CARBONDALE, Ill. — Coming off of a season in which it advanced to the MVC Tournament title game for the second-straight season, the Southern Illinois University softball team looks to compete in 2019 with a 53-game schedule featuring nine opponents that played postseason softball a season ago, including seven who advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Head coach Kerri Blaylock returns for her 20th season at the helm of the Saluki softball program. The Salukis went 32-21 a year ago and led the Missouri Valley Conference in runs, home runs and runs batted in and finished second in the league in walks and slugging percentage. It was the first time since 2005 that Southern led the league in round-trippers while Southern’s second place finish in slugging percentage was its highest since 2011. 

The Salukis will host 24 games at Charlotte West Stadium while playing on the road 15 times and competing in 14 neutral site contests. Southern will take part in five tournaments, three away from home and two in Carbondale.

SIU will face a challenging schedule that consists of 10 opponents that finished the previous season in the top-100 in the RPI, of which five ranked in the top-50 led by NCAA Super Regional qualifier Kentucky. Southern’s five opponents that finished the previous season ranked in the top-50 of the RPI are its most in a single-season since 2013.

We thought we would challenge ourselves a little bit,” Blaylock said. “We feel like we’ve got the pitching staff, our position players are a year older and we just wanted to be able to go out and try to play some of the better teams in the country to get ourselves ready for what we feel will be a pretty hard conference season.”

The Salukis kick off the 2019 campaign by heading to Hammond, Louisiana for the Lion Classic, hosted Feb. 8-10 by Southeastern Louisiana. SIU opens its season with games on Friday, Feb. 8 against Nicholls State and Saint Louis. On Saturday, Southern will take on Nicholls State again as well as San Jose State before closing out the tournament Sunday morning against Mississippi Valley State.

SIU will then take a trip south for the Puerto Vallarta Challenge. The Salukis will face four teams who played postseason softball, including three who advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Southern opens against Mississippi State, who went 38-22 a year ago, on Thursday, Feb. 14, before taking on Northern Colorado on Friday, Feb. 15. The Salukis will take on a pair of NCAA Tournament teams on Saturday, Feb. 16 in Sacramento State and North Dakota State.

“The cool part about the Puerto Vallarta trip is its a little bit of an educational experience,” Blaylock said. “We will go out with local school children and put on a clinic for them.  There will be eight or nine hundred local fans at our games which makes for a pretty cool atmosphere plus we will face great competition.”

With the month of February coming to an end SIU will head to Chattanooga, Tenn. for the 2019 Frost Classic. The Salukis begin play on Friday, Feb. 22 against Ohio University, who went 40-16 a year ago and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, before facing off against Western Michigan later that day. The following day, Southern will take on Eastern Kentucky, one of two teams on SIU’s schedule to play in the National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC) last season before tussling with former MVC foe Creighton, who played in the Big EAST title game a year ago. Southern will conclude play at the Frost Classic with a game against the hosts from Chattanooga on Sunday, Feb. 24.

After starting the first three weeks of the season on the road, SIU returns to Carbondale to host the Coach B Classic Mar. 1-3. The field is highlighted by Kentucky, who advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals a year ago. The Wildcats finished with the No. 13 RPI a year ago- which is the highest RPI from a previous season by a visiting team since the 2010 season. The Salukis will also welcome Saint Louis, Wichita State and Murray State to southern Illinois for their annual classic.

The Coach B Classic marks the beginning of a 13-game home stretch for the Salukis, who the following weekend (Mar. 8-10) will host Miami (Ohio), UIC, Green Bay and Butler for the Saluki Invitational.

With the tournament slate concluded, SIU opens up the Missouri Valley Conference portion of its schedule with a doubleheader against Missouri State on Mar. 13. Southern will open MVC play against the two teams who finished ahead of the Salukis in last season’s conference standings, Missouri State and Drake. SIU hosts the Bulldogs for a three-game series on Mar. 16-17. 

SIU will then travel west for a non-conference mid-week contest against regional foe SEMO on Mar. 20 before returning to Charlotte West Stadium for a weekend series against Valparaiso on Mar. 24.

The following Wednesday, Southern hosts UT Martin on Mar. 27 before traveling to Normal, Ill. for a weekend series at Illinois State. SIU will travel to Saint Louis on Wednesday, April 3 for its final road non-conference matchup of the season before opening a three-game homestead against Evansville on April 6. 

Southern will then play the next three weeks on the road, as the Salukis game at Missouri State on April 9 kicks off a 10-game MVC road swing. SIU travels to Indiana State on Apr. 13-14 before going to Chicago, Ill. to tangle with the Loyola Ramblers on Apr. 19-20. Southern concludes its road swing at Northern Iowa on Apr. 27-28.

The Salukis host their final non-conference mid-week of the season on Wednesday, May 1 when they host SIUE. Southern closes out the 2019 regular season with a three-game set against Bradley beginning on Friday, May 3. 

SIU will look to compete in the MVC Tournament May 8-11, with Bradley set to host the four-day event in Peoria, Ill.