The Belmont University Softball team will continue its road schedule with a Missouri Valley Conference doubleheader against Indiana State on April 27. The games are scheduled to begin at noon Central Time in Terre Haute, Indiana.
This series is the last conference matchup of the regular season for Belmont and offers the team an opportunity to secure the MVC regular season title. The Bruins recently won a series against Northern Iowa, marking their eighth series victory this year.
Belmont currently leads the Missouri Valley Conference standings and has been ranked No. 1 in both D1 Softball and Softball America Mid-Major Polls for four consecutive weeks. The team has also received votes in national Top 25 polls for three straight weeks and appeared in mid-major rankings for twelve consecutive weeks. Defensively, Belmont leads its conference with a .974 fielding percentage and has recorded 912 putouts so far this season.
At bat, the Bruins hold a .298 average with 226 runs batted in and a .385 on-base percentage. Their pitching staff has achieved shutouts over sixteen teams this season, including twelve by their ace pitcher who is tied for first nationally in that category. This redshirt senior pitcher holds a record of twenty-four wins and two losses with an earned run average of 0.71, tallying three hundred thirty-one strikeouts while allowing only eighteen earned runs.
She recently became the first mid-major player—and first from Belmont—to receive AUSL’s Golden Ticket professional draft bid after excelling against Illinois State. She leads NCAA Division I softball in total strikeouts, strikeouts per seven innings (13.1), strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.03), and ERA (0.71). Her accolades include five National Fastpitch Coaches Association Pitcher of the Week honors—making her the first Division I player to achieve this feat—eight MVC Pitcher of the Week awards out of twelve possible weeks, as well as recognition from D1 Softball and Mid-Major polls.
Earlier this year she surpassed one thousand career strikeouts during a doubleheader versus Murray State on March 24; she now stands at one thousand one hundred twenty career strikeouts as one of only two active players nationwide to reach that milestone.
In addition to pitching achievements, another Bruin ranks second in batting average within MVC at .446 while another teammate ranks second for stolen bases with twenty-two steals so far this season.
Last year Belmont finished forty-one wins to sixteen losses overall—including twenty victories within conference play—and captured its first-ever MVC Tournament Championship under head coach Laura Matthews’ leadership during her sixth season guiding the program.
Historically against Indiana State, Belmont holds an eight-to-four all-time record following a split doubleheader last meeting between these teams; Indiana State enters Tuesday’s contest seventh place among conference teams holding twenty-two wins compared to twenty-five losses overall.
