Softball Opens 2025 Season Thursday at Mustang Classic

Thursday, February 6

San Luis Obispo, CA

8 p.m.

Ball State University

Cal Poly

2025 Ball State Softball Team Cheer - Preseason

Photo by: Nick Lawler/Ball State Athletics

Softball Opens 2025 Season Thursday at Mustang Classic

February 04, 2025 | Softball

Ball State (0-0) at Mustang Classic (hosted by Cal Poly)
Games 1 at Cal Poly (0-0)	Thursday, February 6 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT Live Stats
Games 2 vs. Oregon State (0-0)	Friday, February 7 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT Live Stats
Games 3 at Cal Poly	Friday, February 7 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT Live Stats
Games 4 vs. Oregon State	Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT Live Stats
Game 5 at Cal Poly	Saturday, February 8 at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT Live Stats
Tickets Info	Mustang Classic Ticket Information
Notes	Ball State \| Cal Poly \| Oregon State
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

» THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE SOFTBALL: The Ball State softball team opens the 2025 season Thursday at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT when it battles host Cal Poly in its first of five games at the Mustang Classic ... The Cardinals will face the Mustangs for three consecutive days, while taking on Oregon State Friday and Saturday ... Live stats will be available for all five games of the tournament.

» IN THE OPENERS: Ball State enters Thursday's contest versus Cal Poly with a 28-22 record in season-opening games since the 1975 season ... Last season, the Cardinals suffered a 6-1 setback to James Madison (Feb. 9) in its first game of the year ... Ball State's lone run came from a first inning RBI single up the middle.

» THE OVERALL RECORD: Ball State enters the 2025 campaign with a 1177-1171-4 (.501) overall record dating back to 1975 ... The Cardinals have tallied 30-or-more wins in 16 seasons, most recently a 37-18 mark in 2021 ... Of the 16 seasons with 30-or-more wins, 11 have come in the past 17 years.

» QUOTING COACH PEÑA: "Our goal this season is to have fun competing. If we can compete every single pitch, and have fun doing it, I believe we are going to have a really good season. It's truly about getting better every weekend and not putting so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect."

» A QUICK LOOK AT THE CARDINALS: Ball State is looking to recapture its postseason magic in the second year of head coach Helen Peña's tenure, as the Cardinals won three elimination games on the third day of the 2024 MAC Softball Championship to advance to the title game ... Looking to lead the way is fifth-year senior McKayla Timmons who ranked third in the nation last season with a program record 25 home runs ... Timmons also led the squad with a .402 average, 58 RBI and 55 runs scored ... The returning roster is also highlighted by junior outfielder Ashlee Lovett and redshirt junior designated player / pitcher Jessica Hoffman who ranked third (.306) and fourth (.288), respectively, in average ... BSU's top returning pitcher is junior Bridie Murphy who started 21 of her 33 appearances last season, earning 10 wins and a 3.90 ERA ... Ball State does welcome transfer pitchers Brinkley Kita and Ella Whitney who have combined for 10 collegiate wins ... Whitney also owns a .297 career average with 10 doubles and five home runs, along with 31 RBI and 23 runs scored.

» ABOUT THE MUSTANG CLASSIC FIELD:
- Ball State enters the Mustang Classic with a 2-4 all-time record versus the tournament field ... The Cardinals are 2-0 all-time versus Cal Poly, while Oregon State holds a 4-0 edge in the all-time series.
   - CAL POLY: The Mustangs were picked to finish fifth in the 2025 Big West Preseason Poll ... Cal Poly finished the 2024 season with a 28-17 overall record, including an 18-8 mark in league play ... The Mustangs boasted a .289 average last season with 2024 All-Big West honorable mention Kiara Blanchard returning as the team's top batter with a .293 average ... Cal Poly also had a 3.02 team ERA last season, with Paige Maier returning as the team's top pitcher with a 3.46 ERA and a 7-2 overall record.
   - OREGON STATE: The Beavers were picked to finish third in the 2025 West Coach Conference preseason poll ... Lici Campbell and Nicole Donahue earned All-WCC Preseason Team honors, with Campbell leading the squad last season in slugging percentage (.447), RBI (25) and home runs (9) ... Donahue is a transfer from UT Arlington where she boasted a .308 average in 2024 ... As a squad, Oregon State had a .228 team batting average and 3.60 team ERA last season, along with a 21-29 overall record.

