Softball Closes Regular Season at Western Michigan

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- The Ball State softball team closes the 2017 regular season this weekend when it travels to Kalamazoo, Mich., for a three-game set versus Western Michigan ... The Cardinals and Broncos are scheduled to play a single game Friday (3 p.m.) and a doubleheader Saturday (1 p.m.).

- With a 13-8 MAC record entering the final weekend of league play, the Cardinals have secured one of eight spots in next week's MAC Tournament which will be played at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio ... While Ball State cannot earn the tournament's top seed, the Cardinals could fall anywhere between the No. 2 & No. 6 seed depending on this weekend's results.

- Ball State has won six of its seven league series this season, including a 3-0 sweep of Miami and 2-1 series victories over Buffalo, Ohio, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan and Toledo ... The Cardinals' lone series loss came last weekend at Central Michigan.

- Over the past nine seasons, Ball State has proven to be the MAC's premier program by compiling a 130-55 (.703) league record ... Kent State is second on the list over the past nine seasons at 123-64 (.658), while Miami is third at 117-76 (.606) ... Ball State boasts a 402-408-1 (.496) all-time MAC record in 35 years.

- The Cardinals enter the weekend series at Western Michigan with a 972-1015-4 (.489) 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. WESTERN MICHIGAN: While the Broncos hold a 60-54 edge in the all-time series, the Cardinals have won the last nine meetings ... Last season, Ball State swept a three-game series in Muncie, taking both ends of an April 29 doubleheader (5-4 (9); 6-2) and earning a 10-2 (5) victory the next day ... WMU's last win in the series came May 10, 2012 by a score of 3-1 in the MAC Tournament ... Ball State has won the last two games played at WMU's Ebert Field, sweeping an April 12, 2014 doubleheader by scores of 5-2 and 4-1 ... Overall, Ball State is 18-23 in games played in Kalamazoo.

PLAYER / TEAM NOTES
- Since starting the season 7-14, the Cardinals have made a dramatic turnaround by going 22-10 over its last 32 games ... Ball State's pitchers have led the charge during the run, combining for a 2.55 ERA and holding opposing batters to a .216 average ... On offense, the Cardinals are connecting at a .268 clip and out-scoring opponents 152 to 88.

- The Ball State enters the weekend ranked 109th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings ... The Cardinals, who have been ranked as high as 95th this season, have the third-most Top 150 RPI wins in the league at 12 ... In addition, Ball State has the fourth-best RPI win in the MAC this season courtesy of a 9-4 victory at No. 40 FAU (March 9), while its six Top 100 RPI wins are tied for the league lead.

- Starting with her first career complete game shutout versus Brown (March 10), junior Carolyn Wilmes has been one of the most dominating pitchers in the MAC of late, compiling an 11-3 record and 2.86 ERA over 80.2 innings of work ... She has held opponents to a .199 average during the run, while striking out 80 batters ... Of her 11 wins, four have been complete game shutouts, the first four of her career.

- Wilmes checked one more item off her career to-do list on April 21, throwing her first career no-hitter to help Ball State earn a 2-1 victory over Toledo in the series opener ... With the effort, Wilmes became the first Ball State pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Elizabeth Milian blanked Buffalo in a 7-0 victory May 12, 2010 in the MAC Tournament.

- Wilmes also finished the April 21 game versus Toledo with four strikeouts to become just the 12th player in program history to reach 200 career strikeouts ... Wilmes enters the WMU series ranked 12th in program history with 206 career strikeouts ... Wilmes needs just 23 more Ks to break into the top 10 in program history.

- Wilmes threw three complete game shutouts in consecutive starts to help lead Ball State to 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 WMU series as the third-toughest pitcher in the league to hit with a .193 average against ... Rothwell ranks third in the conference and 41st among all NCAA Division I pitchers with 4.82 hits allowed per seven innings ... She is also 95th nationally and fourth in the MAC with 6.6 strikeouts per seven innings ... Rothwell's 45 hits surrendered and 28 runs allowed are the fewest for a MAC pitcher with at least 50.0 innings of work this season.

- Alyssa 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 2.35 ERA which ranks fifth in the MAC ... Over 95.1 innings of work, Huber has held opponents to a .254 batting average ... She has struck out 61 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).

- Ball State's pitching staff enters the week ranked fourth in the MAC with a 2.92 ERA ... It's the program's best ERA through 53 games since the 2010 squad had a 2.57 ERA ... In addition, Ball State's pitchers have combined to strike out 281 batters this season which ranks third in the conference and is the fourth-best single season total in program history, trailing 2010 (396), 2008 (379) and 2009 (302).

- Senior outfielder Rachel Houck enters the weekend as one of the nation's top sluggers, leading the MAC and ranking 15th among all NCAA Division I players with 16 doubles ... Houck's 11 home runs rank third in the MAC and 40th nationally, while her 0.91 runs-per-game average is first in the league and 56th in the nation.

- Houck enters the Western Michigan series ranked sixth in program history with a .549 career slugging percentage ... She is also 10th in home runs (18), 17th in batting average (.317) and 19th in on base percentage (.382) 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 .957 (22-for-23) ... Houck is a perfect 15-for-15 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, tying for first in the league with 27 hits and ranking second in the conference with a .403 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 27 hits in MAC play, she has seven doubles, a triple and two home runs.

- Labrador enters the WMU series having reached base safely in 18 consecutive games, which is the longest streak for a Ball State player this season ... She is also riding a seven game hitting streak which is the second-longest on the squad this season.

- Ball State has had a knack for earning free bases this season, as the Cardinals lead the MAC and rank 17th nationally with 192 walks ... In fact, seven of Ball State's nine starting batters rank in the top 15 in the MAC in walks led by freshman left fielder Haley Dominique, junior shortstop Brittany Hopper and sophomore catcher Olivia Huffman who have 24 each.

- Huffman is also tied for the MAC lead by being hit by a pitch a 11 times this season, which has helped her earn a .362 on base percentage ... Overall, Ball State's batters have been hit by a pitch 29 times, giving the Cardinals a total of 221 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 13 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), Dominique has been one of Ball State's main offensive threats ... She is first on the team with a .322 batting average over the last 33 games, with nine of her 28 hits being doubles ... She has also scored 17 runs and contributed 15 RBI ... In addition, she leads the team in walks (23) and on base percentage (.478) 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 24th nationally with a 31.7 at bats per strikeout ratio, while Hogg is third in the league and 129th nationally at 16.4 ... Dominique has three strikeouts in 95 at bats, while Hogg has 10 strikeouts in 164 at bats.

- Dominique became the 10th different Ball State player to hit a home run this season when she opened the bottom of the first inning in the series opener versus Toledo (April 21) with a solo blast over the fence in right-center field ... The Cardinals and Miami are the only teams in the MAC to have 10 different players hit at least one home run this season.

- Freshman outfielder Kennedy Wynn enters the WMU series ranked third on the team with a .260 batting average in MAC play ... She has driven in seven runs and scored six times in league action ... Her biggest hit in MAC play came in the second game at Ohio (April 8) when she sliced an eighth inning RBI single up the middle to drive in what proved to be the game-winning run.

- 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

Haley Dominique

Janae Hogg

Brittany Hopper

Rachel Houck

Darcie Huber

Olivia Huffman

Maddy Labrador

Alyssa Rothwell

Carolyn Wilmes

Kennedy Wynn