CMU (17-12, 4-4 Mid-American Conference) takes on No. 2 Michigan at 6 p.m. at Wilpon Softball Complex.

Junior second baseman Brittini Merchant said the team likes the idea of seeing how it compares against the nation’s best.

“When we get to play a team of that caliber, we really bring everything that we got,” she said. “We prove to lot of people that we are a real good team.”

CMU vs. Michigan has typically been a close game in recent history regardless of Michigan’s usually-high ranking inside the nation’s top 10.

Last year, the Chippewas managed to lead No. 8 Michigan 1-0 heading into the sixth inning before falling 7-2.

But this year is the first time CMU has played a Michigan team ranked inside the top five since 2005. The Chippewas split the doubleheader in a season where Michigan eventually went on to win the NCAA Championship.

In 2007, CMU split another doubleheader when the Wolverines were ranked No. 9 in the nation.

Coach Margo Jonker said playing Michigan is actually a comfortable feeling for her team because CMU knows Michigan.

“We play them in the fall,” she said. “We play them in the spring, we just know their players.
It is just a matter of being in a comfortable environment and believing that we can do the best we can.”

The Wolverines come in having won nine consecutive and 22 of 23.

MERCY

Not only is Michigan winning, it is ending the game early.

In NCAA softball, if one team leads by more than seven runs after the fifth inning, the game is done. Michigan has won via that rule in six of the last eight games.

The Wolverines’ offense has hit .375 along with 12 home runs in their last seven games.

The Chippewas have been struggling with consistency from inning to inning, and Merchant said the team’s attitude needs to stay positive for CMU to stay in the game.

“We need to come out ready in the first inning and every inning,” she said. “We need to stay positive and have a lot of talk in the infield and dugout.”

Senior Maggie Viefhaus leads the Michigan at the plate, batting .379 on the season.

Junior Jordan Taylor and senior Nikki Nemitz have been the two main pitchers in the circle for Michigan this season. The two have combined for 299 strikeouts in 221 and 1/3 innings.

CMU leads the Mid-American Conference in batting average, hitting .297.

What the statistics do not show is how much time the junior pitcher was spending in the trainer’s room.

Seddon started feeling pain in the right elbow during the season, but said she knew she had to finish the season for her team.

“My trainer became my best friend that year,” she said. “I did a lot of work just getting ready for the next game because I was in pain, but we were in the middle of the season and I had to go.”

After the season came to an end, Seddon was forced into a decision. Her ulnar collateral ligament was torn and she could either elect to get Tommy John surgery or rehab the elbow.

Seddon said it came down to what her doctor believed was best for her ability to continue playing afterwards. Surgery was the answer.

That meant Seddon would not be able to throw a softball until December 2009, ruling out the possibility of playing in the 2009 season.

RELEARNING SOFTBALL

Having pitched since she was five, staying away from softball until December was not easy on Seddon.

“I basically had a new elbow,” she said. “I had to get my motion, extension and just had to teach myself to play the game of softball again.”

She went from a first-team All-MAC selection to holding a stat book and helping her teammates from the dugout.

Seddon could only do so much as the team went 12-31 and 4-17 in the MAC. She admitted it was tough to accept.

Seddon was not used to feeling helpless for her teammates from the circle or the plate.

She continued to work with trainers and, although the success rate is not high for players coming back from Tommy John surgery, coach Margo Jonker said she had confidence in
Seddon’s ability to make the comeback.

Jonker said it came down to her competitiveness and athletic prowess because she would not let herself stay outside the circle this season.

So when Seddon was finally able to take the circle for Central this season, it was a relief.

ON THE WAY BACK

Seddon said she is only at around 90 percent health-wise, and she still feels some pain in her elbow, but it is more the result of not being used to pitching than the injury.

Jonker said Seddon has learned to pitch again and, because of that, she is learning how to throw all her pitches again.

“Since the surgery, her shoulder and elbow feel different for certain pitches than it did before, so she has to figure out how it is supposed to feel with how the elbow is now,” she said.

After Seddon started the year batting as well as pitching, Jonker decided it is more important to have her in the circle after Seddon felt some elbow pain.

