The softball team continues its 27-game road schedule to start the season today at 4 p.m. in the Buckeye Invitational in Columbus.
Ball State (5-12) plays host Ohio State today before facing two Mid-American Conference schools -- Marshall and Eastern Michigan -- on Saturday.
"I think it will be a good tell-tale sign of where we are since we do play two MAC schools," coach Terri Laux said.
The Cardinals will look to build on their previous outing at Dayton on Tuesday. BSU scored three runs in the seventh inning to tie the game and eventually won in 11 innings, 8-5.
The Cards will start off the tournament by playing Laux's alma mater, Ohio State. The Buckeyes (11-6) enter having won seven of their last eight games.
"Ohio State offers a great challenge for our team," Laux said. "They're a very good ball club. Of course, you'd always like to beat your alma mater, so that's a little more incentive."
Ball State will face Marshall on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Herd (11-8) also enter the tournament playing good softball, winning five of their last seven.
Ohio State and Marshall are the only two teams in the tournament that have a winning record. Laux views these two games as the more challenging of the weekend.
"I think they will be the two games that will present a greater challenge," she said. "Both of those programs have it all -- the pitching, the speed, the ability to score a lot of runs. They're two aggressive teams. We haven't faired very well against teams that are aggressive against us. So we've incorporated a few things in practice that will hopefully solve some of those problems."
Eastern Michigan is 0-4 and hasn't played in two weeks. Oakland is 3-13 after winning two out of three games last weekend.
Laux said the team needs to have a consistent offensive attack this weekend in order to be successful.
"We need to be a little more aggressive with what we're doing in the box --- score the runners when we get them on base," she said. "Defensive-wise, we just need to take care of the ball. We need to keep things simple, and then we will see some success."
Junior Katie Pilger was named MAC West Player of the Week after hitting .455 in BSU's four games last week. She averages .297 at the plate, second on the team to Kelli Jeziorski (.326). Amy Brownfield (2-1) boasts the team's best ERA (4.78) and most strikeouts (24).
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