CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri opens its 43rd softball season with five games at the UNI Dome Classic this weekend. The Redhawks, who are coming off a 33-20 season in 2018, enter their fifth year under head coach Mark Redburn.

2019 UNI Dome Classic

Dates: Friday-Sunday, February 8-10, 2019
Location: Cedar Falls, Iowa
Participating Teams: Northern Iowa, Southeast Missouri, Saint Louis, South Dakota State, Toledo, Drake

Friday, February 8
Southeast Missouri vs. South Dakota State, 12:30 p.m., CT Live Stats
Southeast Missouri at Northern Iowa, 2:45 p.m., CT Watch | Live Stats

Saturday, February 9
Southeast Missouri at Northern Iowa, 5 p.m., CT Watch | Live Stats
Southeast Missouri vs. Toledo, 7:15 p.m., CT Live Stats

Sunday, February 10
Southeast Missouri vs. Drake, 2 p.m., CT Watch | Live Stats

Redhawks Ready for 2019 Season
Southeast Missouri returns to the UNI Dome Classic to open its 2019 campaign. The Redhawks also began their season at the same event in 2018. SEMO, South Dakota State, Northern Iowa and Drake are the teams back in this year's six-team field.

Season-Opening Games
The Redhawks are 15-13 all-time in season-opening games since joining the NCAA Division I ranks in 1992. Southeast Missouri holds a 2-2 mark in season-openers under head coach Mark Redburn. The Redhawks won their season-opener in each of the last two seasons.

Against the Field
Southeast Missouri is a combined 79-37 against teams heading to this weekend's UNI Dome Classic. The Redhawks are 70-28 against Saint Louis (although the two teams do not play each other this weekend), 8-7 against tournament host Northern Iowa, 1-0 vs. South Dakota State and 2-0 against Drake.

Fifth in OVC Preseason Poll
The Redhawks were picked fifth in the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Poll as voted on by the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Southeast Missouri accumulated 160 points in the voting. Eastern Kentucky is this year's preseason-favorite after securing 10 first-place votes and 230 points. Jacksonville State (226 pts.), Austin Peay (204 pts.) and SIU Edwardsville (167 pts.) were also picked ahead of SEMO. Eastern Illinois (143 pts.), UT Martin (121 pts.), Belmont (99 pts.), Murray State (85 pts.), Morehead State (63 pts.), Tennessee Tech (61 pts.) and Tennessee State (23 pts.) completed the poll. The Redhawks finished fourth in the OVC with a 15-7 record last season.

Pieces in Place
Southeast Missouri returns eight starters, two starting pitchers and its top relief pitcher in 2019. Two-time First-Team All-Ohio Valley Conference and Second-Team NFCA All-Region selection Rachel Anderson headlines the group after leading the team in batting average (.373), slugging percentage (.547), on-base percentage (.469), runs (36), hits (56), triples (6), doubles (11), total bases (82), walks (25), stolen bases (15), total plate apperances (184), at-bats (150) and games played (53) a year ago. Second-Team All-OVC performer Sarah Messex is back at shortstop after leading SEMO with eight home runs in 2018. Both Anderson and Messex have never missed a start in their careers. Ashley Ellis (1B), Parker Bandy (2B), Mykaela Arellanes (RF), Brooke Rheinecker (LF) and Claudia Gallo (LF) are the rest of the returning starters. Rheinecker and Gallo split time as SEMO's starting left fielders last season.

In the Circle
Senior Haley Thogmartin is in position to take over as Southeast Missouri's top pitcher in the circle this year. Thogmartin made a team-high 30 appearances and started 17 games last season. She led the team with a 2.04 ERA, threw four complete games, recorded a pair of shutouts and put together a 12-7 record. Thogmartin ranked second on the team with 78 strikeouts in 113 innings. She finished with a 6-2 record and 1.88 ERA in 11 appearances and 10 starts in Ohio Valley Conference play. Fellow starting pitcher Alexis Estes and SEMO's top relief pitcher, Rachel Rook, also return. Estes fashioned a 3-1 record with 19 strikeouts in 34.1 innings over 19 appearances and six starts. Meanwhile, Rook put together a 5-5 record and went 5-1 in OVC games as a freshman. She ranked second on the team in ERA and strikeouts (54), adn third in wins. Rook led the OVC in games finished (20) and relief appearances (23). In addition, she ranked 25th in the nation with her team-high four saves.