But Jonker said she knows what MAC competition is like and what having a pitcher such as Seddon in the circle can do to make a difference for the Chippewas this year.

“The Mid-American Conference has excellent pitching, and Kari is in that elite group,” she said. “Obviously, after having the year off, it is a challenge to get into the pitching form that she had before.”

Central (13-8) plays a doubleheader Friday against Bowling Green (4-10) and Saturday against Toledo (6-21).

The Chippewas open MAC play as one of two MAC teams with a winning record with Ball State (20-6) the only other school.

The Chippewas are led in the pitching circle by junior Kari Seddon and freshman Kara Dornbos. The two have combined to start 18 of the 21 games so far.

Coach Margo Jonker said the key for her pitchers this weekend is simply to make the batters
“mis-hit” the ball. She said she is not focused on her pitchers getting strikeouts, but getting
outs any way they can.

“None of our pitchers are extremely overpowering, but they all have enough speed to be good,” she said. “There aren’t very many pitchers in the country that can blow the ball by hitters. We have to be smarter than the hitters.”

Bowling Green has struggled offensively and in the circle early on. The Falcons rank last in the MAC in team batting average (.198) and earned-run average (7.76), and are tied for last in fielding percentage at .938.

Although the team is struggling, freshmen Paige Berger and Hannah Fulk are hitting better than .300.

Toledo has gotten its offense going early in the season, leading the MAC in hits with 188 and is on pace to score more than 200 runs for just the third time since 2000.

Freshman Erinn Wright leads the team with a .349 average, and sophomore Brooke Gates leads the team and is tied for second in the MAC with seven doubles on the season.

Senior Hannah Rockhold already has 23 appearances for the Rockets with a 3.81 ERA.

SPLIT VS. OAKLAND

CMU split a doubleheader Wednesday against Oakland, losing 4-2 in the opener and winning 6-3 in the second game.

Seddon took the loss in the opener and said she made too much of the game before she got out to the circle.

“I was very tight when I came out,” she said. “I think I put too much pressure on myself coming into the game.”

In the second game, junior Brittini Merchant and sophomore Molly Coldren added two RBIs each to help pace the Chippewas offensively.

And after being held hitless in four at-bats in the opener, senior Christina Novak went 3-for-4, scoring two runs.

Dornbos got the win, bringing her record to 6-1.

Jonker said there was a stark contrast from Game 1 to Game 2.

“We didn’t do the little things right (in the first game),” she said. “We tried to make the big play when we should have just made the routine play.”

The scrimmage takes place at the CMU Soccer Complex with a free barbeque for all who shows up.

Coach Tom Anagnost said he is hoping the scrimmage, along with the barbeque, will showcase the Central Michigan soccer program.

“They do this tour every year where they play four or five schools, and we are just fortunate to be one of them,” he said.

Anagnost said Ontario is rich in terms of soccer talent, and it is also a great chance to show some of the players Central is recruiting how CMU plays.

Team Ontario consists of many of the Canadian U-17 players with 11 of the 20 players on the national U-17 team coming from the Province.

The national U-17 team recently won the U-17 Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football championship with Ontario native and midfielder Kinley McNicoll scoring the only goal within the first 10 minutes of the game.

Central has had its fair share of soccer players from Ontario — sophomores Laura Twidle and Ashley Mejilla being the most recent players and junior Chelsi Abbott being the third member of the team from the Province.

Twidle said she is excited to face a team she was once a part of and knows Team Ontario has always had a good reputation as being a great team.

“It is exciting to see what is being produced out from there in terms of talent,” she said. “I know they are really good, and it will be really good competition even though they are young.”

Twidle also said the team looks at this scrimmage as a great way to work on what they have been practicing during the offseason, especially since the team only has 15 players still on the team with the former seniors no longer playing.

“In the offseason, it is all practice for us,” she said. “I’m trying to focus on my weaknesses and, at the same time, combining them with my strengths.”

The Chippewas have scrimmaged multiple teams from around the region already this Spring, including Wisconsin for the second consecutive year, and takes on Michigan Saturday in Ann Arbor.

