After a two-week layoff, the Ball State University softball team (4-8) will resume its season with four games this weekend. The Cardinals travel to Iowa City, Iowa to compete in the Iowa Hawkeye Classic.
The tournament consists of four other teams: South Dakota State University (12-11), Loyola University (4-14), North Dakota State University (6-18) and Iowa University (13-12).
"The biggest thing for us this weekend is to be consistent offensively and to have an aggressive mental approach going into each game," coach Terri Laux said.
In previous meetings against SDSU, Loyola and NDSU the Cardinals are undefeated with a 4-0 record. However, Ball State is winless in its school history against Iowa (0-11), including three meetings last season.
"I'm not going to be disappointed if we are unable to win all four games this weekend," Laux said. "Iowa is a strong team that is always in contention for a Big Ten Conference title, but we are better than the other teams in this tournament."
One possible problem confronting the Cardinals this weekend may be their lack of competitive play in the past two weeks. Ball State was scheduled to play games against Butler University and Indiana University earlier this week, but they were cancelled due to inclement weather.
"I don't think the [time off] is going to have that big impact on us," Laux said. "We have been working hard indoors this entire week and are ready to play."
The Cardinals last played in the Fresno State Bulldog Classic, March 9-11. Ball State finished 1-5, but ended that weekend by nearly pulling an upset against No. 17 Washington University in a 6-4 loss.
"We were good both defensively and pitching wise [in Fresno] and we learned that we can compete with some of the big teams," Laux said.
One reason for the team's near-success in Fresno was because of second baseman and pitcher Amanda Pick. Pick is fourth in the Mid-American Conference with a .406 batting average and is second with a .500 on-base percentage. Statistically Pick has been the ace of the Cardinals pitching rotation this season with 2.59 ERA, 20 strikeouts and three complete games in nearly 28 innings of work.
"[Pick] has been awesome for us this year and it is always great to see an individual perform that well," Laux said.
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