Starting Streaks
Rachel Anderson enters the season with a streak of 103 consecutive starts in center field. Meanwhile, Sarah Messex carries a streak of 152 straight starts at shortstop. Neither Anderson or Messex have missed a start in their college careers to date.

Keep it Going
In addition to her consecutive games started streak, center fielder Rachel Anderson brings a 16-game hitting streak into softball's opening weekend. Anderson's streak initially started vs. SIU Edwardsville on Apr. 13, 2018. She collected a total of 19 hits during that stretch. It was the longest hitting streak of any Redhawk in 2018.

Roster Breakdown
Southeast Missouri's 2019 roster consists of 23 players, including five seniors, nine juniors, four sophomores and five freshmen. Sarah Messex, Mykaela Arellanes, Parker Bandy, Haley Thogmartin and Mackenzie Long are the seniors. The Redhawks also bring back eight of their top nine hitters from a year ago.

Tournament Play
The UNI Dome Classic is the first of six tournaments Southeast Missouri will play in during their non-conference slate. The Redhawks will also compete at the Louisiana Tech Invitational (Feb. 15-17), Arkansas Razorback Invitational (Feb. 21-23), Central Arkansas Classic (Mar. 1-3), Kansas Jayhawk Classic (Mar. 8-10) and Saint Louis Billiken Spring Tournament (Mar. 16-17).

More on the Schedule
Southeast Missouri is scheduled to play 56 games this upcoming 2019 season with 14 contests in Cape Girardeau. SEMO will play away from home for its first 19 games. The Redhawks open their 22-game Ohio Valley Conference schedule on the road with doubleheaders at Tennessee State (Mar. 23) and Belmont (Mar. 24). In all, five NCAA Tournament teams from last season are on SEMO's 2019 schedule. Drake, Arkansas, Wichita State, Missouri and fellow OVC member Jacksonville State are those opponents.

Successful 2018
Southeast Missouri had a lot to celebrate in 2018, a season which saw the Redhawks accumulate their most wins in 20 years. In their fourth season under head coach Mark Redburn, the Redhawks took a giant step forward. SEMO went 33-20 overall and finished fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 15-7 mark. The Redhawks claimed their 16th 30-win season in program history and locked down their first winning campaign in seven years. The 33 wins were SEMO's most since it won 38 games in 1998. The Redhawks heated up to win 11 of their final 14 regular-season games and advanced to the eight-team OVC Tournament with their highest seed (#4) since 2009 (#2). SEMO made its 17th all-time trip to the league's postseason tournament and second in four seasons with Redburn at the helm. SEMO's 2018 club finished with a 74 RPI among the nation's 296 NCAA Division I softball teams, quite a jump from its 173 ranking in 2017. The Redhawks broke four of the school's single-season records and collected eight doubleheader sweeps along the way. The Redhawks established new SEMO single-season records in walks (166), stolen bases (70), saves (7) and strikeouts looking (85). SEMO was also either second or third among the program's top teams in stolen base attempts (2nd, 87), batters struck out (t2nd, 260), fielding percentage (2nd, .970), fewest errors (2nd, 43) and on-base percentage (3rd, .359). Defensively, SEMO improved tremendously. After ranking eighth in the OVC in fielding percentage a year ago, the Redhawks were the league's second-best fielding team in 2018. SEMO had 43 errors and committed 16 less than it did in 2017. The Redhawks went error free in 25 games equating to 47 percent of their entire season.