Softball hosts Michigan State Thursday
The CMU softball team will try to complete a sweep of its five-game homestand against Michigan State.
The Chippewas won the first four, allowing five total runs. The four wins put CMU in first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division. The last game of the homestand is at 4 p.m. Thursday at Margo Jonker Stadium.
“I think we’ve done all the little things, and that’s what it’s all about,” said coach Margo Jonker. “That’s what we’ve talked about all year.”
Jonker said moving runners, executing certain plays such as the suicide squeeze and sound defense have been the driving force in the streak. But the team struggled the last time it played out of conference, and it was against another in-state rival — No. 2 Michigan.
The Wolverines beat CMU 8-0 last Wednesday, and the team gave up six of the runs in the fifth inning.
Jonker said she is not worried about playing another team from a bigger conference.
“We try to always play the game and not play the uniform,” she said. “Obviously, they’re an in-state school, and we want to win because we want to do well in conference and in-state.”
Junior pitcher Kari Seddon is one of the players counted on to step up and lead the team, Jonker said. Seddon took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of Saturday’s win against Ohio. She gave up a hit with one out but rebounded to earn her 11th complete game and 11th victory.
“I was feeling good that day. I was hitting my spots,” she said. “No one talked about (the no-hitter) in the dugout. Everyone just acted like it was a normal game.”
Seddon expects to repeat last weekend’s performance in tomorrow’s game against the Spartans, she said.
“I should do that every game,” she said. “Hitting my spots, getting ahead and staying ahead.”