Along with being a state champion his senior year in high school at Detroit Catholic Central, Steintrager also placed second at Senior Nationals and Junior Nationals.

Like most Central wrestlers, he took a redshirt his first year to get acquainted with collegiate wrestling. However, after a rather successful season competing unattached,
Steintrager was unable to secure a starting spot in the Central Michigan lineup with Luke Smith competing for the team at 125 pounds.

A year later, Steintrager again was not able to get into the starting lineup, despite taking fifth at the Michigan State Open. His only two losses in the tournament came to Angel Escobedo of Indiana and Michigan State’s Franklin Gomez, both wrestlers who would later win national titles.

After three years of not cracking the starting lineup, Steintrager took his Olympic redshirt and went through a rough patch academically.

“It was a little demoralizing at times,” he said, “but I constantly picked myself up.”
While Steintrager had seen others around him quit the team because of lack of matches, wrestling to him was too important.

“It crossed my mind, and I thought, ‘Why am I doing this?’” he said. “But it was never as strong as the drive to continue. It was never that close.”

Coach Tom Borrelli has seen wrestlers like Steintrager — wrestlers who have great
accomplishments coming into college, but cannot quite get into the starting lineup.

“If someone really enjoys the sport and feels that they can accomplish big things regardless of how much they get the opportunity to wrestle, I think it is those guys that stick it out,” he said. “It is the guys who get frustrated about not being the starter right away and don’t really believe in the benefit of hard work that usually end up quitting.”

A CHANCE TO START

While Streintrager admits it was not the best of times for him through the first three seasons, he still wanted to be a part of the CMU wrestling tradition for his last year.

However, just like in previous years, if he wanted to wrestle, he was going to have to earn it.
Senior Conor Beebe had switched places in the lineup with Scotti Sentes at 125 pounds, and Steintrager was going to have to beat out the three-time and now four-time NCAA qualifier for a spot.

Borrelli said nothing was given to Steintrager this season. Everything had to be earned.

“He had to really make the varsity because Conor made the decision to go down to 125,” he said. “I really didn’t know who the starter would be.”

But Steintrager took the starting spot and beat Beebe twice in the process, once at the
Intrasquad match and the other at Midlands. Steintrager took fourth among heavy competition.

Steintrager said this season just proves why he believed all those years of waiting for his time.

“Sometimes, it was hard, but I pushed through and proved it this year,” he said.

THIS SEASON

The senior quickly moved up the rankings as the season wore on and, after dominating the Mid-American Conference competition while going 8-0 (including a first-place showing at the MAC tournament), Steintrager was given the eighth seed entering the NCAA tournament.

Streintrager won the first round of the tournament Thursday morning. And despite losing in the second round to Penn State’s Brad Pataky, Steintrager is still vying for a third-place finish.

“I always knew that I was good enough to do it (wrestle collegiately),” Steintrager said. “If I would’ve just fallen apart, I would have always been that guy who knew he could have done it, but didn’t.”

125 pounds – Matt Steintrager (CMU) vs. Dan Bishop (UB)

Steintrager may already have won the MAC title as it is unlikely for Bishop to be able to compete. Bishop was slammed on the back of his head in his semi-final match against Gabe Ramos from Ohio. Bishop had opened a 4-0 lead before he was unable to finish. Steintrager earned a fall in his first-round match and defeated Kent State sophomore Troy Opfer with a
5-1 decision.

Prediction – Steintrager takes his first MAC Championship in his first year in the starting lineup.

133 pounds – Scotti Sentes (CMU) vs. Dan Mitcheff (KSU)

Sentes won his first-round match with a 10-3 decision agianst NIU’s Tristen Deshazer and then battled Eastern Michigan’s Sean Clair to a 11-8 win. Mitcheff got the bye and then defeated Buffalo’s Kevin Smith 5-2. When Sentes and Mitcheff met earlier this season, Sentes came away with the 3-2 victory, but could not score a takedown against Mitcheff. It will be interesting to see if Mitcheff will go down. Sentes’s strength is on top, and he rode Mitcheff out the entire period last time they wrestled.

