An eventful weekend for the Ball State University softball team ended with the Cardinals going 3-1 while watching two school records fall.
On Friday, in her first at bat, Lisa Rozanski singled and then stole second during the next at bat. The steal was the 71st of her career, a new Ball State record.
Rozanski said once she receives the signal from coach Craig Nicholson to steal second, she takes a deep breath and focuses on keeping her head low until she reaches second.
After setting the single season record last year as a freshman with 43 stolen bases, Rozanski said she did not go into this season looking to reach the record and was not even aware of what the record was.
"I've never really even thought about how many stolen bases I've had this year," Rozanski said. "When coach sends me, I go."
Rozanski stole three bases on the weekend, bringing her career total to 73.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Jen Reifschneider hit her ninth home run of the season, also a Ball State record. Reifschneider said the pitch was an outside change up, which has been her Achilles' heel this season.
"I've been working hard in practice on hitting the pitches that I haven't been able to hit this year," Reifschneider said.
Coach Craig Nicholson said Reifschneider started the season well but slumped for about a month and is now getting her swing back. He attributed part of her slump to pitchers being very careful in their pitch selection and placement against her but praised her for her hard work in overcoming the obstacle.
"She's kind of adjusted to them being very careful with her," Nicholson said. "She's got her stroke back and that's the key to hitting well."
On Saturday against Ohio, Reifschneider went 3-for-4 from the plate with two home runs, a double, six RBIs and two runs.
For the weekend on the whole, Ball State split a doubleheader with the University of Akron and swept Ohio University.
The Cardinals scored 25 runs on 39 hits. In Sunday's game against Ohio, seven of the nine Ball State starters had at least one hit.
"We played really well together as a team this weekend," Reifschneider said. "All of the wins were a combined team effort. Everyone throughout the line up did a really great job."
Against Akron, Ball State came out swinging, racking up 15 hits in the first game. Ball State won the first game 7-3 but was not able to keep the bats as hot in the second game, when the team fell 2-1.
Saturday started a two-game stand against Ohio in Athens, Ohio. Once again, the Cardinals came out swinging, scoring 10 runs on 11 hits. Left fielder Allie Pennock went 2-for-3 with a triple, two runs and an RBI in the game.
Sunday's game started slowly but ended with a bang as Ball State came out on top of the Bobcats 7-3. After three scoreless innings, Ball State scored in the fourth. After six, the score was locked at three when the Ball State bats came alive once again, this time scoring four runs in the inning.
Kate Wilczynski went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run in the contest.
Nicholson said his team had a pretty good weekend offensively, defensively and from the mound. He said he is not very disappointed in going 3-1 on the weekend.
"I think anytime you can go on the road and win three out of four in this conference, that's a pretty good weekend," Nicholson said. "We feel pretty good right now offensively."
Unlike in previous weekends, Nicholson distributed the pitching duties between Elizabeth Milian and Laura Masch. Each pitched complete games on Friday in the doubleheader, while each relieved the other in their games against Ohio.
"It was kind of planned," Nicholson said. "We haven't played a game all year that was over 65 and all of a sudden it's 85 out, so we tried to keep the pitchers fresh."
Masch allowed two runs for the loss against Akron but did not give up another earned run in her 1.2 innings of relief work on Saturday or her 4.1 inning start on Sunday.
Milian had 15 strikeouts on the weekend, bringing her season total to 185 - 15 shy of the Ball State single season record.
The 3-1 record brings the Cardinals to 26-22 on the season, ensuring the team will end the season with at least a .500 record. Ball State is also 16-3 in Mid-American Conference play this season, the best in the MAC West. Second place Western Michigan University's MAC record of 13-5 means that if Ball State wins one of its two games next weekend against Miami University or Western Michigan loses one of its four games, Ball State will clinch the MAC West title.
The Cardinals will take Monday and Tuesday off after playing 10 games in the past 11 days and will return to practice on Wednesday to prepare for the season finale on Saturday and Sunday at home against Miami.
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