What Lies Ahead:  The 16th-ranked Minnesota State softball team (18-5) takes to the road this week for a nonconference doubleheader in Vadnais Heights against Concordia.
    
The Mavericks then travel to Duluth Saturday afternoon to open the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference portion of its schedule against Minnesota Duluth before facing Bemidji State Sunday afternoon in Bemidji.
        
What Just Happened: The Mavericks split a pair of games last weekend, dropping a 5-3 decision to St. Cloud State in nine innings before rebounding to defeat seventh-ranked Winona State, 3-0, behind a complete-game shutout from senior pitcher Kendra Huettl.  

Senior outfielder Melanie Upchurch paced the Mavericks at the plate last week as she went 4-for-7 with three runs scored, three runs batted in and three doubles.

Head Coach Lori Meyer:  One of the most respected coaches in all of NCAA  Division II softball, Lori Meyer is in her 28th year as the head coach of the Minnesota State softball team.  Meyer owns a career record of 896-572-3 (.611) in 1,470 games.  A seven-time NCC Coach of the Year, Meyer has guided the Mavericks to three North Central Conference titles (1987, 1989 and 2007), and guided the ‘87 Mavericks to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II National Tournament and has made nine trips to the NCAA postseason and two trips to the NCAA Championships (1987, 2011).

Minnesota State History:  The 2012 season marks the 38th for Maverick softball.  MSU owns an all-time record of 1,021-668-7 (.608) in 1,685 games, and have four North Central Conference titles (1984, 1987, 1989, 2007) and ten appearances in the NCAA Division II National Tournament (1984, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1997, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011) to its credit.

Team Notes:  Minnesota State has scored 10 or more runs in the first (18), second (10), third (17), fourth (14), fifth (18) and seventh (11) innings this season...The Mavericks are 5-1 in games in which it has scored 0-2 runs and is 17-0 when limiting its opponents to two or fewer runs...The Mavericks are 7-0 when scoring in the first inning and 15-0 when scoring first...The Mavericks are 13-2 when not committing an error...Sophomore Lindsay Erickson leads MSU with eight multiple-hit games while freshman infielder Brittani Robinson has five multiple-RBI games...Lindsay Erickson's 11-game hitting streak to start the season is was the longest this season and Robinson and junior outfielder Lauryn Morris are tied for the longest active streak with three games...Lindsay Erickson started the season reaching base in 15 straight games, which is the longest streak of the year while senior Chelsea Erickson has reached in her last six games, which is the longest active streak...Minnesota State is hitting .308 with bases empty and .304 with the bases loaded this season...The Mavericks are hitting .403 to lead off an inning and MSU is hitting .426 with runners on third with less than two outs.  

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