After only one day of rest, the softball team hits the road again today. Ball State will travel to Bloomington to face Indiana at 3 p.m. It marks the first time the Cardinals have played in the state of Indiana this season, with the home opener just a week away.
The Cardinals (6-15) competed in the Ohio State Buckeye Invitational over the weekend. BSU lost the first three games in the tournament but pulled out a win against Oakland on the final day.
The Cards subpar record comes largely from allowing runs early in the game. In the first two games at Ohio State last weekend, Ball State gave up a total of 12 runs in the first three innings. Ohio State scored three runs in the first inning, while Marshall plated five runs in the opening inning.
"Getting down three to four runs in the first inning puts pressure on our offense," head coach Terri Laux said.
The added pressure led to lackluster hitting in those games. Ball State had five hits and two runs against the Buckeyes but only managed two hits in a shutout loss to Marshall.
"Our hitting wasn't sharp," Laux said. "We're gonna need to focus on some little things with hitting and getting comfortable in the box."
Kelli Jeziorski is the lone Cardinal hitting above .300. She leads the team in average (.333), hits (20) and RBI (10).
Nikki Hellem leads the team in ERA (3.95), and Amy Brownfield has the only winning record (2-1).
Indiana has also struggled early on this season. The Hoosiers are 8-21 and have lost 12 of their last 15 games.
"Traditionally it's pretty evenly matched, going back and forth," Laux said. "I don't know how their doing this year with a new coach. But we need to focus on ourselves, and hopefully we can pick up a win."
With the start of Mid-American Conference play less than two weeks away, Laux is looking for her team to make progress.
"We need to improve before the MAC season," she said. "We need to have consistency in all aspects of the game."
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