The 2015 SIU Edwardsville Cougars softball team represented Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) during the 2015 NCAA Division I softball season. The Cougars, led by twenty-seventh year head coach Sandy Montgomery, played their home games at Cougar Field on the SIUE campus as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
Preseason
Eleven players returned from the 2013 squad that finished with a 30–23 overall record (19–5 in the OVC) and advanced to the NCAA tournament after winning the OVC championship. They were joined by four freshmen, a junior college All-American transfer, and a senior who was a member of the Cougars' OVC champion women's soccer team.
The Cougars were picked by the coaches and sports information directors of the Ohio Valley Conference to finish first in the conference.
Regular season
The 2015 season cast the Cougars in the role of road warriors, with only 17 home games on their 55-game regular-season schedule.
The schedule opened with tournaments in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and included 36 schools from 14 states and the District of Columbia. Although the early season schedule was not as grueling as 2014's, the Cougars faced four other teams that were in the 2014 NCAA tournament, including two that were ranked in the preseason Top 25.
The Cougars opened the season traveling to three weekend tournaments in the South. They started by winning the Lady Techster Invitational at Louisiana Tech with a 4–1 record. The following weekend, they went 3–1 and finished second to the 10th-ranked Bulldogs at their Georgia Softball Classic. The third weekend took them to Auburn, Alabama for the Wilson/DeMarini Classic and another second-place finish behind the 16th-ranked host Auburn Tigers with a 3–2 record.
Following a week off, the team went to Florida during break for five games at the USF Series - Under Armour Showcase and a pair of games in Fort Myers. After sweeping the games at Clearwater, the Cougars ran their win streak to seven games before falling at FGCU and finishing the pre-conference schedule with a record of 16–5. At this point, the first NCAA Rating Percentage Index (RPI) was issued, with the Cougars earning the number 32 ranking of the 295 Division I teams.
On March 20, Haley Chambers struck out 20 Morehead State batters en route to the second perfect game of her Cougar career. She became the first Cougar pitcher to toss two perfect games. It was the sixth SIUE perfect game and the program's 32nd no-hitter. The game was also her fourth no-hitter. Only current Cougar coach Sandy Montgomery has thrown more no-hit games, with six during her Cougar playing career, 1982–85. As a result, the junior not only was named the OVC Pitcher of the Week (her fourth of five awards for the season), but she was also named the Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division I National Pitcher of the Week.
On April 16, Cougar pitcher Baylee Douglass was named as one of the twenty-five finalists for the NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year Award. At the time, she had a 13–4 record with a 1.97 earned run average (ERA). She was also nationally ranked in several statistical categories: 12th in saves (4), 38th in walks allowed/seven innings (1.40), 61st in ERA (1.97), 61st in hits allowed/seven innings (5.41), and 73rd in strikeouts/seven innings (7.6). Douglass was the only OVC player to be named a finalist.
The Cougars clinched their first OVC regular season championship with a 7–2 win in the first game of the season's final series at Eastern Illinois on May 2. However, losses in five of their last ten games dropped the Cougars' RPI to number 50, essentially making it a near necessity that they win the OVC tournament, since the chance of an at-large bid was then problematic.
Honors
The Ohio Valley Conference awards were announced at a banquet prior to the start of the league tournament. The Cougars team accepted the 2015 OVC softball regular-season championship trophy. Haley Chambers was named OVC Pitcher of the Year and a member of the All-OVC First Team. Rebecca Gray was also named to the All-OVC First Team. Baylee Douglas was named OVC Freshman of the Year and a member of both the All-OVC Second Team and the OVC All-Newcomer Team. Cougars head coach Sandy Montgomery was named the OVC Coach of the Year.
Postseason
The Cougar hosted the Ohio Valley Conference softball tournament at Cougar Field beginning on Wednesday, May 6.
In the opening game, the Cougars came back from a 0–3 first inning deficit to defeat Morehead State 8–3 behind Haley Chambers' 10 strikeout three hit game. Chambers, Alex McDavid, and Jordan Lafave homered in the win.