Prediction - Sentes’s length is too much for Mitcheff to deal with. Sentes by decision.

141 – Conor Beebe (CMU) vs. Pat McLemore (NIU)

Beebe has yet to give up a point in the MAC tournament as he shutout Kent State freshman Chase Skonieczny 4-0 to advance to the finals. McLemore upset Ohio junior Germane Lindsey, defending MAC champion, in a narrow 6-4 decision to advance to the finals against Beebe. McLemore took the MAC tournament title two season ago. Beebe defeated McLemore in a 5-3 decision in their regular season match.

Prediction – Beebe finally gets over the hump and wins his first MAC Championship.

149 pounds- Desi Green (UB) vs. Seth Morton (OU)

Green advanced after defeating NIU’s Dan Ruettiger in the semifinals 3-2 after a first-round bye. Morton advanced on a bye and then pulled the upset against Central’s Tony D’Alie 6-5. Green is great at making his matches third-period matches. He is used to being in close matches and it showed in his semifinal match. Morton, on the other hand, has been on a roll winning six of his last seven matches.

Prediction- Morton continues to be the surprise of the tournament scoring a win against the No. 1 seed Green by decision.

157 – Steve Brown (CMU) vs. Bryan Deutsch (NIU)

Brown narrowly defeated Ohio senior Clay Tucker in the semifinal match. The 3-2 decision was Brown’s only match of the tournament as he had a bye in the first round. Deutsch also had a first-round bye, but defeated Kent State freshman Mallie Shuster in a 12-3 decision. Brown was injured when the Chippewas defeated Northern Illinois, and the two did not face off.

Prediction – Brown scores his third consecutive MAC Championship.

165 pounds- Tyler Grayson (CMU) vs. John Martin-Cannon (UB)

Grayson got the bye to start the day and then defeated KSU’s Ross Trice 6-1 to get into the
championship bout. Martin-Cannon also got the bye and beat EMU’s Alex Ortman 9-4 and seemed to get stronger as the match continued. Grayson took the bout earlier this season with a pin in the third period.

Prediction - Grayson scores another championship for the Chippewas. The 165 pound weight class just isn’t very deep this year.

174 – Ben Bennett (CMU) vs. Keith Witt (KSU)

Bennett has rolled through his MAC competition this year with a number of techincal falls. Bennett continued that streak against Buffalo junior Brian Sheehan with a 14-2 major decision. Witt advanced to the finals by earning a fall against Ohio senior Jacob Ison with one second remaining in the bout. Witt was the only MAC wrestler that Bennett did not earn at least a technical fall against, but still lost in a 9-3 decision.

Prediction – Bennett is too much for anyone in the MAC this year.

184 pounds- Dustin Kilgore (KSU) vs. Nick Purdue (OU)

Kilgore scored major decisions in his two bouts with a 15-6 win against UB’s Josh Peters and then a 11-2 win against Eastern’s Phillip Joseph. Purdue got his team a bonus point scoring the pin in the first round against Zach Benzio of NIU and then took out CMU’s Mike Miller 7-5 in the semifinals. Kilgore has dominated the MAC in his career, having never lost a MAC match. Purdue kept it close against Kilgore in their second match of the year while losing 6-3.

Prediction- Kilgore continues to dominate the MAC and claims the championship.

197 – Jimmy Hamel (UB) vs. Erik Schuth (OU)

These two wrestlers narrowly made it to the finals as Hamel won a 3-1 decision in overtime
and Schuth pulled out a 1-0 decision. Hamel had an impressive performance in the first round as he was the only wrestler in the championship bracket to earn a major decision. Hamel upset Schuth in their regular season match up with a 4-3 decision. At No. 19 in the nation, Schuth is the only nationally ranked 197-pounder in the MAC.

Prediction – Schuth avenges the regular season loss with a win.

