Ball State University
Northern Colorado
Softball Heads West For Silicon Valley Classic I
February 21, 2019 | Softball
Friday, Feb. 22, Noon ET / 9 a.m. PT - at San José State
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Game 13 - Ball State at San José State
Friday, Feb. 22, 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT - at San José State
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Game 14 - Ball State vs. CSU Bakersfield
Saturday, Feb. 23, Noon ET / 9 a.m. PTÂ - at San José State
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Game 15 - Ball State vs. Utah State
Saturday, Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT - at Santa Clara
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Game 16 - Ball State vs. Montana
Sunday, Feb. 24, Noon ET / 9 a.m. PTÂ - at San José State
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• THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE SOFTBALL: After spending the last two weekends in Florida, the Ball State softball program will enjoy a change of scenery this weekend as it heads to San José, California, for the Silicon Valley Classic I ... The three-day event which is being co-hosted by San José State and Santa Clara, opens Friday with the Cardinals battling Northern Colorado (Noon ET / 9 a.m. PT) and co-host San José State (2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT) at the Spartan Softball Complex ... BSU opens Saturday at the Spartan Softball Complex versus CSU Bakersfield (Noon ET / 9 a.m. PT), before traveling a few miles down the road to battle Utah State (7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT) at the Santa Clara Softball Stadium ... Ball State ends its third weekend of play Sunday back at SJSU's home field versus Montana (Noon ET / 9 a.m. PT).
• FOLLOW THE ACTION: Fans unable to attend the Silicon Valley Classic I can follow the action with live stats courtesy of the host institutions ... Links can be found above or on the Ball State softball schedule page: https://ballstatesports.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball ... Friday's second game versus SJSU will also be streamed live on watchstadium.com ... In addition, fans can follow @BallStateSB on twitter for updates throughout the season.
• ALL-TIME VERSUS THE FIELD: Ball State is 4-1 all-time versus teams it will face in the Silicon Valley Classic I ... The Cardinals are 3-0 all-time versus Northern Colorado, including a 9-5 (6) win the latest meeting March 11, 2012 ... BSU also topped the Bears by a score of 9-1 (6) two days earlier (March 9, 2012), while winning the first-ever meeting by a score of 5-0 on March 20, 2010 ... San José State picked up a hard-fought 1-0 victory in the lone meeting with Ball State on March 26, 1994 ... BSU earned a 5-2 win on March 11, 1989 in the only previous meeting versus Utah State ... The Cardinals will be facing CSU Bakersfield and Montana for the first time in the sport of softball.
• ALL-TIME: Ball State softball enters the weekend with a 1017-1042-4 (.494) 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), seven MAC West Division crowns (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018), three MAC Tournament championships (1998, 2010 and 2015) and advanced to the NCAA Regionals three times (1998, 2010 and 2015).
BALL STATE TEAM/PLAYER NOTES
• Ball State earned the 1,000th win in program history with a 7-6 victory over Western Michigan in the second game of an April 13, 2018 doubleheader.
• The Cardinals are slated to open the 2019 season with 32 straight games away from the Softball Field at First Merchants Ballpark Complex ... Ball State played its first 33 games of the 2018 season on the road which is the longest stretch of road games in program history ... Ball State played 32 straight road games to open the 2016 season, while starting the 2012 campaign with 31 straight road games.
• Since 2009, Ball State has proven to be the MAC's premier program by compiling a 147-64 (.697) league record ... Kent State is second over the same span at 140-73 (.657), while Ohio is third at 131-85 (.606) ... In addition, Ball State boasts a 419-417-1 (.501) all-time MAC record over 36 years.
• This weekend marks, Ball State's first trip to the state of California since the 2013 season, when the Cardinals went 3-2 at the Mustang Classic hosted by Cal Poly from March 23-25.
• With two saves at last weekend's Madeira Beach Invitational, junior Alyssa Rothwell solidified her position as the greatest closer in MAC history by raising her career saves total to 18 ... The league's previous career record was 16 set by Bowling Green's Jamie Kertes (2012-15) ... Rothwell, who is tied with Army senior Renee Poirier as the NCAA's active career saves leader, also owns the MAC's single-season saves record with her 11 last season and is on pace to shatter the NCAA career saves record of 32 held by Mississippi State's Kellie Wilkerson (1999-02).
• Ball State's pitching staff has proven to be one of the toughest in the nation so far this season, ranking 58th nationally with a 2.43 team ERA ... The Cardinals boast a pair of starters in the top 60 nationally, with redshirt sophomore Darcie Huber ranking 19th with a 0.47 ERA and freshman Sarah Venker in 58th with a 0.98 ERA.
• Ball State's pitching staff has already thrown four shutouts this season, with both Alyssa Rothwell and Sarah Venker having a hand in three each ... Venker threw Ball State's first complete game shutout of the season in the win over Delaware, limiting the Blue Hens to just two hits in the 9-0 (5) victory ... Darcie Huber and senior Aeshia Miles have each had a hand in one of BSU's shutout wins.
• A big reason for Ball State's success in the circle this season has been strikeouts ... Cardinals' pitchers rank first in the league and seventh nationally with 78 strikeouts ... Aeshia Miles leads the way with 23 strikeouts over 23.1 innings, while Alyssa Rothwell has struck out 18 batters over just 8.2 innings ... In fact, Rothwell struck out all seven batters she faced to earn the win in Ball State's 3-2 (8) come-from-behind victory over Quinnipiac (Feb. 17).
• Aeshia Miles became just the 13th player in program history to register 200 career strikeouts when she fanned her first of seven batters at FGCU (Feb. 9) ... Miles' career total of 218 strikeouts is seven shy of passing Audrey Workman (2011-12) for 12th on Ball State's all-time list and is 27 shy of breaking into the top 10 in program history.
• Junior slugger Janae Hogg provided several boosts to the Ball State offense last weekend, going yard in consecutive wins over Monmouth (Feb. 15), Central Arkansas (Feb. 16) and Delaware (Feb. 16) ... In fact, all three home runs drove in what proved to be the game-winning run ... Hogg enters the week ranked first in the MAC and 19th nationally with four home runs this season, while her 23 career bombs are seventh in program history.
• Janae Hogg leads Ball State's active players with 18 career game-winning RBI, including four so far this season ... Of the 18 game-winning RBI, 12 have come via the long ball, including all four this season.
• A .329 career batter, Haley Dominique enters the Silicon Valley Classic I ranked fifth on Ball State's career list with a .446 on base percentage, including a team-best .474 mark last season ... Dominique reached base safely in 51 of Ball State's 56 games in 2018, putting together a career-long 12-game hitting streak and a career-best 17-game streak of reaching base safely ... So far this season, Dominique has reached base safely in eight of Ball State's 11 games.
• Ball State's offense enters the week leading all NCAA Division I programs with 55 walks this season ... The next closest teams are Georgia Southern, Michigan State and Northwestern with 50 apiece ... Hailey Demnianiuk leads Ball State, ranks fourth in the MAC and is 76th nationally with a 0.82 walks-per-game average ... Last season, the Cardinals finished the year ranked fifth in the country with 235 walks.
