Ball State University Athletics
Softball Ends Regular Season On The Road
April 30, 2008 | Softball
ABOUT THE GAMES
The Cardinals will be on the road to end the 2008 regular season . . . Ball State will travel to Kalamazoo on Friday to play a doubleheader against Western Michigan . . . Game one will start at 1:00 p.m. . . . They will end the season with a pair of games against Northern Illinois . . . A year ago Ball State swept Northern Illinois 6-2, 8-3, but was swept by Western Michigan 4-0 and 5-4.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
The Cardinals are currently 33-29 with a 8-10 mark in Mid-American Conference play . . . The team has set multiple records in 2008 including most games played (62), runs scored (247), runs batted in (209), walks (216), and stolen bases (134) . . . The pitching rotation set the team record by pitching 427 innings . . . Alicia Barkley leads the team with a .312 batting average . . . Barkley is only two hits away from breaking the single-season BSU record . . . She will also break the at-bats single season record this weekend . . . Abby Gross is leading the Mid-American Conference with 44 RBIs . . . Elizabeth Milian and Tiffany Garofano are both over the 10 win mark on the mound for the Cardinals.
ABOUT THE BRONCOS
Western Michigan enters this weekend with an 18-15 overall record . . . They are second in the MAC West standings with a 9-7 conference record . . . Most recently the Broncos defeated Loyola-Chicago 2-1 . . . Lexi Jager hit her fourth home run of the season to tie the game in the fourth inning, and Samantha Vargocko scored the game winning run off a wild pitch . . . Vargocko leads the team with a .341 batting average . . . She has four doubles, six home runs and a team-high 19 RBIs . . . Kyla Sullivan leads the pitching rotation with an ERA of 1.88 . . . Sullivan is 13-8 overall with 111 strikeouts on the season . . . Western Michigan leads the all-time series 56-41.
ABOUT THE HUSKIES
Northern Illinois will play a doubleheader against Miami Oh before their games against the Cardinals . . . The Huskies are currently 12-27 with a 6-10 conference record . . . NIU most recently fell to Illinois State 5-4 . . . Northern Illinois was down 5-0 in the sixth, but managed to come back to nearly pull off the win . . . They had the tying run on third and the winning run on second in the seventh inning but they were unable to get any closer as a ground out ended the game . . . Michelle Nendza leads her team and the conference in home runs with 10 . . . She is hitting .304, while Krista McPherson is batting .290, and leads the team with 19 stolen bases . . . The Huskies have three pitchers with four wins . . . Taryn Hagemann has thrown 66 strikeouts to lead the rotation . . . Northern Illinois leads the all-time series 32-16.
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 .267 with a .400 slugging percentage and 44 RBI this season . . . Amanda Pick has seven doubles, four home runs and a batting average of .277 . . . Pick is second on the team with 28 RBI . . . At the end of the season the seniors will be listed as first and second for most career games played at BSU.
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 62 games at shortstop for BSU . . . Barkley is hitting .312 with eight doubles and 21 RBI . . . Collins starts in rightfield and has a batting average of .256 . . . She has six doubles, one triple and 21 RBI . . . Wilczynski starts at third base for BSU . . . She is hitting .280 with seven doubles and 22 RBI . . . Rozanski starts in centerfield for the Cards . . . Rozanski is hitting .221 and has already broke the single-season record with 38 steals this season.
STEALING THE SHOW - NEW SCHOOL RECORD
The Cardinals set a new single-season Ball State team record by stealing 1134 bases . . . the old record was 127 stolen bases in a single season set by the 2007 team . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 38 . . . Alyssa Collins, Allie Pennock, and Alicia Barkley each have over 20 steals.
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 16-12 with an ERA of 2.19 . . . Of her 25 starts, she has thrown 23 complete games . . . Milian has thrown a team-high 181 innings and is second on the team with 122 strikeouts . . . Milian has also been effective from the bullpen . . . She broke the single-season save record against Eastern Michigan.
SEND HER HOME - NEW SCHOOL RECORD
BSU set a new team runs scored record in 2008 . . . Seven Cardinals have scored over 20 runs pushing the total to 230 . . . Lisa Rozanski leads the team with 39 . . . She is closing in on breaking the single-season runs scored record which is held by Taylor Yancey with 42.
STRIKE THREE, YOUR OUT!
Tiffany Garofano has shut down opponents so far this season . . . Garofano has recorded a team-high 175 strikeouts, and has an ERA of 2.26 . . . She has an overall record of 12-14 including 18 complete games . . . Garofano has the third most strikeouts in the conference.
WALK IT OUT
The Cardinals set a single-season team record with 216 walks . . . The old record was 164 set by the 2007 team . . . Amanda Pick has been walked 32 times this season . . . She set the record for most walks in one season on the BSU records list . . . Pick has been walked 69 times in her career moving her to first on the all-time BSU records list
SINGLE-SEASON RBI RECORD - GROSS 44
Abby Gross leads the team with 44 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.
BARKLEY EYES SINGLE-SEASON HIT RECORD
Alicia Barkley currently leads the Mid-American Conference with 63 hits this season . . . Barkley will likely break the BSU single-season record this weekend with four games left in the regular season . . . Four former players are tied for the record with 64 hits each.
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 209 team RBIs in 2008 . . . The 2007 team previously held the school record with 188 . . . Abby Gross leads the team with 44 . . . Six other players have all recorded over 20 RBIs for the Cardinals this season.
UP NEXT
Ball State has a chance to reach the Mid-American Conference Tournament this season . . . The Cardinals have not been to the tournament since 2002 . . . The double elimination tournament is set to start on May 7.
