Softball Opens Final Homestand with Friday Doubleheader vs. WMU

GAMES 49 & 50: Ball State vs. Western Michigan
Friday, April 29 - Doublheader Starting at 1 p.m.
Live Stats - GM1 | Live Stats - GM 2 | SL Digital Audio | Live Video

GAME 51: Ball State vs. Western Michigan - SENIOR DAY
Saturday, April 30 - Single Game Starting at TBD
Live Stats | SL Digital Audio | Live Video

► THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE SOFTBALL: The Ball State softball team closes the home portion of its 2016 regular season slate when it hosts Western Michigan for a pivotal three game Mid-American Conference series this weekend ... Due to the current weather forecast, the Cardinals and Broncos will play a doubleheader Friday (1 p.m.) and a single game Saturday (TBD) at the Softball Field at First Merchants Ballpark Complex.

► SENIOR DAY: The Ball State softball program will honor its five-member senior class before Saturday's game versus Western Michigan ... Playing in their final home games for the Cardinals will be Sammi Cowger, Emily Dabkowski, Selena Reyna, Kelsey Schifferdecker and Nicole Steinbach.

► FOLLOW THE ACTION: Ball State Sports Link Digital's Mick Tidrow returns to the booth this weekend to cover all three games LIVE from the Softball Field at the First Merchants Ballpark Complex ... Fans can tune in for FREE on their computer by visiting BallStateSports.com/liveevents ... Fans can listen to the broadcasts on their mobile devices by purchasing the premium upgrade (one-time fee of $4.99) on the BallStSports app found in the iTunes and Android stores ... A LIVE one-camera video feed of the Western Michigan series will also be available for FREE on BallStateSports.com/liveevents and will be linked with the SL Digital broadcast.

► FOLLOW THE ACTION PART 2: Live stats will be available for all three games this weekend at BallStateSports.com/livestats ... Fans can also get regular updates by following the team on Twitter: @BallStateSB, Instagram: @BallStateSB and Facebook: BallStateSoftball.

► CARDINALS ALL-TIME: With a 19-29 record so far in 2016, Ball State enters Wednesday's game at Indiana with a 940-988-4 (.488) all-time record in 41-plus seasons of play ... Established as a varsity program in 1975, Ball State has won five Mid-American Conference regular season titles (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014), six MAC West Division crowns (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015), three MAC Tournament championships (1998, 2010 and 2015) and advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times (1998, 2010 and 2015).

► SCOUTING THE CARDINALS: The Ball State softball team will look to pick up its second Mid-American Conference series victory of the season when it hosts Western Michigan this weekend ... The Cardinals have won one MAC series so far, sweeping the three-game set versus Ohio (April 1-2) ... Over the last five games, freshman designated player Madison Lee leads the Ball State offense with a .375 (6-for-16) batting average and has accounted for five of the team's 15 runs ... Junior Amanda Arnett leads the squad with a .444 on base percentage during the span, with five hits, a pair of walks and a hit by pitch in 18 plate appearances ... Sophomore Carolyn Wilmes leads the Ball State pitching staff over the last five games with a 1-0 record and a 3.77 ERA ... Over 13.0 innings of work, she has held opponents to a .288 average and allowed just seven runs.

► ALL-TIME VS. WESTERN MICHIGAN: Despite winning the last six games, the Cardinals trail to Broncos 60-51 in the all-time series ... WMU also holds a slim 30-29 lead in games played at the Softball Field at First Merchants Ballpark Complex despite five consecutive Ball State wins on its home turf ... Western Michigan's last win in Muncie was by a score of 11-10 in the first game of a May 6, 2011 doubleheader ... Since then, the Cardinals have out-scored the Broncos 47 to 13 in its last five home wins in the series.

BALL STATE SOFTBALL STORY LINES

► The Cardinals played the first 32 games of the 2016 season on the road, which is the longest stretch of road games in program history ... Entering this season, the longest previous road swing was a 31-game stint to open the 2012 campaign.

► With six games remaining in the regular season, the Cardinals are 3.5 games back of eighth place in the MAC standings ... The top eight teams in the standings make the MAC Tournament which is held May 11-14 at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio.

► Since the beginning of the 2009 season, Ball State has proven to be the MAC's premier program by compiling a 114-44 (.722) league record ... Kent State is second on the list during the same time frame with a 106-54 (.663) record ... This weekend's opponent Western Michigan is sixth at 84-77-1 (.522).

