Becker commits to Mississippi St.

Some of the finest softball players from the Tri-Cities Area love Mississippi State -- or is it the other way around?

West Aurora pitcher Stephanie Becker is now the third player from the area to commit to the Division-I school in the past four years.

She joins West Aurora's Lindsay Hunley, now a senior, and Kaneland's Laurie Siebert, who is a sophomore with the Bulldogs.

Mississippi State coach Jay Miller is originally from Aurora and knows Becker's pitching coach, Robin Voss. That was just one of the many reasons Becker, a junior lefty, wanted to become a Bulldog for the 2009-10 season.

"I know Lindsay and Laurie, and I heard it was a great program," Becker said. "I've heard great things about coach Miller."

Becker, last year's Tri-Cities All-Area Captain, went on two official visits -- one in February 2007 and just recently over the weekend.

"I'm really excited," Becker said. "I loved the campus and the players are great."

Becker chose Mississippi State over DePaul, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois and Eastern Illinois. She is thinking of studying biology.

Becker is 13th on the IHSA all-time list for lowest ERA in a season. On her second year on varsity last year, her ERA was 0.13 (3 runs in 159 innings).

Becker completed her sophomore season with the Blackhawks 17-5 and earned DuPage Valley Conference first-team honors. She led all pitchers in the area with 214 and walked just 15 batters out of the 569 she faced.