Softball Opens Spring Break Friday at Citrus Classic II

Ball State vs. Fordham
Friday, March 2 - Noon
Live Video (PPV) | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateSB)

Ball State vs. Robert Morris
Friday, March 2 - 2:30 p.m.
Live Video (PPV) | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateSB)

Ball State vs. Delaware
Saturday, March 3 - 10 a.m.
Live Video (PPV) | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateSB)

Ball State vs. Czech Republic (Exhibition)
Saturday, March 3 - 12:30 p.m.
Live Video (PPV) | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateSB)

Ball State vs. Niagara
Sunday, March 4 - 9 a.m.
Live Video (PPV) | Live Stats | Social Media (@BallStateSB)

- It's spring break for Ball State softball, which means the team embarks on its 10-day, 12-game trip to Florida ... First up, the Citrus Classic II held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee ... The Cardinals open the three-day event Friday versus Fordham (Noon) and Robert Morris (2:30 p.m.) ... Saturday, the Cardinals play Delaware (10 a.m.) and have an exhibition game with the Czech Republic (12:30 p.m.) ... Ball State closes its stay at the ESPN WWoS Complex Sunday versus Niagara (9 a.m.).

- Fans unable to attend this weekend's games can follow the action with live stats and live video for all five games ... FloSoftball.com will stream all the games at http://bit.ly/2nJXYGR with subscriptions starting at $29.99 for the month or $149.99 for a year of content from all of FloSports sites ... All links can also be found on the Ball State softball schedule page at: http://ballstatesports.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball ... Fans can also follow @BallStateSB on twitter for game updates throughout the season.

- Ball State is 10-1 all-time versus teams in the Citrus Classic II field ... The Cardinals are 1-1 versus Fordham, with the Rams picking up a 2-1 win last season at the FAU Parent's Weekend Tournament (March 11) ... Ball State has won all six meetings versus Robert Morris, including a 6-2 victory March 20, 2011 at the Radford Invitational ... That same weekend saw the Cardinals open the tournament with an 11-3 win over Delaware (March 18, 2011) to improve to 2-0 all-time versus the Blue Hens ... The Cardinals lone meeting with Niagara was a 14-0 (5) victory March 18, 2012 at the Miami Invitational ... A complete breakdown of each all-time series can be found on page four of this release.

- SCOUTING FORDHAM: The Rams enter the weekend with a 1-9 overall record, with its lone win coming by a score of 5-4 (9) versus Drake last Saturday at the USF Tournament ... Paige Rauch leads Fordham with a .286 batting average and owns three of the team's seven home runs on the season ... Rauch also has the team's lone win in the circle, having thrown 10.1 innings over two appearances with an 0.87 ERA ... Lauren Quense has started a team-high five games in the circle, throwing 25.0 innings with an 0-5 record and a 5.04 ERA ... As a team, the Rams have a .165 batting average, a 6.05 ERA and a .904 fielding percentage.

- SCOUTING ROBERT MORRIS: The Colonials enter the weekend with a 3-6 overall record, having gone 3-2 their last time out at the Coastal Carolina Tournament (Feb. 16-18), including a 3-2 win over MAC member Kent State ... RMU also suffered an 8-1 loss to MAC member Bowling Green to close their opening weekend at the Cleveland State Dome (Feb. 10-11) ... Natalie Higgins leads Robert Morris with a .414 batting average, including three doubles and one of the team's two home runs ... Madison Riggle owns a team-best 2-2 record, with a 3.87 ERA over 25.1 innings of work and a team-high 18 strikeouts ... As a team, the Colonials have a .261 batting average, a 4.68 ERA and a .943 fielding percentage.

