After having its first weekend off in more than a month, the Ball State University softball team heads back to the field with a pair of mid-week games. The Cardinals head to the University of Notre Dame to take on the Fighting Irish and they play host to IUPUI Wednesday.
Notre Dame (11-11):
Notre Dame is very familiar for Kamilah Holle, who grew up minutes from the Notre Dame campus. Holle said her family is planning on treating the team to a dinner of Italian cuisine.
Coach Craig Nicholson said his team matches up very well against the Irish.
"I feel good about our pitching situation," Nicholson said. "We're going to have to go up there and play well, but I think we'll beat them."
The Cardinal's will be led once again by Elizabeth Milian, who is coming off an 11 strikeout outing last week against Valparaiso University.
Milian will have her hands full with the middle of the Irish lineup, but if the Cardinals can keep a handle on them, they will be in a good position to win, Nicholson said.
"I don't think they have one kid in their lineup that you need to pitch around, but [batters] three through six are pretty good hitters," Nicholson said. "You have to kind of navigate your way through there every two or three innings."
IUPUI (3-25):
The Cardinals (9-12) will play host to the Jaguars Wednesday at the Ball State Softball Complex. Ball State beat IUPUI 15-3 on Feb. 22 at the Georgia Softball Classic.
Nicholson said he does not expect to see the same team from a month ago.
"They have one good pitcher, and I'm guessing we're going to see her on Wednesday," Nicholson said. "We can't afford to take anybody lightly. We played them and beat them 15-3, so we can't dwell on what happened the first time we played them."
If the Cardinals expect to score 15 runs against IUPUI again, the bottom of the lineup will have to produce more hits, Nicholson said.
"The bottom of the lineup, sometimes they swing pretty well, sometimes they scuff a little bit," he said. We're going to live and die a little bit by the top of our lineup. Obviously, there is a reason why certain kids are hitting 1, 2 and 3 and others are hitting 7, 8 and 9. But if you can get something going at the bottom of the order, you can get those big innings."
Five things to look for:
1. Jen Reifschneider goes into the game with seven home runs, one shy of the Ball State single-season record.
2. Elizabeth Milian has 83 strikeouts this season and 335 for her career. She is on pace to break the single season record of 200 strikeouts.
3. The top four batters in the Cardinals' lineup have accounted for 42 of the team's 71 runs and 80 of the team's 131 hits.
4. Ball State is 4-7 all-time against Notre Dame and 8-1 against IUPUI.
5. Ball State's winning percentage (.889) against IUPUI is the second highest percentage for teams Ball State has faced more than five times.
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