Softball to finish road portion of schedule against WMU, NIU
Playing on the road is a difficult task for any sports team, whether at the collegiate or professional level.
This remains true for Central Michigan University’s softball team, which is set to take on a pair of Mid-American Conference opponents on the road this weekend.
The women will play a double header at rival Western Michigan University at 1:05 p.m. on Friday and then travel to DeKalb, Ill. to play Northern Illinois University for a single game on Saturday and Sunday.
“Right now we’re tied for fourth with Northern (Illinois) and Western (Michigan) is third so you’re going to have movement in the middle of the pack, which is exciting,” said Assistant Coach Joanna Lane.“It’s a huge weekend in the MAC in terms of current top-eight teams playing each other.”
CMU leads the all-time series against WMU 67-37.
Even with the added difficulty and pressure of playing away from Margo Jonker Stadium, it does not seem to have affected CMU.
In nine games on the road this season, the women have posted a 7-2 record.
“Honestly sometimes it’s easier when you’re away from home,” Lane said. “We are fortunate that we have great support from the community at home games but it also means there’s a lot of expectations on our student-athletes.”
CMU will enter this weekend’s set of games with an overall record of 19-18, including a 7-5 record against teams from within the conference.
The Chippewas sit in fourth place in the west division, directly behind the Huskies and Broncos, who are in third and second place in the MAC with records of 23-19 and 18-19 respectively.
The Chippewas have had six days off since splitting a double header with Buffalo on Saturday. They were scheduled to play the number four-ranked University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Wednesday but it was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Marking the ninth time a game has been cancelled this season, the early Michigan spring has not been kind to CMU.
In the most recent case, the weather prevented the Chippewas from having a chance at facing off against one of the best programs in the country.
“We would’ve liked to have played yesterday,” Lane said. “It would have been nice to get back out. We’ve lost some mid-week games all year long which has been tough.”
“Sometimes you want to work on things from the past weekend and instead you’re working on it in practice.”
Friday’s double header against WMU will begin at 1 p.m. from Fran Ebert Field in Kalamazoo. The first game against NIU on Saturday will begin at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s will start at 2 p.m. at Mary M. Bell Field.