- SCOUTING DELAWARE: The Blue Hens enter the weekend with a 1-8 record, however, their last game was a 5-1 victory over Albany to close play in last weekend's EMU Madeira Beach Invitational (Feb. 23-25) ... As part of the tournament, Delaware suffered an 8-0 (5) setback to Kent State from the MAC ... Giovanna Kolofer leads the team with a .368 batting average, while Mariah Kondravy has hit two of the Blue Hens three home runs ... Sarah Piening has started five of Delaware's nine games in the circle, posting a 1-4 record and 7.64 ERA over 25.2 innings of work ... She also has 11 strikeouts to her credit ... As a team, Delaware has a .201 batting average, a 5.71 ERA and a .898 fielding percentage.

- SCOUTING NIAGARA: The Purple Eagles enter the weekend with a 3-6 record after going 1-4 at last weekend's GCU Purple Classic ... Opening weekend, Niagara went 2-2, with both loses being 4-0 setbacks to Bowling Green out of the MAC ... One of the Purple Eagles wins opening weekend was a 3-0 victory over Robert Morris ... Kelsey Harrigan leads the squad with a .333 batting average and seven runs scored, while Jerri Ann Orfano has a team-high eight RBI and one of the program's three home runs ... Sierra Bertrand boasts the team's best record in the circle, at 2-2, and also owns a 3.65 ERA and has struck out a team-high 19 batters ... As a team, Niagara has a .227 batting average, a 5.25 ERA and a .966 fielding percentage.

BALL STATE PLAYER / TEAM NOTES
- Ball State's 9-3 start to the season is the program's best since the 2014 squad went 10-2 over the first 12 games of the year ... The Cardinals finished the 2014 season with a 33-19 overall mark and won the MAC regular season title with a 12-4 league ledger ... It was Ball State's third straight MAC regular season title.

- The Ball State softball program is on pace to start the 2018 season with the longest stretch of road games in program history ... The Cardinals' first 34 games of the season, 35 if you count the exhibition contest versus the Czech Republic, will be played on the road ... Ball State played a program-record 32 straight road games to open the 2016 season, while starting the 2012 campaign with 31 straight road games ... The Cardinals played 30 consecutive road games to open the 2017 season before its first game at the Softball Field at the First Merchants Softball Complex.

- Ball State softball enters the Citrus Classic II with a 982-1022-4 (.490) all-time record ... Established as a varsity program in 1975, Ball State has won five MAC 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).

- Opening weekend saw the Cardinals play the 2,000th game in program history, earning a 5-1 win over Georgetown (Feb. 10).

- Over the past nine seasons, Ball State has proven to be the MAC's premier program by compiling a 131-57 (.697) league record ... Kent State is second on the list over the past nine seasons at 126-64 (.663), while Miami is third at 119-77 (.607) ... Ball State boasts a 403-410-1 (.496) all-time MAC record in 35 years.

- Sophomore Haley Dominique was named the MAC West Division Player of the Week for the first time in her career after leading the Ball State offense with seven hits and posting a .750 slugging percentage at the ECU Pirate Invitational ... She collected four singles, two doubles and a home run in 16 official at bats ... She recorded at least one hit in four of the five games, while drawing four walks in her lone hitless contest ... Her biggest hit of the tournament came in Friday's 4-1 come-from-behind win over host ECU (Feb. 23), when she blasted the first pitch of the seventh inning out of the park and over the safety netting to spark a four-run rally for the Cardinals ... It was her first home run of the season and only the second of her career.

- Sophomore Haley Dominique enters the week ranked first on the team and 11th in the MAC with a .395 batting average ... Her 15 total hits are tied for fifth in the league, while her four doubles are tied for second ... She is also tied for sixth among all MAC players with seven walks, tied for eighth with a .500 on base percentage and tied for 11th with 22 total bases.

- Sophomore Haley Dominique is the third Ball State player to earn MAC weekly honors this season ... Sophomore center fielder Kennedy Wynn earned MAC West Division Player of the Week honors opening weekend, after producing a .385 batting average, a 1.154 slugging percentage and a .556 on base percentage ... Three of her five hits on the weekend were home runs, while another was a double ... She also led the team with seven RBIs and five walks ... Junior pitcher Aeshia Miles was named MAC West Division Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her career after leading the Cardinals to a 3-2 win over New Mexico State (Feb. 17) ... In picking up her first complete game win of the season, Miles limited a potent Aggies offense to seven hits and a pair of earned runs, while striking out five.

