Softball's final non-conference game postponed, MAC play begins this weekend at EMU
Softball's scheduled Wednesday doubleheader against IPFW was cancelled due to poor weather, preventing softball from atoning its loss earlier this season.
The Chippewas found themselves on the wrong end of an extra-innings game that ended with a score of 10-6 in the team’s first meeting of the year. IPFW was able to get six runs off of five hits in the extra inning to gain a victory, despite a valiant comeback effort.
"The good thing is that everyone in the Mid-American Conference playing in this area is in the same boat as us," said head coach Margo Jonker. "This weather isn't what we wanted, but everyone else has to deal with it as well."
These games would have provided a nice warmup for the beginning of conference play this weekend at Eastern Michigan and were scheduled in order to give an opportunity to get back on the field after a two-week hiatus. Central Michigan has not taken the field since March 16, after its second game against Wright State was cancelled under similar circumstances.
The Chippewas have a strong pitching staff that has been solid on the year, leading the MAC with the lowest ERA and opponents’ batting average. They are led by senior Kara Dornbos but have two junior MAC West Pitchers of the Week award winners in Morgan Yuncker and Kristen Kuhlman.
“We’ve done a lot of work. We’re more than prepared and more than ready," Kuhlman said. "We all have a lot of skills; we just need to put some runs on the board and play the defense, and we’ll be great.”
They were able to turn this into a positive, taking advantage of a relatively dry day with an outside practice at the renovated Margo Jonker Stadium.
"We decided we would try to see some live action on the field because the ball behaves differently out here as opposed to on the indoor fields, and we need to start getting used to that," Jonker said.
CMU will retake the field this weekend with its first conference game in Ypsilanti against rival Eastern Michigan. If the team can get two road victories, it will put it four games above the .500 mark as it sits at 12-10 and is second MAC West and fourth overall.
