DawgBlog

One batter, one hit, one run. Indiana State’s Meredith Simpson began the Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament with a bang today at Charlotte West Stadium, homering over the left-field wall as the first batter of the tournament.

The Sycamores, seeded eighth in the eight-team tournament, just added two more runs to take a 3-0 lead in the third. Wichita State is without its top pitcher, senior Ashley Bright, who apparently injured her pitching hand. It’s wrapped in the dugout, and, according to the Wichita Eagle, Bright has been battling injuries all week.

Bright broke Erin Stremsterfer’s single-season record for strikeouts this season with her 365th. Stremsterfer set the record back in 2001 for SIU. Bright’s 255th of the season broke Margo Pruis’ record set in 2006. Pruis now pitches professionally, so you get a glimpse of how important she is to the Shockers’ playoff hopes.

SIU is scheduled to play at 7:30 p.m. against either Missouri State or Evansville tonight.

SIU and Creighton’s first game of a three-game set at Abe Martin Field was just called. The two will play a doubleheader beginning at noon Saturday. Sunday’s game is still set for 1 p.m.

Heavy rains came around this morning, and are expected to stick around most of today. SIU was forced into a doubleheader at Northern Iowa last weekend, and took both games from the co-leaders.

Nick Hill, a Du Quoin native who led the SIU football team to the FCS national semifinals last season, agreed to a three-year deal with the Chicago Bears shortly after the conclusion of Sunday’s NFL draft. SIU offensive tackle Darren Marquez signed with the Indianapolis Colts shortly after the draft.

Signing bonuses were going to (more...)

Northern Iowa’s baseball team is in first place in the Missouri Valley Conference, but are the Panthers so good to rip nine runs off SIU’s new No. 1 starter? In the first inning? Is Shawn Joy that bad, or are the Panthers that good?

Joy was supposed to at least keep the Salukis in the (more...)

Northern Iowa beat SIU’s baseball team 14-13 late Friday night. Even the late editions of The Southern were not able to get the story in the paper, unfortunately. The series continues with a doubleheader today, as inclement weather is expected Sunday.
Chris Lopez delivered a walk-off single with no outs and the bases loaded (more...)

Four big names hope to hear their names called as the NFL draft begins Saturday.

Quarterback Nick Hill, return specialist/cornerback Craig Turner, offensive tackle Darren Marquez and wide receiver Alan Turner all hope to land a contract for a camp in the next two days. Hill, Marquez and Craig Turner were all first team All-Gateway (more...)

Watching my first SIU men’s basketball banquet unfold, I couldn’t help but think of one game toward the end of the season that encapsulated it all for me.
Sure, there were remarkable stories about the four outgoing seniors.
Randal Falker had several of them. Falker ate so much on his visit – the (more...)

Joe Allaria showed more of the total package Saturday at Southern Illinois University’s spring football game. SIU coach Dale Lennon might go with Chris Dieker when fall practice begins, however, because of his display.

Allaria showed good zip and made some plays with his feet that might have been sacks with anyone else back there. (more...)

Ryan Hare orally committed to Southern Illinois University’s men’s basketball team Sunday night.

Hare led Chicago Marshall to the Class AA state championship. If he qualifies - he’ll find out in two weeks if he was able to raise his ACT score one point Saturday - he’ll join Homewood-Flossmoor’s Kevin Dillard and McCluer North (Mo.) standouts Anthony Booker and Torres Roundtree.

See Monday’s editions for the full story.

Courtside gets a nice view of the new Chaifetz Arena floor, but even near the rooftop, this place will give out a lot of good glimpses. Chaifetz Arena is the new home of Saint Louis University’s men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams.

The place is more straight up than Scottrade Center, as Pinckneyville’s Kyle Cassity said in today’s paper, but it’s also very close-knit. The student section, if that’s what they use the bleachers for in this one end, will be right on the court like SIU’s. With the smaller size, 10,000 people will sound a lot different here than at Scottrade.

In a few minutes, we’ll see the best players since the Globetrotters were here the other night. The Missouri-Illinois all-stars tip off at approximately 7:45 p.m. for the Riverwar’s marquee event.