Southeast Missouri at Auburn

Game Information
Dates: Saturday-Sunday, February 13-14, 2021
Schedule: Saturday (DH), 12 p.m., CT | Sunday, 12 p.m., CT
Location: Auburn, Ala.
Facility: Jane B. Moore Field (2,316)
Series: First Meeting
Head Coaches: Mark Redburn (363-379 overall; 149-130 at SEMO; 62-55 OVC). Mickey Dean (574-221 overall; 96-49 at AU).

Follow the Redhawks
Video: SECN+ (Saturday Only) (Brit Bowen, Kasey Cooper)
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Twitter: @SEMOsoftball
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF)
Southeast Missouri Media Guide

Redhawks Open Season 
Southeast Missouri opens its season at Southeastern Conference member Auburn this weekend. SEMO and Auburn will play a three-game series with a 12 p.m., CT doubleheader Saturday and 12 p.m. matchup Sunday.

Follow the Redhawks
Fans can watch Saturday's doubleheader live on SEC Network+. Brit Bowen and Kasey Cooper will call the action from Jane B. Moore Field. Live stats are available at AuburnTigers.com. Twitter updates provided @SEMOsoftball.

Series History
This year marks the first meeting between Southeast Missouri and Auburn. The Tigers are one of three SEC teams on the Redhawks schedule this season. Tennessee (Feb. 20) and Arkansas (Feb. 26-27) are the others. 

Against the SEC
Auburn is the seventh team out of the SEC that Southeast Missouri faces in its program history. SEMO has previously played Arkansas (2-6), Kentucky (2-2), Mississippi State (1-7), Missouri (6-34), Texas A&M (0-1), LSU (0-1) and Ole Miss (2-8). Head Coach Mark Redburn has upended a SEC foe in two of the last three years. SEMO beat Missouri at home on Mar. 21, 2018 (8-2) and knocked off then-#12 Arkansas in Fayetteville on Feb. 21, 2019 (6-1).

Season-Openers
Southeast Missouri is 15-14 in season-opening games during its NCAA Division I era. This year marks SEMO's 30th as an NCAA Division I program. The Redhawks are 3-3 in season-openers under head coach Mark Redburn. SEMO opened a season with a win in three of the last four years.

Team 45
The 2021 campaign is the 45th season of Southeast Missouri softball. SEMO's softball program has an all-time record of 1,120-823-3. The Redhawks are 760-700-2 all-time since moving to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1992.

Going for 150
Mark Redburn needs just one more win to reach 150 victories as Southeast Missouri's head coach. Redburn is currently 149-130 at SEMO entering his seventh year. In the last two-plus seasons, the Redhawks put together an overall record of 91-43 and 32-12 mark in Ohio Valley Conference play. Redburn, the reigning OVC Coach of the Year, guided SEMO to its first OVC regular-season and tournament titles, and NCAA Tournament in 20 years during the 2019 campaign.

OVC Preseason Favorite
Last year, Southeast Missouri was the preseason favorite in the Ohio Valley Conference, but didn't get a chance to play a conference game due to COVID-19. Now, the Redhawks are in that exact same spot going into the 2021 campain and they are again anxious to defend their OVC regular-season and tournament crowns. SEMO was picked first in the league's 2021 Predicted Order of Finish, tallying 228 points and 13 of the possible 24 first-place votes. The Preseason Poll is selected by OVC Head Coaches and Communications Directors. Eastern Kentucky (224 points), Jacksonville State (211 points), Murray State (167 points) and SIU Edwardsville (151 points) filled out the top five. Austin Peay (143 points), UT Martin (109 points), Tennessee Tech (97 points), Eastern Illinois (92 points), Belmont (88 points), Tennessee State (34 points) and Morehead State (32 points) rounded out the poll.

2021 Redhawks
Southeast Missouri's 2021 roster includes 24 players with three seniors, five juniors, five sophomores and 11 freshmen. All returnees redshirted in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the NCAA Division I Council to allow schools to provide spring-sport athletes an additional season of competition and and extension on their period of eligibility. The Redhawks also bring back five position starters (Rachel Anderson, OF; Austine Pauley, INF; Ashley Ellis, INF; Kaylee Anderson, OF; Ashley Emert, INF) and two starting pitchers (Rachel Rook; Paytience Holman).

Abrupt End to 2020
The Redhawks flight was on its descent to the Tampa International Airport for a tournament hosted by the University of South Florida when Head Coach Mark Redburn's cell phone had just enough service to take a call. The call was from South Florida Head Coach Ken Eriksen who led Redburn know the tournament his team was travelling to play in was cancelled. Soon after that, came the news that the 2020 season was over after the NCAA voted to suspend play due to a global COVID-19 pandemic. SEMO was 12-5 when its season was shut down. The Redhawks won nine in a row and went 9-1 in their first 10 games. SEMO's shortened season lasted only 23 days, but the Redhawks accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. They led the Ohio Valley Conference in slugging percentage (.528), on-base percentage (.411), triples (14), stolen bases (41), fewest hits allowed (84) and fewest earned runs allowed (40). SEMO rated second in the league in batting average (.310), home runs (19), opposing batting average (.204), runs allowed (51), stolen bases per game (2.4) and triples per game (0.8). Nationally, the Redhawks were among the top 25 in triples per game (2nd), stolen bases per game (8th), scoring (16th, 6.7), slugging percentage (21st) and on-base percentage (24th).

All-American Anderson
Southeast Missouri's first All-American in its NCAA Division I era, center fielder Rachel Anderson is returns for her fifth year in 2021. Anderson won the coveted 2019 OVC Player of the Year honor to go along with her Third-Team National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America award. She is also a three-time First-Team All-OVC and NFCA All-Region selection, and claimed First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades in her phenomenal career.

