Softball team hosts Ball State and Miami (OH)
The softball team wants to forget about its slow start to the season by beginning its Mid-American Conference season with some success.
The Chippewas will host a doubleheader against Ball State starting at 1 p.m. Friday at Margo Jonker Stadium.
Ball State is a team with a lot of speed, said coach Margo Jonker.
"Speed is their biggest asset both on offense and defense," she said. "Because of their speed on offense, they can run the bases well and on defense they can get to the fly balls well. Speed leads to good coverage on defense."
Ball State (9-13) has stolen 34-of-48 bases this season. The Cardinals also lead the MAC in triples with seven in 21 games.
CMU will also play a two-game series against Miami with games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
Miami (13-12) is a good hitting team and has added a new pitcher, freshman Jessica Simpson, who Jonker said should help out its pitching situation.
"Their pitching and hitting have gotten stronger," she said. "Their coaching staff is returning from last year and they have gotten to know their staff better."
After starting the season with a 6-11 overall record, Jonker said the team is looking at the MAC schedule as a new season.
"We are going to start all over from scratch again with MAC games," she said. "Failure happens in the game of softball. It's how you react to the failure. I wouldn't say that 6-11 is a stellar record but it's now a question of how we react to that going into the MAC."
The Chippewas will rely heavily on senior pitcher Ali Pettit, one of only three healthy pitchers on CMU's roster. Pettit will take the mound to open up the weekend against the Cardinals.
"Hopefully it won't be a problem," Jonker said. "Hopefully Ali will have a very good weekend."
Junior outfielder Christina Novak said she has faith that the defense will step up to compensate for the team's lack of pitching depth.
"We definitely need to have flawless defense and our hitting needs to be on," she said. "Not just one person, but the whole lineup needs to hit. We need to string some hits together and that is how we will counter our pitching depth."
Novak leads the team with four home runs, which ranks third in the MAC. Her four home runs tie her career high from the 2007 season. She has already passed her final mark of two home runs last year with 28 games remaining in the regular season.
"I have just been trying to relax and focus on what I have been doing when I was hitting the ball so I can carry it over to these games," Novak said. "At the end of spring break I struggled a little bit, so I hope I can get back to that."
The Chippewas swept the season series from Ball State in 2008, but were upset 3-2 by the Cardinals in the first game of the MAC Tournament.
"For those of us coming back from last year, we have a rivalry with Ball State," Novak said. "Last year will play a factor in our heads a little bit but we are going to go into this thinking it is a new year."
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