285 – Jarod Trice (CMU) vs. Brendan Barlow (KSU)

Trice took out OU’s Andy Hartshorn 7-3 in the semifinals after a first-round bye. Barlow likewise had the bye and then defeated NIU’s Dakota Greenhaw 3-1 to get into the championship in his first year as the starter. Trice has been living on the edge lately against MAC opponents and, although the 7-3 score might not indicate it, his semifinal went down to the end. Barlow barely lost to Trice in the regular season as the two had to go into extra time until Trice was able to pull it out.

Prediction- Trice’s talent trumps his emotion and he pulls off the win for his first ever MAC Championship.

Senior Steve Brown said although most teams would be satisfied with the performance, CMU is disappointed it could not reach its goal of 10 finalists.

“Here is where we try to raise the bar to ourselves,” he said. “We try to raise our expectations as a team, so we aren’t very happy with seven in the finals. Our goal was to have 10 in the finals but, with that said, now we want seven champions.”

Perhaps more importantly, all 10 wrestlers still have a chance for the NCAA Championships, and that is the true goal for Central come March.

“At this time of year, it’s about getting your hand raised and continuing to advance,” said coach Tom Borrelli.

Senior Tyler Grayson, who beat Kent State’s Ross Trice 6-1 in the semifinals, echoed his coach’s thoughts about needing to win in the finals on Sunday.

“I feel like I wrestled pretty good today,” he said. “You always want to do a little better, but anytime you can get a win, you have to be happy with the way you performed.”

Seven of the eight No. 1 seeded Central wrestlers advanced including Brown, who advances for a chance to earn his third consecutive MAC championship.

“I feel like I had a slow start,” he said. “I feel with the environment of fans being here really helped my moral and got me going and helped me with the match.”

CMU leads the team standings after the first day with 54.5 points. Kent State is in second with 44 and Buffalo third with 41.5.

Senior Tony D’Alie, junior Mike Miller and senior Eric Simaz were the only CMU wrestlers not to advance to the championship, but all will wrestle for third place tomorrow.

“I’m sure those three guys are pretty disappointed,” Borrelli said. “I think all need to come back and take third and see what happens. Maybe they can come wrestle for true second.”

Championship bouts begin at 11 a.m. Sunday at Rose Arena.

The senior 157-pound wrestler remembers what it was like for him when his parents got divorced early in his life and how his dad had to raise him and his siblings alone.

“He made a lot of sacrifices for me and my brother and sister,” he said. “Knowing the things he did for us and the troubles and issues we went through, I really see the other side of things and hardships in life.”

So when Brown came to Central Michigan, he knew where he could make a difference and help the kids that others could not.

Brown, interning at the Vision Program, an alternative middle school for kids ages 12 to 16 in Mount Pleasant, is getting a chance to make a difference.

“We try to do what we can in helping them succeed and move on,” Brown said. “Whether it just getting to and passing high school or beyond that.”

With only two classrooms, Vision allows a lot more one-on-one interaction that normally kids would not receive in a regular public school.

“We offer an opportunity for students who struggle in a traditional classroom setting,” said Matthew Cole, Director of the Vision Program. “They are at risk for failure because their needs require special time. Perhaps they have fear in larger groups or just don’t function well in large
group settings and they are able to come here and focus on their needs to prepare them for high school.”

It is that one-on-one interaction that allows Brown to make a difference with the students, Cole said.

“With someone like him, we have the opportunity to give the students more of one-on-one interactions,” he said. “It isn’t always academic — sometimes if they are having a rough day, someone like Steve is able to sit in and work with them individually.”

Early on

Although Brown was caught by surprise by actions of students the first few days of the internship in early January, he quickly realized why he was picked.

“I feel a lot of the time these kids have behavior issues,” he said. “I have a background with it with some issues with my family or just kids that I grew up with. I feel like I can see the other side and give another view and reach the kids in a different way.”

One of the most important times for Brown to learn about and help the students comes after lunch during group sessions.

Students from the seventh and eighth grade will come together with Brown and the counselor at Vision, Kelly Martin, to go over ideas, concepts and feelings.

Brown said it can be frustrating at times, especially when a lot of the issues run deeper than one or two days of group sessions.

“I’ve only been with them for a couple of months, but I do see progress,” he said, “I feel like I
have made a strong connection with some of the kids. Now that I have their attention and have their trust, now I can start working with them.

