Mankato, Minn. --- The Minnesota State softball team (34-10, 19-5 NSIC) will take to the softball diamond as the top seeded team in the NSIC Softball Tournament held in Rochester, Minn., this weekend. The Mavericks will face the winner of the match-up between 10th seeded St. Cloud State (27-24, 12-12 NSIC) and 9th seeded University of Mary (24-17, 13-11 NSIC).

The Mavericks most recent games came against St. Cloud State, who they swept, to earn a share of the NSIC Regular Season title by scores of  3-2 and 7-3 this past Sunday.

What Just Happened: The Mavericks posted a 5-1 record in the final week of the regular season as they swept Sioux Falls, 1-0 and 12-4 on the Gustavus Adolphus football field before hosting the University of Minnesota, Duluth in MSU’s lone contest at the Diamond at Gage Towers during the 2013 campaign. The Mavericks dropped the first game to the Bulldogs 2-1, but rallied in the second game, winning 8-0 in five innings. MSU finished off the regular season at St. Cloud State where it swept the Huskies 3-2 and 7-3.

Senior Abby Sonner led the offensive charge for MSU this past week recording a .545 batting average scorign three runs on 12 hits with four RBI and 13 total bases. Junior Lindsay Erickson continued her hot streak, recording a .526 batting average over the six game span and was able to record five runs on 10 hits with three home runs and eight RBI while tallying 19 bases and an astonishing 1.000 slugging percentage.

The pitching duo of senior Courtney McKelvogue and sophomore Brittany Lauterbach posted 1.03 ERA and 2.10 ERA, respectively, while McKelvogue posted a 2-1 record in three appearances while Lauterbach went 3-0 in her three appearances.

National Rankings: The Mavericks reentered the NFCA Top 25 Poll this past week after a nine week hiatus. MSU began the season ranked No. 6 and after posting a 34-10 overall record and a mark of 19-5 in league action have returned to the poll, now ranked No. 19.

Regionally Speaking: MSU was the fourth rated team in the lastest edition of the NCAA Division II Central Region Rankings. The region is now comprised of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), and the Great American Conference (GAC).

Early Indicators: The Maveriocks are 20-1 when they score in the first inning of the contest during the 2013 campaign. MSU has outscored its opponenets 51-18 in the first inning of its contests this season.

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