Softball Hosts Toledo for Senior Weekend

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- It's one last weekend of softball at the First Merchants Ballpark Complex, as the Ball State softball team closes the home portion of its 2017 season with a three-game set versus Toledo ... The Cardinals and Rockets are scheduled to play a doubleheader Friday (1 p.m.) and a single game Saturday (1 p.m.).

- The Cardinals enter the weekend in first place in the Mid-American Conference with an 11-4 league record ... Ball State has won its first five league series, including a 3-0 sweep of Miami and 2-1 series victories over Buffalo, Ohio, Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan.

- With three weekends of MAC action remaining, the Cardinals are tied for the top spot in the overall league standings with West Division rival Central Michigan, which also owns an 11-4 MAC record ... Miami and Bowling Green lead the MAC East Division with 9-6 conference records ... The RedHawks hold the tiebreaker over the Falcons with a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head series ... Ball State and CMU will square off next weekend in Mt. Pleasant.

- Over the past nine seasons, Ball State has proven to be the MAC's premier program by compiling a 128-51 (.715) league record ... Kent State is second on the list over the past nine seasons at 118-63 (.652), while Miami is third at 114-73 (.610) ... Ball State boasts a 400-404-1 (.498) all-time MAC record in 35 years.

- The Cardinals enter the weekend series versus Toledo with a 970-1011-4 (.490) all-time record ... 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).

- ALL-TIME VS. TOLEDO: While Ball State holds a 54-44 lead in the all-time series, Toledo has won five of the last six games between the two teams, including sweeping the three-game series last season ... The Cardinals hold a 25-18 advantage in games played in Muncie, with the teams splitting a two-game set in 2014 ... Ball State won the first game by a score of 8-1 on April 5, 2014, extending its winning streak over the Rockets at the time to 19 games ... Toledo snapped the 19-game streak the next day, April 6, 2014, with a 6-4 victory ... Overall, Ball State has won nine of the last 10 games played at the Softball Field at First Merchants Ballpark Complex between the two programs.

PLAYER / TEAM NOTES
- Since starting the season 7-14, the Cardinals have made a dramatic turnaround by going 20-6 over its last 26 games ... Ball State's pitchers have led the charge during the run, combining for a 2.10 ERA and holding opposing batters to a .216 average ... On offense, the Cardinals are connecting at a .274 clip and out-scoring opponents 134 to 58.

- The Ball State enters the weekend ranked 110th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings ... The Cardinals, who were ranked a season-high 95th last week, have the most Top 150 RPI wins in the league with 13 ... In addition, Ball State has the third-best RPI win in the MAC this season courtesy of a 9-4 victory at No. 39 FAU (March 9), while its four Top 100 RPI wins are tied with Kent State and Akron for the league lead.

- Ball State enters its final homestand of the 2017 season with an 8-1 record at home ... The Cardinals have surrendered just 18 runs at the Softball Field at First Merchants Ballpark Complex this season and picked up a pair of shutout victories ... Ball State's pitchers boast a 1.42 ERA in their home park, while limiting opposing batters to a .175 average ... On offense, the Cardinals are connecting at a .303 clip and have scored 51 runs.

- Of Ball State's eight home wins, four have been walk-off victories with two coming via the long ball ... Senior Rachel Houck provided the first with a two-run blast in the second game of an April 1 doubleheader versus Miami ... Senior Amanda Arnett provided the other, with her two-run shot in the second game versus Northern Illinois Tuesday (April 4).

- Over the last month, junior Carolyn Wilmes has been one of the most dominating pitchers in the MAC by compiling a 10-1 record and 1.93 ERA over 65.1 innings of work ... She has held opponents to a .191 average during the run, while striking out 70 batters ... Of her 10 wins, four have been complete game shutouts, the first four of her career.

- Wilmes has been particularly dominating in her last three starts, striking out nine batters at Ohio (April 8) and versus Eastern Michigan (April 14), before earning a career-high 10 strikeouts in the series finale versus EMU (April 15) ... Wilmes enters the week ranked 13th in program history with 196 career strikeouts ... In addition, her 4.83 strikeouts-per-seven-innings average is 10th on Ball State's career charts.

- Wilmes was named MAC West Division Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her career Tuesday after turning in a 0.93 ERA and holding opposing batters to a .185 average last week ... She struck out 26 batters over 15.0 innings of work, including her career-high 10 strikeouts against EMU ... In addition, Wilmes did not surrender a run over her final 14 innings of work, while only issuing two walks on the week.

- Wilmes' current 14-inning shutout streak is her second longest of the season ... She threw three complete game shutouts in wins over Brown (March 10), Northern Kentucky (March 19) and at Buffalo (March 24) ... Add in a pair of scoreless relief appearances and the first inning in the series finale at Buffalo (March 26), Wilmes put together a 22.2 inning shutout streak ... It was the longest shutout streak for a Ball State pitcher since Elizabeth Milian threw 26.2 scoreless innings from May 5, 2010 to May 13, 2010.

- Freshman Alyssa Rothwell has made a major impact in Ball State's pitching rotation, entering the week as the fourth-toughest pitcher in the league to hit with a .201 average against ... Her team-leading 2.14 ERA is fourth in the MAC and 119th nationally ... Rothwell ranks third in the conference and 64th among all NCAA Division I pitchers with 5.03 hits allowed per seven innings ... She is also 115th nationally and fifth in the MAC with 6.5 strikeouts per seven innings ... Rothwell's 40 hits surrendered and 22 earned runs allowed are the fewest for a MAC pitcher with at least 45.0 innings of work this season.

