Ball State University
Belmont
Softball Travels to Nashville for Four Games This Weekend
March 14, 2018 | Softball
LIVE STATS LINK (All Four Games)
- The Ball State softball team closes its pre-conference tournament slate this weekend at the Belmont/Tennessee State Invitational in Nashville, Tennessee ... The Cardinals open the tournament Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET (3:30 p.m. CT) versus Belmont at E.S. Rose Park ... Ball State's final three games will be played at Tennessee State's Tiger Field starting at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT) Friday versus Rhode Island ... The Cardinals are schedule to play TSU (1:15 p.m. ET / 12:15 p.m. CT) and St. Bonaventure (3:30 p.m. ET / 2:30 p.m. CT) Saturday.
- Fans unable to attend the Belmont/Tennessee State Invitational can follow the action with live stats for all four Ball State games at: http://www.sidearmstats.com/ballstate/softball/ ... Fans can also follow @BallStateSB on twitter for game updates throughout the season.
- Ball State is 5-2 all-time versus teams in the Belmont/Tennessee State Invitational field ... The Cardinals have won all three meetings versus co-host Belmont, including a 14-3 (5) victory in the latest meeting play Feb. 24, 2012 at the Frost Classic in Chattanooga, Tennessee ... Tennessee State holds a 2-1 lead in the all-time series despite a 13-5 (5) Ball State victory in the last meeting played Feb. 26, 2011 at the Phyllis Rafter Memorial Tournament in Woodstock, Georgia ... The Cardinals won the lone meeting versus St. Bonaventure, topping the Bonnies 8-1 on March 5 of last season at the USF Under Armour Invitational ... Ball State and Rhode Island will be playing for the first time in softball ... A complete breakdown of each all-time series can be found on page four of this release.
-Â SCOUTING BELMONT: The Bruins enter the weekend with a 14-4 overall record including a pair of wins over Mercer at last weekend's Rafter Memorial Tournament hosted by Kennesaw State ... Mercer is coached by former Ball State softball assistant coach Stephanie DeFeo (2007-2012) ... Lexi Rouse leads Belmont with a .365 batting average, including seven of the team's 13 home runs ... She is also 4-1 in the circle, owning a 1.63 ERA over 30.0 innings with a .206 opponents' batting average ... Brooklin Lee leads Belmont in the circle with an 8-1 record, a 1.03 ERA, 86 strikeouts and a .180 opponents' batting average over 67.2 innings ... As a team, the Bruins have a .304 batting average, a 1.56 ERA and a .953 fielding percentage.
-Â SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND: The Rams enter a Wednesday night contest at Middle Tennessee with a 1-14 overall record ... The lone win, a 3-2 victory over Mount St. Mary's on Feb. 17 ... Two of the losses have come to MAC members Bowling Green (9-1 in 5) and Eastern Michigan (4-3 in 11) ... Erica Robles leads Rhode Island with a .333 batting average, while her six RBIs are second on the squad ... Kylie Shivery has a team-high seven RBIs and is batting .292 ... Becca Rogers has thrown a team-high 34.0 innings, owning an 0-6 record, a 3.50 ERA and .250 opponents' batting average ... As a team, the Rams have a .202 batting average, a 5.16 ERA and a .941 fielding percentage.
-Â SCOUTING TENNESSEE STATE: The Tigers enter the weekend with a 3-19 record after going 1-3 at last weekend's U of M Softball Tournament ... Their lone win at the event, a 5-0 victory over Bowling Green out of the MAC ... Katie Schneider leads TSU with a .311 batting average and seven RBIs ... Lauren Powell has seen a majority of the pitching work for the Tigers, throwing 71.2 innings with a 5.08 ERA, 40 strikeouts and a .284 opponents' batting average ... As a team, the Tigers have a .227 batting average, a 7.87 ERA and a .955 fielding percentage.
-Â SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE: The Bonnies enter the weekend with a 3-9 overall record after going 1-2 last weekend at the Morgan State Invitational ... The win, a 17-1 (5) victory over Coppin State who rallied to beat St. Bonaventure 9-0 (5) later in the day ... Olivia Golay has a team-leading .533 batting average and is tied for the team edge in both home runs (1) and RBI (7) ... Rylee Hehir has thrown a team-high 28.0 innings, compiling a 2-3 record, 32 strikeouts and a 5.50 ERA ... As a team, the Bonnies have a .255 batting average, a 5.69 ERA and a .926 fielding percentage.