BALL STATE NEWS & NOTES:
» MAC PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS: Ball State was picked to finish fourth among 11 teams in the Mid-American Conference's annual preseason poll ... The Cardinals, who finished sixth in the league last season with a 12-13 MAC record, are looking for a third consecutive  MAC Softball Championship berth, with the league's top six teams advancing to Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio, for the three-day event which runs May 7-10 ... BSU also picked up one of the 11 votes to win the MAC Tournament title.

» A SEASON-OPENING HOMECOMING: This week's Mustang Classic will be a homecoming for Ball State head coach Helen Peña who was a four-year letterwinner for Cal Poly from 2007-2010 ... Peña finished her playing career ranked among the program's all-time leaders in strikeouts (236), victories (28), shutouts (10), saves (2), ERA (2.36), complete games (14) and innings pitched (314.1) ... She was also a volunteer coach for the Mustangs during the 2012 campaign in which Ball State earned a pair of wins over Cal Poly by scores of 3-2 (March 23) and 9-4 (March 24) in BSU's only other trip to San Luis Obispo.

» WATCH OUT FOR TIMMONS: Fifth-year senior McKayla Timmons has been named a player to watch this season, ranking 36th on the Softball America Top 100 Preseason list and as the No. 8 ranked utility/designated player in the country by D1Softball.com ... Timmons enters her final collegiate season ranked second on Ball State's career list in on base percentage (.477), third in home runs (41), fourth in batting average (.368), 12th in RBI (125) and 15th in runs scored (103).

» RBI LEADER: McKayla Timmons finished the 2024 season ranked 26th nationally with her 58 RBI ... The effort included seven RBIs in the 9-5 (9) win over Georgia State (Feb. 24) and six in the 13-9 victory at Marshall (March 7) ... The program record for RBIs in a single game is eight by Stacy Payton versus Oakland on May 4, 2019.

» SHINING BEHIND THE PLATE TOO: In addition to pacing the offense, McKayla Timmons has proven to be one of the nation's top threats behind the plate and finished the 2024 season ranked as one of the nation's best catchers by Softball America ... She was fifth on SA's final catchers list and 47th among the nation's top 100 players ... The effort was aided by Timmons throwing out 11 of the 37 runners attempting to steal a base on her last season.

» ON THE BASES: Ball State finished the 2024 season ranked second in the league and 25th nationally with 92 stolen bases ... It was the seventh-best single season total in program history and included six different players with at least nine stolen bases ... Overall, 11 different Cardinals had at least one stolen bast last season.

» ON THE OFFENSIVE FRONT: The Cardinals were one of the nation's top run producing offenses a year ago, ranking second in the MAC and 58th nationally with a 5.16 runs-per-game average ... Ball State scored five-or-more runs in 32 of its 58 games, including a season-high 13 runs in wins at Marshall (March 7) and at Buffalo (April 6 - Game Two) ... Ball State was 29-3 on the year when scoring at least five runs, while going 7-0 when scoring 10-or-more runs.

» MORE ON THE OFFENSIVE FRONT: The 2024 Cardinals offense also ranked second in the MAC and 28th nationally with 84 total doubles, with four different players collecting 11 on the season ... Ball State also finished the season ranked 19th among all NCAA Division I programs with 208 walks drawn, while ranking 75th nationally with a .440 team slugging percentage.

» TRIPLING UP: The Ball State defense was one of just eight teams in the nation to record a triple play last season, turning what was a squeeze bunt attempt into a triple killing in the fifth inning of the 5-4 win over Jacksonville State on Feb. 17 ... The bunt was fielded by Haley Wynn at third base, who threw to McKayla Timmons to get the out at first ... The play then went to catcher Jazmyne Armendariz to get the runner out trying to advance home, who in turn threw to shortstop Maia Pietrzak to get the final out ... It was just the second recorded triple play in program history, with the first coming in 1985.