Ball State University Athletics
Softball Hosts Eastern Michigan / Central Michigan
April 24, 2008 | Softball
ABOUT THE GAMES
The Cardinals will host a doubleheader against the Eastern Michigan Eagles on Friday April 25 . . . Game one of the doubleheader will start at 1:00 p.m. . . . Ball State will host a pair of games against Central Michigan to end the weekend . . . Saturday's game will begin at 2:00 p.m., while the Cardinals wrap up the weekend with a 1:00 p.m. contest against the Chippewas . . . Eastern Michigan swept the Cardinals last year 7-1, 6-3 . . . The Chippewas also swept BSU 7-1 and 9-6.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
The Cardinals are currently 31-27 with a 6-8 mark in Mid-American Conference play . . . Alicia Barkley leads the team with a .296 batting average . . . Abby Gross is hitting .272 and leads the team with 43 RBI and 11 doubles . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team in runs scored (33), hit by pitch (14), and stolen bases (33) . . . Elizabeth Milian has been consistent at the plate, and on the mound for BSU . . . Milian has 10 doubles, three triples, three home runs and 25 RBI . . . She leads the pitching rotation with an ERA of 2.27 and a record of 15-11.
ABOUT THE EAGLES
Eastern Michigan enters Friday's doubleheader with a 12-23 overall record including a 4-6 conference record . . . The Eagles most recently swept Ohio at Varsity Field 8-0 and 3-2 . . . Jenny Scherer hit her eighth home run of the season in game one . . . Stacie Skodinski added a home run of her own to lead the Eagle offense . . . Ashley Strauss leads the team with a .358 batting average and 12 doubles . . . Scherer has a team-high nine home runs and 18 RBI . . . Jaclyn Caro and Kari Chambers split time on the mound for EMU . . . Caro is 7-10 with an ERA of 3.16 . . . She leads the pitching rotation with 66 strikeouts . . . Chambers is 4-11 on the year with a 3.79 ERA . . . Ball State leads the all-time series 45-34.
ABOUT THE CHIPPEWAS
Central Michigan has an overall record of 21-14 . . . The Chippewas lead the MAC West standings with a 10-3 conference record . . . CMU most recently swept Oakland 5-2, and 3-0 . . . Central Michigan will travel to Miami before thier game against the Cardinals . . . Christina Novak leads the team with a .387 batting average . . . Novak has six doubles, two triples, two home runs an a team-high 22 RBIs . . . Tracy Kaatz is hitting .367 on the year and leads the team with 31 steals . . . Kari Seddon has an ERA of 2.00, and leads the team with 83 strikeouts . . . Seddon and Ali Pettit each have eight wins on the mound for CMU . . . Central Michigan leads the all-time series against the Cardinals 62-17.
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 118 RBI . . . Gross started the 2008 season with a home run against LSU, Feb. 15 at Tiger Park . . . Gross is hitting .272 with a .414 slugging percentage and 43 RBI this season . . . Amanda Pick has six doubles, four home runs and a batting average of .274 . . . Pick is second on the team with 26 RBI.
FANTASTIC FOUR
Alicia Barkley, Alyssa Collins, Kate Wilczynski and Lisa Rozanski have all made an impact for the Cardinals during their freshmen season . . . Barkley has started all 58 games at shortstop for BSU . . . Barkley is hitting .296 with seven doubles and 19 RBI . . . Collins starts in right field and has a batting average of .260 . . . She has six doubles, one triple and 19 RBI . . . Wilczynski starts at third base for BSU . . . She is hitting .291 with six doubles and 20 RBI . . . Rozanski starts in center field for the Cards . . . Rozanski is hitting .200 and leads the team with 33 stolen bases, and 33 runs scored.
STEALING THE SHOW - NEW SCHOOL RECORD
The Cardinals set a new single-season Ball State record by stealing 128 bases . . . the old record was 127 stolen bases in a single season set by the 2007 team . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 33 . . . Alyssa Collins, Allie Pennock, and Alicia Barkley each have over 20 steals . . . The single-season school record for steals is 37, held by Heather Hinkle.
MAC WEST PITCHER OF THE WEEK (Feb. 27 - March 19 - April 15)
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) Garofano went 2-1 with an ERA of 0.39 April 7-13 . . . She pitched 18 innings and only allowed nine hits while striking out 23 batters.
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 (PLAYER OF THE WEEK APRIL 1)
Elizabeth Milian is having another fantastic year on the mound for the Cardinals . . . Milian leads the team with an overall record of 15-11 with an ERA of 2.27 . . . Of her 23 starts, she has thrown 21 complete games and also has three saves . . . Milian has thrown a team-high 172 innings and is second on the team with 108 strikeouts.
SEND HER HOME - NEW SCHOOL RECORD
The Cardinals broke the runs scored record in 2007 with 221 . . . The 2008 team has scored 230 runs this season to set a new runs scored school record . . . Allie Pennock scored 37 runs last year which placed her second all-time in the single season BSU record books . . . Seven Cardinals have scored over 20 runs in 2008 pushing the total to 230 . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 33.
STRIKE THREE, YOUR OUT!
Tiffany Garofano has shut down opponents so far this season . . . Garofano has recorded a team-high 162 strikeouts, and has an ERA of 2.10 . . . She has an overall record of 11-13 including 18 complete games.
WALK IT OUT
The Cardinals set a single-season team record with 206 walks . . . The old record was 164 set by the 2007 team . . . Amanda Pick has been walked 29 times this season . . . She set the record for most walks in one season on the BSU records list . . . Pick has been walked 66 times in her career moving her to first on the all-time BSU records list
SINGLE-SEASON RBI RECORD - GROSS 43
Abby Gross leads the team with 43 RBI . . . Gross set the old single-season RBI record last year with 41 . . . Gross set the new record against Eastern Illinois . . . Gross picked up seven RBIs in two games against IUPUI.
30 WIN SEASON
There have only been five teams in Ball State softball history to win 30 games in a season . . . The last time the Cardinals picked up 30 wins in a season was in 2001 when they finished 32-20 . . . Ball State beat Buffalo 6-1 to pick up their 30th win of the season.
BALL STATE VS IN-STATE RIVALS
The Cardinals have proven that they are one of the best teams in the state of Indiana . . . BSU has defeated Indiana State (5-1), Valparaiso (4-3), Butler (6-2) and IPFW (2-1) at least once this season . . . The team swept the Indiana Hoosiers (4-2 , 8-0) and the IUPUI Jaguars (6-0 , 15-0) . . . Most recently the Cardinals beat the Purdue Boilermakers 7-3 at the BSU Softball Complex.
14 HOME RUNS
The Cardinals have 14 team home runs this season placing them third all-time in BSU history . . . The 2007 team holds the record with 33 homers . . . Amanda Pick and Elizabeth Milian hit back-to-back home runs against Indiana . . . Kamilah Holle had a multi home run game against Wright State . . . Abby Gross is second on the team with three home runs this season.
NEW RBI RECORD
The Cardinals have 198 team RBIs in 2008 . . . The 2007 team previously held the school record with 188 . . . Abby Gross leads the team with 43 . . . Seven other players have all recorded over 10 RBI for the Cardinals this season.
UP NEXT
Ball State will finish the regular season with Mid-American Conference play next weekend as they travel to Kalamazoo, Mich. to play a doubleheader against Western Michigan on Friday . . . The Cardinals wrap up the weekend with a pair of single games against Northern Illinois.
