Settlemier’s slam lifts Jayhawks

By Chuck Woodling     Apr 20, 2006

Rylan Howe
Kansas University softball players celebrate as Serena Settlemier crosses home plate after hitting a fifth-inning grand slam. Settlemier's blast helped KU beat Missouri, 5-1, on Wednesday at Arrocha Ballpark.

Serena Settlemier very well may be softball’s Queen of the Salami. Nobody really knows.

Settlemier, a Kansas University senior, unloaded her fifth grand slam of the season Wednesday afternoon, fueling the Jayhawks’ 5-1 victory over Missouri at Arrocha Ballpark.

“Five grand slams : I’ve never heard of that happening,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said. “When she hit her fourth, we thought that might be a record, but that’s something the NCAA doesn’t keep track of.”

Settlemier’s fifth-inning bases-loaded blow off MU right-hander Jen Bruck broke a scoreless tie by barely clearing the left-center-field fence.

“I was sprinting out of the box,” said Settlemier, who wasn’t sure the ball was going to go out. “It really wasn’t a rocket like some I’ve hit out of the park.”

After Settlemier rounded first base, she knew the ball had disappeared, so she pumped her right fist in the air and broke into a home-run trot.

“I was really excited,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure on the mound with no runs.”

In that instance, Settlemier the hitter was thinking about Settlemier the pitcher. She was in the circle, too, where she had a no-hitter through five innings.

MU’s Andee Allen broke up the no-no with a bloop single over first base leading off the sixth, then Settlemier surrendered a towering solo home run to Michaela Minner to start the seventh.

Oh, and Settlemier had two singles in her other at-bats.

Not a bad day. In fact, it may have been her best all-around performance.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gone 3-for-3 and had a great performance on the mound,” Settlemier said. “Now if I could just take back that pitch I threw right down the middle (to Minner).”

Settlemier extended her school-record and league-leading home run total to 18 and recaptured the Big 12 Conference RBI lead with 49. She went in with the third lowest earned-run average in the league (behind Texas ace Cat Osterman and teammate Kassie Humphreys) and sliced her ERA from 1.43 to 1.40 in posting her 13th win.

“Wow,” Bunge said about Settlemier’s yeoman outing. “Talk about riding someone who’s hot, and she pitched great, too.”

Kansas pounded Bruck for 10 hits, all singles except Settlemier’s clout. That’s the same MU hurler who allowed a lone single to the Jayhawks a week earlier in Columbia, Mo.

“This game was the stark opposite of that one, a mirror image,” Bunge said. “We played with emotion today. The coaches were really shook up after that Missouri game last week.”

So shook that they took away the players’ practice gear and made them use their own workout togs. The ploy was similar to one KU women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson used on her players last winter, but Henrickson also wouldn’t let her players use the locker room, and Bunge didn’t go that far.

“Last week we were dead,” senior second baseman Jessica Moppin said, “but today we played like it was our last game. The coaches did a good job. They didn’t baby us, and it worked.”

Kansas (24-20, 5-6 Big 12) climbed half a game ahead of Missouri (20-20, 4-6 Big 12) into fifth place in the league standings. The Jayhawks have a make-up doubleheader with Creighton scheduled for 2 p.m. today.

Then league-leading Texas will come to Lawrence for games Saturday (12:30 p.m.) and Sunday (noon).

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