DRAKE OPENS FIVE GAME HOMESTAND AGAINST IOWA STATE

WHAT'S AHEAD: Drake begins a five-game homestand against Iowa State in a nonconference twinbill on Wednesday. The Bulldogs then face nationally ranked Illinois State in a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series this weekend.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Iowa State sits at 20-30, entering play on Tuesday, with a 0-6 Big 12 Conference record. Alex Johnson leads the Cyclones with a .335 batting average and 52 hits.
Pitcher Alyssa Ranson leads Iowa State with a 2.61 earned run average and has a 8-11 record with 96 strikeouts in 24 appearances.
No. 19 ranked Illinois State is 32-9 entering action this week and holds a third place 10-3 record in the MVC. The Redbirds are led by Kara Nelson who has recorded 60 hits and is batting .432. Kelsey Warning leads the conference with 43 RBI on 35 hits including a team-best 12 home runs.
Shannon Nicholson is Illinois State's top pitcher with a 1.37 ERA and a 13-4 record. Stacy Birk has a 16-4 record, while striking out 122 batters.

NO LUCK AGAINST THE RANKED: Drake already has faced two ranked opponents this year, No. 10 Texas and No. 20 Southern Illinois. The Bulldogs have yet to score a run against a ranked foe, losing to Texas (twice 8-0) and to SIU (13-0). Drake will have another shot at beating a ranked opponent when No. 19 Illinois State comes to Buel Field for a three-game series this weekend.

STREAKING TO WINS?: The last six-game losing streak that Drake suffered led to a three-game winning streak. With Iowa State and Illinois State coming to Des Moines, do the Bulldogs have some wins up their sleeves?

A LOOK BACK: Southern Illinois 13, Drake 0 (five innings) - Missouri Valley Conference foe No. 20 rankec Southern Illinois hit a school-record seven doubles to down Drake 13-0 in five innings last Friday, April 6.
Senior Emily Hajduk (Brookfield, Ill.), junior Kristin Birocci (Des Moines, Iowa/Lincoln), freshmen Elena Leon (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) and Bridget Shields (Iowa City, Iowa) recorded hits for Drake.
The Bulldogs threatened with two runners on in the fifth inning, but failed to score.

STEALING HER WAY TO THE TOP: Drake senior Lindsay Larry (Papillion, Neb.) leads the Missouri Valley Conference in stolen bases with 13. Larry is the Drake career stolen base leader with 70 and is on pace to have the most stolen bases since her freshman year (26) in 2004.

NOT ENOUGH RUNS?: For only the second time this season, Drake scored seven runs and didn't win the game, Bradley won, 8-7 in eight innings on April 1. The only other time that has happened this season was on March 20 when the Bulldogs scored 12 runs at Oklahoma State and lost, 15-12. These two games were the most runs that Drake had scored without winning since the 2004 season when it lost to Illinois State on April 3, 13-7, and Northern Iowa on May 8, 9-8.

EXTRA INNINGS: For the first time this year Drake lost in extra innings against Nebraska on March 27, 4-3, in eight innings. The Bulldogs then dropped two games to Bradley in extra frames: 7-5 in nine innings and 8-7 in eight.

BIROCCI NAMED MVC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior left fielder Kristin Birocci (Des Moines, Iowa/Lincoln) was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week for the week of March 19-26.
Birocci led the Bulldogs to a 4-2 record, including wins over Oklahoma State (3-2), Tulsa (6-2) and Northern Iowa (6-4, 8-2). She batted .500, going 9-18 with a double and hit her first collegiate home run. Birocci started all six games in left field for Drake and was perfect in the field collecting seven putouts and one assist. Birocci went 3-4 against Oklahoma State in the two teams' first meeting, scoring three runs and two RBI.
Birocci is on pace to have her best season yet, ranking third on the team with a .329 batting average, second with 16 runs scored and 14 RBI. With her 23 hits this season, she has almost eclipsed her total of 26 in 2006 and has more than doubled her career output in RBI having hit a combined 10 RBI her first two years.

HIT PARADE: Drake's 14-hit performance against Northern Iowa on March 24 tied a season high tally which it set versus Wisconsin-Green Bay on Feb. 17. Prior to this season Drake had not recorded 14 hits since April 19, 2005 against South Dakota State. The Bulldogs are 9-3 when out-hitting opponents, however Drake is 3-14 when being out-hit by opponents.

HEAD COACH RICH CALVERT (117-132): In his fifth year at the helm of the Drake softball program, head coach Rich Calvert has changed the Bulldogs into not only a successful program on the field, but also one of the top academic programs in the Missouri Valley Conference and the nation. Calvert has taken Drake to the MVC Tournament the past three seasons, turning the Bulldogs into a perennial contender for the MVC title.
Under Calvert's direction, the Bulldogs posted the second highest grade point average of any Division I softball program in the nation, and topped the MVC.
Drake had not advanced to the post season since 1998 before Calvert led the Bulldogs to three consecutive trips in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The Bulldogs finished fourth in the league in 2004 and fifth in 2005 and 2006 for their first consecutive post-season appearances since 1997 and 1998.
Calvert served as an assistant coach at Iowa from 1997-2002, helping the Hawkeyes to five NCAA Tournament appearances and two Women's College World Series, as well as Big Ten Conference titles in 1997 and 2000. Iowa was 262-104-1 in his six seasons on staff.
Calvert also was an assistant coach at Ohio State from 1993-96. Calvert, 40, received both his bachelor (1988) and master's degrees (1990) from Illinois State where he served as an undergraduate assistant coach from 1986-88. In 1989, he was named graduate assistant coach, and in 1990 he was promoted to full time assistant.
He helped lead the Redbirds to two Gateway Conference titles (1988 and 1991), and the 1988 squad received a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Calvert was responsible for not only on-the-field instruction, but was the recruiting coordinator and served as the supervisor for the Redbirds' academic advancement.
A native of Taylorville, Ill., Calvert and his wife, Angie, have two daughters, Allie (10), and Maci (3) and a son, Breck, who was born on January 11, 2007.