Softball faces struggling EMU
Two teams in need of a win meet in Ypsilanti starting Saturday.
CMU plays a two-game series against Eastern Michigan in a battle of the MAC West Division's bottom teams. The series begins at 2 p.m. Saturday and concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday at Varsity Field.
"Both of our teams are struggling right now so it is going to be important for us to come out and get some wins against Eastern Michigan," said coach Margo Jonker. "They are a scrappy team and they are always fired up to play us. I anticipate some awesome competition because we both need some wins."
Eastern Michigan (13-22 overall, 1-7 MAC) has lost four consecutive games overall and six consecutive in the MAC.
However, the Eagles boast six players who have scored 10 runs. In comparison, CMU only has two.
EMU junior Jenny Scherer's eight home runs through 35 games leads the MAC.
"We will try to make sure that she doesn't beat us," Jonker said of Scherer. "She is a good hitter so it will be mostly situational."
Eastern Michigan sophomore Jaclyn Caro has struck out 33 batters looking, which is tied for fourth in the conference. Caro has two saves in 10 relief appearances.
"We will attack her like we do with anyone else," Jonker said. "We will find out her go-to pitches and swing early in the count."
The pitching matchup for game one likely pits Caro up against CMU senior Ali Pettit. Pettit (5-11) has 70 strikeouts in 104.2 innings. Caro (8-8) has 84 strikeouts in 106.2 innings.
Jonker said it is important that her team scores the first run in each game this weekend.
"I think that our hitters are going to come out and score runs," Pettit said. "Eastern is a team that we see a lot from playing summer softball and I think we are going to score a lot more runs than they are."
CMU center fielder Christina Novak said the team needs to keep its guard up despite the Eagles' MAC record.
"We can't go in there thinking that because they are 1-7 that they aren't going to beat us," she said. "Anybody can win any game."
Pettit said this could be a intriguing matchup because both teams will be playing with a sense of urgency.
"Right now we both are sitting at the bottom of the MAC and neither team has anything to lose but I think that we have been working really hard to overcome the obstacles in front of us," she said. "We have nothing to lose so we might as well come out and fight as hard as we can."
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