► With her 62nd career pitching victory in the win over Buffalo (April 9), senior pitcher Nicole Steinbach moved into a tie for third on Ball State's career wins list with Cheri Ball (1995-98) at 62 ... She needs 15 more wins to reach second place, which is held by Bernie Coffman (1986-89) at 77.

► Nicole Steinbach is the fourth player in program history to record 50-or-more wins as a pitcher for the Cardinals ... Her 50th career win came when she guided Ball State to a 3-2 victory over UAB (Feb. 14) to close play in the Sand Dollar Classic earlier this season.

► With her first save of the 2016 season in the second game victory over Ohio (April 2), Nicole Steinbach took over sole possession of the Ball State program record for career saves with her ninth.

► With 10 strikeouts last weekend versus Central Michigan, Nicole Steinbach raised her career total to 499 which is the fourth-best total in program history ... With one more strikeout, Steinbach would become just the fourth player in program history and the 29th player in MAC history to reach 500 career strikeouts ... Her 499 career strikeouts currently rank 33rd among all active NCAA Division I players.

► Nicole Steinbach has made 137 career appearances in the circle for the Cardinals, with her 100th coming in the 2015 NCAA Regional opener versus No. 21 Notre Dame ... She guided Ball State to its first-ever NCAA regional win by limiting the Fighting Irish to six hits and two earned runs to earn the complete game victory.

► Senior pitcher Kelsey Schifferdecker also looks to continue her climb up the Ball State record books, as she enters the week ranked seventh in program history with 36 career pitching victories ... Schifferdecker, who owns a 36-18 career record, has been particularly dominating in MAC play, with a 15-4 record in conference action.

► Senior Emily Dabkowski has started the last 159 games for the Cardinals ... Dabkowski started all 111 games over the 2014 and 2015 seasons at second base ... This season, she has started the first 48 games at shortstop, a position she looks to play the entire season.

► A 2015 First Team All-MAC selection, Emily Dabkowski is Ball State's active career home run leader and ranks fourth in program history with 30 career blasts ... She is also fifth in program history with a .589 career slugging percentage, while her 135 runs scored are tied for sixth and her 133 RBIs are seventh ... In addition, she currently holds the 17th-best career batting average in program history at .320.

► Emily Dabkowski enters the week tied for fourth in the MAC with 22 extra base hits this season ... She is tied for the league lead with four triples, is tied for eighth in the conference with 10 doubles and is tied for 10th in the MAC with eight home runs ... Northern Illinois' Emily Naegele (28 - 10 2B, 2 3B, 16 HR), Kent State's Maddy Grimm (27 - 11 2B, 1 3B, 15 HR) and Miami's Taylor Shuey (24 - 13 2B, 3 3B, 8 HR) are the only league players with more extra base hits this season.

► Senior Sammi Cowger continues to be one of the more versatile players on the Cardinals roster, starting at either first base or in right field in the last four games ... A .240 career batter, Cowger ranks 18th in program history with seven career home runs ... In addition, she has been hit by a pitch 16 times over her career, which is tied for fifth on Ball State's career charts ... Cowger is also one of only 26 players in program history to record a pitching save, as she has made 12 career appearances in the circle.

► Senior outfielder Selena Reyna enters the week ranked fifth in program history with 42 career doubles ... She needs 10 more doubles to move past Amanda Carpenter's (2010-13) career total of 51 for fourth on Ball State's all-time list ... Reyna, who is also seventh in program history with 22 career home runs, is 13th on Ball State's career charts with a .486 slugging percentage.

► Freshman Madison Lee made the most of her first career at bat versus No. 25 South Alabama (Feb. 13), splitting the outfielders in left-center field for a pinch hit double ... Since then, Lee has started the last 44 games as either the designated player, catcher or first baseman ... In her first at bat versus No. 24 Texas (Feb. 19), Lee blasted her first career home run in the top of the second to tie the game at 1-1 at the time ... Overall, Lee is first on team with a .352 (43-for-122) batting average and is tied for eighth in the MAC with 21 walks for a team-best .451 on-base percentage ... In the win over Valpo (Feb. 28), Lee drove in her first career game-winning RBI with a two-run double.

► Ball State's favorite jersey to wear this season appears to be home white, as the Cardinals are 8-10 this season in their white tops ... The Cardinals are 3-5 in red tops, while owning an 8-14 mark in black jerseys.

Ball State University Athletics

Softball Opens Final Homestand with Friday Doubleheader vs. WMU

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Players Mentioned

Amanda Arnett

Sammi Cowger

Emily Dabkowski

Madison Lee

Selena Reyna

Kelsey Schifferdecker

Nicole Steinbach

Carolyn Wilmes

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