March 13, 2007

Urbana, Ill. -

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Illinois (11-9) travels to Sacramento, Calif., for the Capital Classic. The tournament is hosted by Sacramento State University and played at the Sacramento Softball Complex.

Directions: The complex is located just off Business I-80. Exit at Watt Avenue

The Field: A total of 15 teams converge on the capital of the Golden State. They include BYU, Cal Poly, Colorado State, Georgia Southern, Idaho State, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Mercer, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Sacramento State and Santa Clara

Illinois Schedule (All Times CDT):

Illinois history in the Capital Classic: Illinois is making its fourth appearance in the Capital Classic. The Illini went 3-1 in 2003 with victories over Utah 3-2, Morehead State, 10-0, & Sacramento State, 5-1 and falling to No. 3 Washington, 9-1.
• Rain plagued the 2005 tournament as the Illini played just two games, falling to BYU, 18-10, and defeating Sac State, 3-2.
• Last year Illinois went 2-2, falling to Colorado State, 12-2, and No. 6 California, 5-0, and defeating Long Island, 11-8, and Southern Utah, 10-0.

Lawhead All-Tournament: Junior Molly Lawhead represented Illinois on the 2006 Capital Classic all-tournament team after going 7-for-12 (.583) with four runs scored and two RBI during the tourney. Lawhead was 2-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored in the victory over Southern Utah. As a team, the Illini batted .353 with five home runs during the tournament,

Middle of order coming up (Arm) strong: Illinois had a lot of game experience in the top four spots in the order with third team All-Big Ten selections Molly Lawhead and Kisten Martin joining two of the top run producers in the conference in Shanna Diller and Angelena Mexicano.

The rest of the starting line-up had a combined 33 career hits. Ironically it's been two from that group that have been the major cogs at the plate for the Illini. Lana Armstrong leads the team with a .415 batting average and slugging percentage (.717), and is second on the club with three home runs and 16 RBI.

Makenzie Smith, meanwhile has a .339 average and leads the team with four home runs and 18 RBI, which ranks fifth in the Big Ten.

California connection: Four Illini hail from the state of California -- Vicky Brown (Thousand Oaks), Angelena Mexicano (Sam Jose), Makenzie Smith (Lancaster) and Ashley Wright (Santa Rosa).

Schedule is as easy as 1, 2, 3: At one time this season Tennessee, Texas A&M and Arizona State occupied the top three spots in the NFCA poll. The Illini have all three on the schedule. Monica Abbott struck out 17 in a 5-0 victory Tennessee win in Las Vegas. The Illini had two leads against Texas A&M, but the Aggies rallied both times. The Illini meet Arizona State in the Diamond Devil Invitational March 23-25.

Triple the fun: Illinois meets two non-conference opponents three times on the season. The Illini lost to Illinois State, 5-2 in the opening tournament of the year and play a home and home schedule with the 18th-ranked Redbirds -- traveling to Normal on March 20 and hosting ISU on April 17.

After a wild 11-9 BYU victory in Las Vegas, the two hot-hitting teams will meet twice at the Diamond Devil Invitational.

Wild, Wild Nights: Illinois promises to provide as entertaining of a game as anyone. The Illini have made monster comebacks and played high-scoring marathons.
• The Illini overcame a 3-0 deficit to defeat Florida International, 11-5, on Feb. 9
• The Illini defeated Southern Utah, 11-10, on Feb. 16 in a game that featured six lead changes and a combined five home runs. Trailing 7-5 going into the sixth, the Illini scored five times in the top of the inning, including three on a towering home run from Lana Armstrong, to take a 10-7 lead only to see SUU tack on three to tie it. Illinois won with a run in the seventh, and Ashley Wright got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the seventh to pick up the save
• The next day, the Illini fell to BYU, 11-9. Trailing 10-3, Illinois rallied for six runs in the bottom of the sixth to close to within 10-9 thanks in large part to home runs from Angelena Mexicano and Makenzie Smith. BYU added a run in the top of the seventh. This time BYU got out of a bases loaded one out jam
• On March 2, the Illini gave up four runs in the bottom of the first then rallied for an 8-4 victory
• On March 4, Illinois spotted Syracuse a 5-0 lead after one and rallied for a 12-7 victory

