While pitching has been a work in progress for Ball State since its opening game, its hitting has been spot on all season.
After 43 games this season, Ball State is hitting .323 as a team with 26 home runs, 205 RBIs, and 228 runs scored.
Ball State hopes to continue its offensive prowess when it travels to Bloomington to play the 27-15 Hoosiers Wednesday, .
Coach Craig Nicholson said despite facing a good Indiana team, Ball State will be fine as long as it plays to the level it's capable of.
"We're going to be facing a good Indiana pitcher on Wednesday," Nicholson said. "The thing that's good for us is facing such a good pitcher at this point in the season so that we're prepared for the postseason. We just need to do what we do well and we'll be successful."
Ball State, however, could have trouble in its Wednesday match-up against Indiana. The Hoosiers own a 12-1 record at home and have a team ERA of 1.86.
Senior Morgan Melloh, who holds a 22-14 record this season to go along with a 1.90 ERA and 361 strikeouts, will start on the mound for Indianatoday.
Productive offense isn't foreign to the Hoosiers either. Three batters have hit over .300 on the season.
But Ball State won't be without skilled hitters of its own.
Senior Alyssa Collins leads the Cardinals at the plate with a .397 batting average. She's also compiled six doubles, one triple and 18 RBIs.
Fellow senior Alicia Barkley, who normally sits behind Collins in the batting order, fittingly has the next highest batting average for Ball State at .389.
Barkley's statistics include seven doubles and a team-high 17 stolen bases.
Both Collins and Barkley currently have 58 hits in 2011, which ties for first in the Mid-American Conference.
Junior catcher Amanda Montalto said she doesn't expect Ball State to look past Indiana today, but she doesn't expect it to be the main focus as the Cardinals head into MAC play this weekend.
"I don't want to say we're going to take Indiana lightly because we're not going to," Montalto said. "But in all of our minds, we just have to go out and be really prepared for Kent State and Buffalo."
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