Elite .400 Club
Rachel Anderson is currently one of 131 NCAA Division I softball hitters with a career batting average of .400 or better. She is hitting .422 for her college career. Anderson was hitting a team-best .480 and led the Redhawks in runs (19), hits (24), triples (5), slugging percentage (.880), on-base percentage (.541) and stolen bases (9) when play was suspended a year ago.  

Record Watch
Rachel Anderson, Southeast Missouri's all-time career leader in triples (29), batting average (.422), slugging percentage (.728) and on-base percentage (.509), is in position to do much more damage on the record books this year. Anderson (226 hits, 143 runs, 130 RBI, 88 walks) is six hits away from the school's all-time career hits record, 19 runs away from the career runs scored record, three RBI away from the all-time career RBI mark and three walks away from the program's all-time record in bases on balls.

Ellis Bashes
Slugger Ashley Ellis, like Rachel Anderson, is also back for her fifth year. A native of Arnold, Missouri, Ellis averaged 8.5 home runs per year in her first four seasons as Southeast Missouri's first baseman. She homered eight times and ranked fourth on the team with a .347 batting average last season. Ellis led the Ohio Valley Conference in home runs during the 2020 campaign and hit two round-trippers in a game three times in her career. 

The Chase is On
Ashley Ellis, who broke Southeast Missouri's single-season home run record with 17 bombs in 2019, is now chasing the school's all-time career home run record. Ellis presently ranks second with 34 home runs. She needs 15 more to surpass Michelle Summers (48, 2005-08) for the new mark. 

Starting Streaks Intact
Rachel Anderson has never missed a start in her career and starts the season with a streak of 184 straight starts in center field. Ashley Ellis carries a streak of 164 consecutive starts into the 2021 campaign. Anderson will join Southeast Missouri's top 10 career leaders in game started with three starts at Auburn this weekend.  

Deep Pitching
Since Mark Redburn became Southeast Missouri's head coach in 2015, his pitching has never been deeper than it is now. Junior Rachel Rook is at the forefront of this year's staff. Rook was having a tremendous season when COVID-19 hit last season. She was 4-2 with a staggering 0.70 ERA in seven appearances and six starts. Rook tossed five complete games adn three shutouts, while striking out 51 and walking just seven. Her ERA led the Ohio Valley Conference and ranked seventh in the nation. Freshman Paytience Holman threw two complete games and ranked second behind Rook with 34 strikeouts and 33.2 innings in 2020. Sophomore left-hander Marisa Davis had an excellent fall and looks to get more innings this year. Davis posted a 1-0 record and 2.62 ERA in four appearances and one start. Freshmen Katie Dreiling and Amanda Hansen round out the Redhawks pitchers. Dreiling was a three-time All-State and All-Conference selection at Valley View High School, while Hansen finished her prep career at Holt High School with a record of 8-2 and 2.11 ERA. 

30-Win Seasons
Southeast Missouri registered over 30 wins in each of its last two complete seasons. The Redhawks went 33-20 and finished fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2018. In 2019, SEMO set a program record in wins when it went 46-18 overall and won the OVC regular-season and tournament titles. The Redhawks also made the NCAA Tournament that year. SEMO has a total of 17 seasons with 30 or more wins in its program history.

2021 Schedule
Southeast Missouri has over 50 games scheduled this upcoming 2021 season which is less than two weeks away. Nineteen of those contests will be played at the Southeast Softball Complex. SEMO, the defending Ohio Valley Conference Champion, starts the year with a three-game series at Auburn (Feb. 13-14). The Redhawks two other non-conference weekends include trips to Southeastern Conference member Tennessee (Feb. 20) and the Arkansas Tournament (Feb. 26-28), hosted by SEC affiliate Arkansas. The Redhawks will face North Dakota State (Feb. 26), Arkansas (Feb. 26, Feb. 27) and Texas Tech (Feb. 27, Feb. 28) during their time in Fayetteville. SEMO and Tennessee both made the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Redhawks season ended at the Oxford, Mississippi Regional and the Lady Vols were eliminated by Florida in the Gainesville Super Regional that year. A home-and-home series with Saint Louis (Mar. 24, away; Apr. 14, home), a single game with Missouri State (Mar. 17) and a doubleheader at Kansas City (Apr. 7) are SEMO's midweek matchups. This year's OVC schedule increases to 34 games. SEMO will play every conference team except its travel partner (UT Martin) in a three-game weekend series. The Redhawks and Skyhawks will play a home-and-home midweek doubleheader to complete the adjusted slate. SEMO hosts Austin Peay in its OVC opener on Mar. 6-7. Morehead State (Mar. 26-27), Eastern Illinois (Apr. 2-3), Eastern Kentucky (Apr. 17-18), UT Martin (Apr. 28) and Murray State (May 1-2) are the rest of the Redhawks home league opponents. The remainder of the Redhawks conference schedule includes trips to Tennessee Tech (Mar. 13-14), Belmont (Mar. 20-21), SIU Edwardsville (Apr. 10-11), Tennessee State (Apr. 24-25), UT Martin (May 4) and Jacksonville State (May 8-9).This year's OVC Tournament will be held at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama. The top four teams in the conference will contend for the OVC's automatic NCAA Tournament berth over a three-day stretch from May 13-15. 

On Deck
The Redhawks face their second opponent out of the Southeastern Conference when they visit Tennessee for a doubleheader on Feb. 20. Southeast Missouri meets the Volunteers for the first time in 2021.