workman also moved onto the WIAC list for most innings pitched. Workman is tied for 12th overall with 583.1 innings pitched. Workman needs one wins to tie Lien and Carolyn Bare for the most UW-Stout wins by a pitcher. Lien and Bare (1995-98) both have 53 wins. Workman has five wins this season to move her total to 52 career wins.
TRIPLE TIME: The Blue Devils have put up 10 triples so far this year, with
Rachel Thomas the conference leaders with four.
Kaylee Francois has two, while
Kelly Austin,
Tori Workman,
Sara Griesbach and
Alyssa Germscheid each have one.
UW-RIVER FALLS: Just like UW-Stout, the Falcons have a new head coach in Amber Dohlman. Dohlman was the head coach for four seasons at Millikin University before returning to River Falls where she played and was an assistant coach. Shannan Borchardt leads the WIAC in doubles with 12. Borchardt is hitting .330 (31-94) with 12 RBI. Aiyana Ledwein is posting the Falcons' top average at .355 (33-96) with 12 RBI. Katie Thompson has a team-best 18 RBI and has three home runs. Thompson has an average of .301 (28-93). Michelle LaCasse leads the league in innings pitched with 96.2 and is fifth in the league in strikeouts with 55. LaCasse has made a league best 14 starts and has completed nine games, posting an ERA of 3.62. While LaCasse has thrown the lion's share of games, the Falcons have used six total pitchers. Payton Speckel has recorded 36 strikeouts in 37.1 innings pitched.
FALCONS LAST TIME OUT: The Falcons split a pair of one-run games at UW-Stevens Point, winning the first 9-8, but losing the second, 5-4, Sunday. The Falcons scored 13 runs on 26 hits in the two games. In game one, they won the extra inning game 9-8. Pitcher Michelle LaCasse put the game into her own hands when she hit a home run in the top of the ninth inning, then shutdown the Pointers in the bottom half of the inning. In game two, they lost in the seventh inning 5-4 after the Pointers hit a walk off homerun in the bottom of the seventh.
LAST TIME THEY MET: The Falcons won all three games last year, including a 14-2, five inning game in the WIAC tournament that ended the Blue Devils' season. The Falcons won both regular season games last year in River Falls, 2-1, 12-9.The Falcons hold a 7-5 lead in the series over the last five years. River Falls swept last year; the Blue Devils swept in both 2013 and 2014.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHWESTERN: The Eagles are running a seven-game winning streak (before facing UW-Superior Tuesday). Two weeks ago, the Eagles scored 41 runs in a doubleheader against North Central University, winning 33-0, 14-0. Mindy Forcier (.343), Ellen Larkin (.387), Kaylee Forcier (.316), Megan Threkeld (.308) and Jennifer Ankrom (.306) lead the way at the plate. Ann Lokke has 18 RBI and Ankrom 16. In the circle, the Eagles have gone primarily with Lauren Silbernick and Meghan Schroeder. Silbernick has an ERA of 4.41 in 66.2 innings pitched and has recorded 18 strikeouts. Schroeder has tossed 50.1 innings and has an ERA of 4.03.
EAGLES LAST TIME OUT: Northwestern pushed its win streak to seven games with a sweep against visiting Northland College Saturday at Reynolds Field. The Eagles won the opener 7-3 before taking game two, 3-2, in walk-off fashion. The Eagles host UW-Superior Tuesday, April 19 in a conference contest.
LAST TIME THEY MET: The Blue Devils hosted the Eagles, April 10, 2014, and took convincing 12-1, 13-2, wins.
NFCA RANKINGS: No WIAC schools were listed in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Top 25 poll.
BLUE DEVILS LAST SEASON: The Blue Devils were 16-27 overall and 7-9 in league play. The Blue Devils advanced to the WIAC tournament and knocked off second seeded UW-Whitewater in the first game of the tournament.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Tori Workman was the WIAC pitcher of the week after allowing no earned runs in a loss to St. Benedict to open the season and after seeing action in the circle in seven of UW-Stout's final 10 games at the Fastpitch Dreams Softball Classic in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. She started four games in South Carolina, finishing with an ERA of 1.28 and a record of 3-2....
Tori Workman was a first team all-WIAC selection in 2015.
2016 TEAM LEADERS: The designated team leaders for the 2016 season are
Tori Workman,
Nicole Rogers and
McKayla Brunner.
COACHES: Blue Devil coach Becky Iaccino (31-33) is in her first year as the head coach of the Blue Devils. Iaccino played professionally in Italy
played professionally in Italy from 2003 to 2011 and with the Italian National team from 2005-07. She has been the head coach at Marian University where she was selected as conference coach of the year, and has eight years of experience as an assistant coach at Division I and III programs, most recently at Concordia University Chicago. University of Northwestern: Alicia du'Monceaux leads the University of Northwestern fastpitch softball program as head coach for the ninth season in 2016. Coach du'Monceaux (pronounced Du-Mon-So) played shortstop and pitcher for the Eagles for three years before making the transition to coaching in 2005. After four years of focusing primarily on the team's pitching as an assistant coach, du'Monceaux was named the head coach prior to the 2009 campaign...
UW-River Falls: Amber Dohlman is in her first year as the Falcons' head coach, but the River Falls grad returns to the WIAC school after serving as the head coach at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., for four seasons. Dohlman is also the co-sports information director at River Falls.
ON DECK: The Blue Devils are scheduled for four doubleheaders the last week of April. They will be at Gustavus Adolphus, Tuesday, April 26, at UW-Eau Claire, Wednesday, April 27, at UW-Stevens Point, Saturday, April 30, then return home to host Bethel University, Sunday, May 1.
