PEORIA, Ill. – University of Southern Indiana Softball makes its third consecutive appearance at the Ohio Valley Conference Softball Championship Tournament this week from OSF Healthcare Field at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex in Peoria, Illinois.
The tournament starts Wednesday morning with first-round play for the 5-8 seeds. The first round is single elimination, but the following rounds are double elimination. The championship round is Saturday, May 10.
Southern Indiana (16-23, 13-11 OVC) enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed for the second consecutive season. USI gets a first-round bye and awaits the winner of the 5/8 matchup between the University of Tennessee at Martin and Lindenwood University. The Screaming Eagles will play the winner at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to open their postseason. The winner between USI and UT Martin/Lindenwood will go on to face Eastern Illinois University, which earned the regular-season title and the No. 1 seed, on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
The Screaming Eagles have a 4-4 record in OVC tournament games over the last two seasons. Last season, USI went 3-2 in Peoria, Illinois, coming up a game short of a championship-round appearance. Southern Indiana had wins against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Tennessee Tech University, and Tennessee State University in last year's tournament, and both losses came against Eastern Illinois.
Southern Indiana concluded the 2025 regular season with a pair of wins and series win against Lindenwood. USI won both games by a score of 3-2. The second victory was called in the fifth inning due to wet weather and playing conditions. The scheduled series finale was canceled due to weather.
On the season, junior outfielder
Caroline Stapleton is USI's leading hitter with a .367 batting average. Stapleton has also scored a team-high 19 runs. Freshman
Jordan Mackey is batting .295 with a team-best four home runs and 24 RBIs.
On the pitching side, freshman
Kylie Witthaus (6-7) has a team-best 2.91 ERA in 89.0 innings with 52 strikeouts. Witthaus tossed nine complete games with three shutouts. Senior
Josie Newman (10-15) has a 3.91 ERA. Newman has thrown the most innings with 141.1 innings pitched, including 18 complete games. Newman has an OVC-high 186 strikeouts. The right-hander earned her sixth career OVC Player of the Week award a couple of weeks ago in April.
Newman enters the tournament top five in USI's all-time history in innings pitched (676.1), complete games (78), and wins (65). Moving up the career strikeout list, Newman (746) is in second place all time and 41 away from Jennifer Leonhardt's (2017-20) USI record of 787 career strikeouts.
On Tuesday, the OVC announced that Witthaus, Mackey, and Stapleton earned All-OVC selections. Witthaus and Mackey recorded their first All-OVC honors with All-OVC Second Team and All-Newcomers selections. Stapleton was named All-OVC Second Team for the second year in a row.
In the last five games leading up to the OVC tournament, Stapleton has batted .462 with fellow outfielder
Kennedy Nalley batting .357 with a pair of doubles. Sophomore infielder
Sydney Long has hit .364 in the last five games, including a hit in the last three straight games, and has reached base in nine consecutive contests. Mackey has a team-best six RBIs in the last five games.
All OVC tournament games will be streamed with a subscription to ESPN+. All USI games can also be heard on The Spin 95.7 FM. Additional coverage links can be found on the USI Softball schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.