- It's been an interesting career for Aeshia Miles, who was originally recruited as a fielder ... In fact, Miles has earned 67 starts at eight different positions over her Ball State career; 22 (3B), 17 (2B), 11 (P), six (LF), five (RF), four (1B), one (CF) and one (DP) ... She made her first career pitching appearance in the 2017 season opener versus DePaul (Feb. 10), starting the game in left field before entering the circle to throw the final two innings and earn her first career save.

- Sophomore slugger Janae Hogg leads Ball State's active players with eight career game-winning RBIs, including her two in the Troy Cox Classic ... Of her eight game-winning RBI, four have come via the long ball; vs. Miami (April 2, 2017), at Northern Illinois (April 4, 2017), vs. Boston University (Feb. 17. 2018) and at New Mexico State (Feb. 17, 2018).

- Kennedy Wynn became only the third player in program history to record three home runs on an opening weekend for the Cardinals when she blasted two home runs versus Georgetown (Feb. 10) and one versus FGCU (Feb. 11) at the FGCU Kickoff Classic ... Jen Reifschneider was the first with three long balls on opening weekend in 2009, while Ball State's all-time home runs leader Jennifer Gilbert started the 2013 season with three bombs opening weekend.

- Freshman shortstop Hailey Demnianiuk has started her career strong, leading the Cardinals in both runs scored (11) and on base percentage (.548) ... She is also second on the team with a .367 batting average, having recorded at least one hit in seven games ... Demnianiuk has also been hit by a league-leading five pitches this season, which ranks 20th nationally.

- Ball State's pitching staff has picked up right where it left off in 2017, combining for a 1.90 ERA so far in 2018 ... All three Ball State pitchers have an ERA of 2.19-or-better, led by sophomore Alyssa Rothwell's 1.09 mark ... Ball State's staff finished the 2017 campaign with a 2.99 ERA, the program's best mark since the 2013 squad finished the year with a 2.74 ERA.

- Sophomore pitcher Alyssa Rothwell made history at the ECU Pirate Invitational, becoming the first Ball State player to record three saves in a single weekend ... In fact, Cardinals' pitchers had only earned three -or-more saves in a season eight times prior to Rothwell breaking onto the scene ... The program record for saves in a season is five set by Elizabeth Milian in 2008 ... With her four saves so far this season, Rothwell joins Milian as only the second Ball State player to have more than three saves in a season ... Add her three saves as a freshman, and Rothwell's seven career saves are two shy of the program record of nine held by Nicole Steinbach (2013-16).

- With five pitching wins so far this season, senior Carolyn Wilmes has raised her career total to 29 ... Her 29 wins are 12th in program history and leave her one shy of breaking into the top 10 ... Elizabeth Milian (2007-10) holds the program record with 85 wins, while only six pitchers have reached 40 wins in program history.

- With her 22 strikeouts so far this season, Carolyn Wilmes has raised her career total to 231 which is 10th in program history ... Wilmes needs 14 more strikeouts to pass Randi Freese (2001-02, 04-05) career total of 244 for ninth on Ball State's all-time list ... Elizabeth Milian (2007-10) holds the program record with 762 strikeouts, while only seven pitchers have reached 300 strikeouts in program history.

- Ball State's batters have drawn 50 walks so far this season, which ranks first in the MAC and 30th nationally ... Janae Hogg leads the Cardinals and ranks fourth in the MAC with eight walks, while Hailey Demnianiuk and Haley Dominique are right behind with seven walks apiece.

Ball State University Athletics

Softball Opens Spring Break Friday at Citrus Classic II

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Players Mentioned

Hailey Demnianiuk

Haley Dominique

Janae Hogg

Aeshia Miles

Alyssa Rothwell

Carolyn Wilmes

Kennedy Wynn

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