Mavericks travel to Kansas for Emporia State Classic

The Minnesota State University softball team is prepared to travel to Kansas this weekend, where they will play five games in the Emporia State Softball Classic.

The Mavericks will begin their weekend with two games on Friday, the first against Southwest Baptist and the second against Washburn. They will play another two Saturday against Missouri-St. Louis and University of Illinois-Springfield. MSU will round out their weekend with a match against Missouri Southern Sunday morning.

Thus far in the season, the Mavericks are 3-1, taking two wins against Lewis University and split series against University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The Mavericks only have one game in recent history against Southwest Baptist University Bearcats in which MSU took down their opponent 3-0 in the Regional Crossover Invite in 2018.

MSU holds a 10-10 record against Washburn since 1992, but have been the more dominant team in recent years. Since 2013, the Mavs are 6-1 and have outscored the Ichabod’s 48-16 in the seven games. In their last meeting, the Mavericks beat out their opponent by a score of 7-1 in February of last season.

Since 1993, MSU has met with the Missouri-St. Louis Tritons a total of five times, and only twice since the turn of the century.

The Mavericks have a 5-1 record against UMSL, losing their most recent matchup by a score of 10-2. At the end of last season, the Tritons held a 12-12 record, until COVID-19 struck and shortened their season. The year prior, they finished with a 35-19 record and won the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship for the second straight year.

Since 1991, the Mavs have played against the Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars twice, in 1991 and 1994. MSU won both meetings between the teams and are looking to continue the streak. So far, UIS are 1-8 this year. 

Before their season was cut short last year, UIS was 10-8, and finished 29-26 in their last full-length season in 2019.

MSU will find a tougher opponent in Missouri Southern in their final game of the weekend. The Lions are 3-1 on the season and have won the last three of four matchups against the Mavs.