Rank and File, Part I: Illinois started the season with a pair of victories over then No. 20 Louisville. The Illini downed the Cardinals, 6-2 behind a a home run and a 3-for-4 effort by Angelena Mexicano and a three-run double by Makenzie Smith. Later in the tournament, the Illini pounded out nine hits and took advantage of three Louisville errors for an 8-0, five-inning victory.
Rank and File, Part II: Illinois had two good shots at No. 4 Texas A&M at the Aggie Invitational. On March 2, the Illini took a 2-1 lead on RBI doubles from Kisten Martin and Lana Armstrong. The Illini managed just one hit the rest of the way as A&M won, 6-2
• One of the most heartbreaking losses Illinois has had came on March 3 as Texas A&M rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh for a 7-5 victory thanks to a walk-off grand slam from Amanda Scarbarough. Trailing 2-0, Illinois had taken a 5-2 lead with two runs in the fourth on a two-run home run by Sydney Lisy and three runs in the fifth highlighted by back-to-back home runs from Makenzie Smith and Lana Armstrong.

Rank and file wrap-up: Illinois plays 17 games against eight teams ranked in this week's ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 -- No. 1 Tennessee (1 game), No. 3 Texas A&M (2), No. 4 Arizona State (2), No. 6 Oklahoma (1), No. 7 Michigan (2), No. 9 Northwestern (2), No. 17 Illinois State (3), No. 21 DePaul (2) and No. 23 Southern Illinois (2). The Illini play six of the top nine teams, one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.

Vicky Brown meet Vicki Brown: Illinois currently has two players with the same name in different sports. Junior Vicki Brown was an honorable mention All-Big Ten middle blocker for the Illini in vollyball , while freshman Vicky Brown leads Illinois in wins with a 7-3 record in softball. More on Armstrong: Lana Armstrong has been remarkably consistent this year and is currently riding a six-game hitting streak. In four tournaments thus far Armstrong
• Was 4-for-8 with four walks and a .667 on-base percentage in Miami
• Batted .400 with a double, triple, two home runs and nine RBI in Las Vegas
• Batted .333 with a double at the FAU Classic
• Had three doubles and one home run while batting .467 at Texas A&M.

Going yard: Here are a few notes on Illinois' proficiency for hitting home runs:
• In its first seven seasons, Illinois had just five games with at least three runs. This year the Illini have three
• Illinois hit eight home runs in five games at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas
• The 21 home runs that the Illini have hit so far this year are already more than they hit for the entire year in 2000 (5), 2001 (20), 2002 (16), and 2004 (18) seasons. The school record for home runs in season is 49 set last year in 55 games

More on hot hitting Illini:
• Illinois hit .325 at the Texas A&M Aggie Invitational to raise its season mark to .284, which ranks fourth in the Big Ten.
• The Illini are batting .305 (84-275) with runners in scoring position.
• They have .500 proficiency (20-40) of scoring the runner at third with less than two outs are batting .290 with two outs.
• In the final three games of the Aggie Invitational, the lead-off batter reached base 14 of 20 times.
• Illinois has scored in double digits six times and have scored 121 runs in 20 games (6.0 pg). That by far leads the Big Ten. Northwestern is second with 97 runs in 20 games (4.85 pg) while Iowa has 110 in 24 games (4.58) and Michigan 92 in 21 games (4.43 pg).
• Illinois has six players with double digits in RBI and nine different players have hit home runs.

Getting out of the gates: Angelena Mexicano hit a home run her first at-bat of the 2007 season and went 3-for-4 in a 6-2 season-opening victory over Louisville.

Picking up steam: After a slow start, freshman Hope Howell is becoming a tough out. The speedy Howell was on base nine times at the Aggie Invite and scored six times. For the weekend, she batted .571 with a double, a triple and two RBI. That lifted her season average from .188 to .304.

Do you follow? Illinois defeated Oklahoma State 10-2 on Feb. 16 in Las Vegas. The next day, OSU defeated No. 9 UCLA, 9-1.

Golden State circle: Illinois' 1-2 pitchers are both freshman leftys hailing from the state of California in Vicky Brown and Ashley Wright. The last time Illinois had two pitchers from the Golden State was 2004 when Amanda Fortune and Sherri Taylor helped the Illini to the Sweet 16.
• Illinois defeated No. 20 Louisville twice in the opening Diamond Fun & Sun Classic, defeating the Cardinals 6-2 and 8-0 in five innings.
• The Illini took No. 4 Texas A&M down to the wire, leading 5-2 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Aggies used a walk-off grand slam to win, 7-5.
• The Illini have winning record in three of the first four tournaments, going 3-2 in each. Four of Illinois' nine losses have been to ranked opponents and six of the nine have been by three runs or less.
• Illinois hit two grand slams in the same game for the first time in school history as Kisten Martin and Shanna Diller each delivered four-run bombs in an 11-5 victory over Florida International.