Ball State University Athletics
Softball Travels To Valpo -- Butler DH Rescheduled
March 24, 2008 | Softball
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
Ball State finished their spring break trip with a record of 9-4 improving their overall record to 16-12 . . . Amanda Pick leads the team with a .325 batting average and three home runs . . . Abby Gross is hitting .280 and leads the team with 17 RBI . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team in runs scored (20), walks (17), hit by pitch (9), and stolen bases (18) . . . Elizabeth Milian has been consistent at the plate, and on the mound for BSU . . . Milian has five doubles, one home run and 13 RBI . . . She leads the pitching rotation with an ERA of 1.75 and a record of 8-4 . . . Tiffany Garofano is 5-5 with an ERA of 1.96 . . . Laura Masch is 3-3 and has 30 strikeouts.
ABOUT THE CRUSADERS
Valparaiso has an overall record of 11-6 . . . The Crusaders most recently went 3-2 at the Maryland Spring Break Classic . . . They picked up wins against UMBC, Maryland, and St. Peter's, but fell to Niagara and Lehigh . . . Whitney Warner leads the team with a .373 batting average . . . Warner has two doubles, two home runs and 10 RBI . . . Ashley Wolter adds four doubles, two home runs and 10 RBI . . . Karen Korb is hitting .319 and is a perfect 13-13 in stolen bases . . . Valparaiso has four pitchers with at least one win on the mound . . . Andrea Zappia leads the team with a 6-2 record . . . Zappia has pitched 48 innings and has recorded 49 strikeouts . . . Jill Jacobson has the lowest ERA on the team (0.64), and Stephanie Kelly has the second best record at 3-2 . . . Ball State leads the all-time series against the Crusaders 5-0.
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
Butler has a record of 17-10 . . . The Bulldogs went 6-4 in their last 10 games at Kissimmee, Fla.
Senior Amy Hyerczyk helped the Bulldogs win a pair of games at the Georgia Softball Classic . . . Hyerczyk was named Horizon League Softball Player of the Week (March 4) . . . She hit a three-run home run in the victory over Longwood, and also had three of Butler's eight hits versus #17 Georgia . . . Hyerczyk leads the team with a batting average of .476 . . . Alex Boros leads the team in doubles with four, and also in RBI with 12 . . . Nikki Naffziger and Kristen Malinkey each have a 3-3 record on the mound for Butler . . . Naffziger has the best ERA on the team at 2.07 . . . She also has thrown for the most innings (44), and recorded the most strikeouts (34) . . . Malinkey has thrown 39 innings and has 20 strikeouts . . . Ball State leads the all-time series 15-1.
STAR SENIORS
Abby Gross entered her senior season as the career home run leader in Ball State history . . . She also ranks first on the career BSU records list with 92 RBI . . . Gross started the 2008 season with a home run against LSU, Feb. 15 at Tiger Park . . . Gross is hitting .280 with a .427 slugging percentage and 17 RBI this season . . . Amanda Pick leads the team with three home runs and a batting average of .325 . . . Pick has three doubles, one triple and 15 RBI.
FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Alicia Barkley, Alyssa Collins and Lisa Rozanski have all made an impact for the Cardinals during thier freshmen season . . . Barkley has started all 28 games at shortstop for BSU . . . Barkley is hitting .315 with two doubles and 10 RBI . . . Collins starts in right field and has a batting average of .269 . . . Rozanski starts in center field for the Cards . . . Rozanski is hitting .264 and leads the team with 18 stolen bases.
STRIKE THREE, YOUR OUT!
Tiffany Garofano has shut down opponents so far this season . . . Garofano has recorded a team-high 66 strikeouts, and has an ERA of 1.96.
STEALING THE SHOW
The Cardinals stole a school record 127 bases in 2007 . . . the old record was 98 stolen bases in a single season set by the 1991 team . . . Ball State has 64 stolen bases in 2008 . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 18, at this pace Rozanski could challenge the single-season record of 37.
MAC WEST PITCHER OF THE WEEK (Feb. 27 & March 19)
Tiffany Garofano went 1-1 at the Panera Bread Tournament with an ERA of 2.00 . . . She recorded 21 strikeouts and only gave up four runs through 14 innings pitched . . . She recorded a career high 12 strikeouts against St. Francis to lead BSU to a 2-1 victory. (Feb. 27) Garofano went 2-0 at the USF Under Armour Tournament. She shut down Long Island leading the Cardinals to a 1-0 victory. Garofano picked up her other win against Georgia Southern. She had an ERA of 1.00 over the weekend and struck out 11. (March 19)
MAC WEST PLAYER OF THE WEEK (Feb. 27)
Amanda Pick hit .429 with a slugging percentage of 1.000 at the Panera Bread Tournament . . . She had two doubles, two home runs and five RBI helping the Cardinals to a 4-1 record in the tournament . . . Pick hit her first home run of the season against East Tennessee State . . . She also hit a three-run home run against Lipscomb to lead Ball State to a 5-3 victory.
MILIAN ON THE MOUND
Elizabeth Milian is having another fantastic year on the mound for the Cardinals . . . Milian leads the team with an overall record of 8-4 with an ERA of 1.75 . . . Of her 11 starts, she has thrown 10 complete games and also has two saves . . . Milian has thrown a team-high 80 innings and is second on the team with 35 stikeouts.
HOME SWEET HOME
Ball State's first home game at the BSU Softball Complex is scheduled for March 25 against Butler . . . The Cards will host Ohio University on March 28 to start Mid-American Conference play.
SEND HER HOME
The Cardinals broke the runs scored record in 2007 with 221 . . . The old record was 214 set by the 1998 team . . . Allie Pennock scored 37 runs last year which placed her second all-time in the single season BSU record books . . . Five Cardinals have scored over 10 runs in 2008 . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 20.
UP NEXT
Mid-American Conference play will begin on March 28 at 1 p.m. as the Cardinals will host Ohio University in a doubleheader . . . BSU will end the weekend with a two game series against Akron . . . Game one will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday . . . Game two will start at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
