Ball State University Athletics
Softball Travels To Eastern Illinois For Doubleheader
April 02, 2007 | Softball
ABOUT THE GAMES
The Ball State Cardinals will face Eastern Illinois in a doubleheader April 3 starting at 4 p.m. . . . The team will then travel to Fort Wayne, Ind., to play the Mastodons in a doubleheader April 4 starting at 3 p.m.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
Ball State swept the Akron Zips to even its Mid-American Conference record at 2-2. . . Abby Gross leads Ball State with a .375 batting average and 21 RBI . . . Allie Pennock is batting .273 on the year and has a team-high 20 steals . . . Elizabeth Milian and Amanda Pick will share a majority of the innings this week . . . Pick is 2-9 with nine complete games and 53 strikeouts . . . Milian is 8-7 and has a team-high 54 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.32.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS
Eastern Illinois comes into the game against Ball State with a 13-17 overall record . . . The Panthers most recently defeated Tennessee State 1-0 as junior Karyn Mackie threw a one-hitter to earn the win . . . Sandyn Short is batting .277, with a team-high 10 doubles and four home runs . . . Sarah Coppert has seven doubles and the team's only triple of the season . . . Coppert is hitting .300 and has seven stolen bases . . . On the mound, Mackie is 7-5 with an ERA of 2.34 . . . Kathleen Jacoby is 5-8 and leads the team with 64 strikeouts . . . Eastern Illinois leads the all-time series 10-7.
ABOUT THE MASTODONS
The Mastodons enter Wednesday's contest with a 5-13 overall record . . . IPFW swept Notre Dame College (OH) in a doubleheader March 29 . . . Ashley Tharp hit a grand slam to win game two . . . The grand slam marked the first home run of the season for the Mastodons . . . Tara Mickelson leads IPFW with a .365 batting average, six doubles, a triple and 11 RBI . . . On the mound, Kayla Powell has an ERA of 5.19 to lead the team . . . Katie Aspegren has pitched 41 innings for IPFW and has a team-high 34 strikeouts . . . Ball State leads the all-time series against IPFW 4-2.
GROSS, JEZIORSKI MAKE IT 11
Abby Gross and Kelli Jeziorski each have 11 career home runs . . . The BSU career record stands at 12 by Ruth Hjelmeland who played from 2000-03.
HOME SWEET HOME
The game March 28 against Indiana marked the first home game of the season for Ball State . . . The next two games are doubleheaders and will be on the road . . . The Cardinals will end the season playing the last 14 out of 15 games at the BSU Softball Complex . . . The Cardinals start their home stretch on April 19, in a doubleheader against Wright State . . . The season finale will be against Buffalo on May 6 . . . The only game Ball State has between those dates not at home is April 24 at Butler . . . In 2006, the Cardinals' last eight games of the season were away.
HOME RUN RECORD
The Cardinals have already set the single-season team home run record . . . The old record was 18, set by the 2005 team . . . Abby Gross broke the record by hitting a solo home run to left field against the Jacksonville Dolphins March 14 . . . Ball State currently has 23 home runs in 2007.
STEALING THE SHOW
The Cardinals have stolen 86 bases this season . . . Last year's team only stole 16 bases the entire season . . . At the current rate, BSU should break the school record of 98 stolen bases in a single season (1991).
MILIAN MOWS DOWN BIG TEN
Freshman Elizabeth Milian is 2-0 against Big Ten opponents in 2007 . . . Milian faced the Wisconsin Badgers in Tampa, Fla. while pitching in the USF Speedline Tournament . . . Milian threw a one-hitter to shut out the Badgers and give Ball State a 3-0 win . . . The Cardinals had Milian on the mound for thier home opener against Indiana . . . Against the Hoosiers, Milian threw another one-hitter and allowed the Cardinals to win 8-0.
JEZIORSKI TIES SINGLE-SEASON HOME RUN RECORD
Kelli Jeziorski hit her sixth home run of the year against Akron on April 1. . . The solo home run helped the Cardinals defeat the Zips 7-1and also placed Jeziorski in a tie for the individual single-season home run record . . . The BSU single-season record for home runs in one season is six by Misty Snider during the 1999 season.
MILIAN ON THE MOUND
Freshman Elizabeth Milian has made an immediate impact for the Cardinals on the mound . . . Milian has started 13 games . . . In 12 of those games, she has gone the distance and pitched all seven innings . . . She has the best record on the team at 8-7 and posts the best ERA on the team at 2.32.
12 STRONG
The 2007 Ball State team is complete with only 12 players. . . The team looks for leadership from the two seniors, Kelli Jeziorski and Taylor Yancey . . . Elizabeth Milian and Amanda Pick share the workload on the mound as Milian has pitched 108 innings and Pick has thrown for 74.
SEND HER HOME
The Cardinals have scored 115 runs midway through the 2007 season . . . In 2006, Ball State only had one player score over 20 runs and ended the year with 98 total . . . This year's team has two players with 20-or-more runs scored and four players with 10-or-more . . . The BSU record is 214, set by the 1998 team.
UP NEXT
Ball State will host a doubleheader against MAC rival Western Michigan April 6 starting at 1 p.m. . . . . Western Michigan leads the all-time series at 54-41.