- Rothwell struck out a career-high nine batters in a 9-1 (6) victory at Buffalo (March 24) ... The nine strikeouts are the most for a Ball State freshman pitcher since Steinbach struck out 10 batters versus Creighton (Feb. 22, 2013).

- Darcie Huber enters the week with a 2.36 ERA which ranks sixth in the MAC ... Over 83.0 innings of work, Huber has held opponents to a .254 batting average ... She has struck out 58 batters, including seven in her first career one-hitter versus Oakland (Feb. 24) ... Huber added another one-hitter in a 10-0 (5) win over Towson (March 4).

- Huber's one-hitter versus Oakland (Feb. 24) was the first one-hitter for a Ball State pitcher since a 4-1 win at Bowling Green March 29, 2013 ... In the game, Nicole Steinbach limited the Falcons to just one hit over 7.0 innings of work ... She did not issue a walk or hit a batter, while the Cardinals' defense committed three errors.

- Ball State's last no-hitter came in a 7-0 win versus Buffalo May 12, 2010 in the MAC Tournament ... Elizabeth Milian threw for the Cardinals, striking out 10 of the 22 batters she faced ... The lone blemish was a one-out second inning error, spoiling a perfect game.

- Ball State's pitching staff enters the week ranked third in the MAC with a 2.71 ERA ... It's the program's best ERA through the first 47 games of the season since the 2010 squad had a 2.67 ERA ... In addition, Ball State's pitchers have combined to strike out 257 batters this season which ranks third in the conference and is the best start to a season since the 2010 squad struck out 307 batters over the first 47 games.

- Senior outfielder Rachel Houck enters the week as one of the nation's top sluggers, leading the MAC and ranking fourth among all NCAA Division I players with 16 doubles ... Houck's 11 home runs rank second in the MAC and 32nd nationally, while her 1.0 runs-per-game average is first in the league and 31st in the nation.

- Houck enters the Toledo series ranked sixth in program history with a .569 career slugging percentage ... She is also 10th in home runs (18), 13th in batting average (.324) and 16th in on base percentage (.388) over her three-year playing career for the Cardinals ... Houck played the 2014 season at Louisville before transferring to Ball State for the 2015 campaign.

- Houck also enters the week as the program's all-time leader in career stolen base percentage at .952 (20-for-21) ... Houck is a perfect 13-for-13 in stolen base attempts this year and is looking to become just the third player in program history to finish a season with a perfect stolen base percentage with at least 10 steals ... The only other two are Roshelle Lee in 1998 (13-for-13) and Loren Cihlar in 2013 (11-for-11).

- Junior second baseman Maddy Labrador has made quite the impact in MAC play, ranking second in the league with 20 hits and fifth in the conference with a .408 batting average ... She opened her MAC career by blasting a 1-2 pitch deep over the fence in center field at Buffalo (March 24) ... She added her second career MAC home run to drive in Ball State's first three runs in the series opener versus Miami (April 1), helping the Cardinals rally from down 5-0 for a 6-5 victory ... Of Labrador's 20 hits in MAC play, she has six doubles, a triple and two home runs.

- Ball State has had a knack for earning free bases this season, as the Cardinals lead the MAC and rank 15th nationally with 171 walks ... In fact, seven of Ball State's nine starting batters rank in the top 15 in the MAC in walks led by sophomore catcher Olivia Huffman who is third with 23 free passes.

- Huffman ranks second in the MAC being hit by a pitch a nine times this season, which has helped her earn a .371 on base percentage ... Overall, Ball State's batters have been hit by a pitch 26 times, giving the Cardinals a total of 197 free bases this season.

- Freshman third baseman Janae Hogg has proven to be a clutch batter for the Cardinals this season, including driving in the eventual game-winning run in five of Ball State's last 11 victories ... She started with a first inning RBI single in the second game at Buffalo (April 24) ... Next up was an eighth inning sacrifice fly at Indiana State (March 29) ... She followed by smashing a walk-off RBI single into right-center field in the series opener vs. Miami (April 1) ... A three-run home run in the fifth inning of the series finale versus the RedHawks (April 2) was next, followed by a fifth inning solo shot in the first game against Northern Illinois (April 4).

- Since working her way into the starting lineup at FGCU (March 7), freshman outfielder Haley Dominique has been one of Ball State's main offensive threats ... She is second on the team with a .324 batting average over the last 27 games, with eight of her 22 hits being doubles ... She has also scored 15 runs and contributed 12 RBI ... In addition, she leads the team in walks (20) and on base percentage (.495) since taking over the reins in left field.

- Dominique and Hogg enter the weekend as two of the nation's toughest batters to strike out ... Dominique leads the MAC and is 43rd nationally with a 25.3 at bats per strikeout ratio, while Hogg is third in the league and 130th nationally at 16.3 ... Dominique has three strikeouts in 76 at bats, while Hogg has nine strikeouts in 147 at bats.

- The Ball State offense exploded for 17 runs to open play in the Wildcat Invitational with a 17-2 (5 inn.) victory over Drake (Feb. 17) ... It was the team's largest offensive output since a 19-9 home win over Indiana April 21, 2015 ... Ball State's largest run total in a game was a 24-0 victory over St. Leo March 2, 1987.

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Players Mentioned

Amanda Arnett

Haley Dominique

Janae Hogg

Rachel Houck

Darcie Huber

Olivia Huffman

Maddy Labrador

Alyssa Rothwell

Nicole Steinbach

Carolyn Wilmes