CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- SIU Softball headed west Tuesday. The Salukis flew out to Arizona for the Tempe Regional where they'll compete against Arizona State, Virginia Tech, and BYU in a double elimination tournament.
SIU put together a great game plan to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as a 4 seed.
SIU Softball Head Coach Kerri Blaylock was quick to credit Associate Head Coach Jen Sewell for their strategic approach.
In the MVC Tournament, the Salukis were aggressive at the plate.
"That's Jen's baby and she talked to the hitters about we'd seen her and we were so on our heels up at Northern Iowa and we let her dictate to us," Blaylock said. "I thought it started with Maddy (Vermejan) swinging right away. The first at-bat, first pitch, we are here today and we were hitting so many balls on the nose that I felt it was going to work our way."
When it came to pitching, Sarah Harness executed pitches from the circle.
"Jen did a phenomenal job at calling pitches and she would work backwards and work opposite counts of what maybe the hitter was thinking and Jen was a college catcher. I gave up pitching calling duties at Illinois State, our Illinois State series in April because I felt Jen is more aggressive, she's more strategic and I'm a little more conservative if that would've been on me, she's a tactician with that."