BALL STATE TEAM/PLAYER NOTES
-Â Ball State's 15-8 start to the season is the program's best since the 2012 squad went 16-7 over the first 23 games ... The Cardinals finished the 2012 season with a 40-15 overall record and won the MAC regular season title with a 17-3 league ledger ... It was Ball State's first of 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 are scheduled to 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 Belmont/Tennessee State Tournament with a 988-1027-4 (.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.
- Ball State has claimed five of the 10 possible MAC West Division weekly awards so far this season ... Sophomore Haley Dominique has been named the MAC West Division Player of the Week twice, while junior Aeshia Miles has earned MAC West Division Pitcher of the Week accolades two times ... Sophomore Kennedy Wynn has also garnered one player of the week honor this season.
- A two-time MAC West Division Pitcher of the Week so far this season, junior Aeshia Miles enters the Belmont/Tennessee State Invitational leading the league with a 1.85 ERA ... Her eight wins also pace the conference and are better than four league programs; Buffalo (7), Northern Illinois (5), Eastern Michigan (4) and Akron (1).
- Led by Aeshia Miles' league-leading 1.85 ERA, the Ball State pitching staff enters the weekend ranked first in the MAC with a 2.50 team ERA ... Sophomore Alyssa Rothwell is tied for fifth in the conference at 2.21, while senior Carolyn Wilmes is 15th at 3.65.
-Â Aeshia Miles has been one of the top strikeout pitchers in the league this season, ranking third in the MAC with 68 strikeouts ... Miles struck out a career-high 14 batters in a one-hit, 1-0 victory over Niagara (March 4), while striking out 10 batters in the team's 5-3 win at FAU (March 8) ... She has chalked up at least five strikeouts in eight of her 12 starts this season and ranks 149th nationally with a 6.3 strikeouts per seven inning average.
-Â Aeshia Miles earned her first career no-hitter in Ball State's 8-0 (6) victory over Robert Morris (March 2) ... She retired the first 17 batters she faced before issuing a two-out, sixth-inning walk for the Colonials only base runner of the game ... She responded by inducing a groundout to herself for the final out to also lock up her first career complete game shutout ... Miles struck out five batters over her 6.0 innings of work versus the Colonials and also had a solid game on defense, logging one putout and four assists.
- It's been an interesting career for Aeshia Miles, who was originally recruited as a fielder ... In fact, Miles has earned 74 starts at eight different positions over her Ball State career; 22 (3B), 18 (P), 17 (2B), 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.
- A two-time MAC West Division Player of the Week, sophomore left fielder Haley Dominique leads the Ball State offense and ranks eighth in the league with a .387 batting average ... Dominique has scored a team-high 16 runs this season and ranks second on the team with 19 RBI ... She also tallied Ball State's first triple of the season versus Fordham (March 2) and hit the Cardinals' first grand slam of the year against Robert Morris (March 2).
- A .319 career batter, Haley Dominique enters the week ranked fifth in program history with a .439 career on base percentage, including a .477 mark so far this season ... Dominique has reached base safely in 19 of Ball State's 22 games this season which includes a string of 12 straight games starting versus Boston University (Feb. 17) and ending after the win over Virginia Tech (March 6).
-Â Sophomore slugger Janae Hogg enters the weekend ranked first in the MAC and 17th nationally with eight home runs ... She has hit a home run in each of Ball State's last three games, including driving in what proved to be the game-winning run in a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over Florida A&M (March 9).
-Â In fact, of Janae Hogg's eight home runs this season, three have driven in what stood to be the game-winning run ... Hogg leads Ball State's active players with nine career game-winning RBIs, including her three this season ... Five of her nine game-winning RBIs have come via the long ball; vs. Miami (April 2, 2017), at Northern Illinois (April 4, 2017), vs. Boston University (Feb. 17. 2018); at New Mexico State (Feb. 17, 2018) and vs. Florida A&M (March 9, 2018).
-Â 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.
- 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, 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 at Ball State.
- With her 41 strikeouts so far this season, Carolyn Wilmes has raised her career total to 250 which is ninth in program history ... Wilmes needs 32 more strikeouts to pass Audra Sanders (2010-13) career total of 281 for eighth 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 79 walks so far this season, which ranks first in the MAC and 37th nationally ... Janae Hogg leads the Cardinals and is tied for first in the MAC with 16 walks, while Haley Dominique is fifth in the league at 12 and Hailey Demnianiuk is tied for 13th at nine.