“There are a lot of things from their past or childhood that you can’t just fix in one night. I just want to start the process of getting better.”

Early on in the internship, Brown chose to learn about the kids instead of immediately going into
lesson plan-type events, and he said it paid off.

Lesson plan

A few weeks into working at Vision, Brown was able to lead the group sessions by himself without Martin and chose to let the students pick what they would do during part of the 70-minute time period.

The students wanted to watch movies, and Brown decided to take movies such as “The Dark Knight” and “Drillbit Taylor” and turn them into learning experiences.

From the bullying in “Drillbit Taylor” to Bruce Willis not being respectful while falling asleep during meetings, Brown found a way for the students to learn concepts while they enjoyed their time.

They would all watch the movies for the first half an hour or so and the rest of the time talk about what they saw and learned.

“One of the things I want to do was get comfortable and get to know the kids,” he said. “So I let them choose what we got to do.”

And while Brown has to be an authoritative figure at school, he also wants to let the students see an example from someone who may have not had the easiest life but achieved well beyond what
most would expect.

Future

Brown is planning on graduating this May with a degree in sociology with a concentration in criminal justice but, even with graduating, he is not planning on just leaving Vision when his
internship ends.

“I try to be a role model,” he said. “I try to be someone they can look up to and aspire to. I just try
to get them on the right path. I have been in athletics my whole life, so goal setting is important, trying to obtain the next level, looking up to people.”

Brown said he know every student he meets and talks to is different and not every student will be able to achieve as much as the staff wants, and he sees this as a future for himself — a way to help the community.

“Even if you can’t reach the entire class, you can reach one or two, then I feel like it is still a success,” he said.

The Chippewas play Nebraska twice Friday, Auburn on Saturday and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville on Sunday.

“This week was a whole lot of anxiousness and nervousness but, at the same time, we’re really excited to play,” said sophomore shortstop Molly Coldren. “We’re pumped and ready to show we’re a whole new team this year.”

Nebraska and Auburn qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year, while SIU-Edwardsville went 40-10.

Coach Margo Jonker said she wants to see who translates the abilities from offseason practice to actual games.

“It is a matter of putting the whole game together to see who goes where, who works well in competition, who is competitive, who plays better under pressure and who does not, and all of that,” she said.

Returning for Central this season is junior pitcher Kari Seddon, a first-team All-Mid-American Conference player in 2008 who missed all of last season with an injury.
Jonker said Seddon is practicing as well as she was in 2008, but she wants to see how Seddon will compete against opposition instead of teammates.

CMU does not return a lot of pitching experience and Jonker said it will be key for the pitchers to come out ready to pitch.

“I think it is important that the pitchers come out strong, but none of them have had much Division-I experience in the last year, so we have to give them some time to get back in,” she said.

Sophomore Courtney King is the only pitcher returning who pitched last season, going 0-3 with a 4.20 ERA in five appearances.

Junior Brittini Merchant said the team wants to be aggressive in the batter’s box.

“I think, right now, we are focusing on being aggressive in the box,” she said. “Having a good at-bat and not getting frustrated by remembering that it is just the beginning of the season and we have a long road ahead of us.”

Coldren said she is expecting herself to move into a leadership role as the season starts.

“I’m just focused on being a leader and making sure my team is always up and positive the whole time,” she said.

After the Tiger Invitational, CMU is off until the USF Tournament starting March 5.

Instead Kern will take on No. 17 Nick Purdue of Ohio on Friday and Kent State’s No. 5 Dustin Kilgore on Sunday.

Kern came to Central expecting to redshirt a season after going 60-2 and winning a state championship at 189 pounds his senior season at Fowlerville high school.

But when the coaches realized junior Mike Miller would be out with an injury after National Duals Jan. 9 and Mid-American Conference play starting up, it would be Kearn who was put into the starting lineup.

“I was just planning on redshirting and preparing for next season,” he said. “But with injuries and everything, a spot opened up for me so I’m just trying to make the best of the opportunity.”

Kern quickly learned the difference between wrestling at open tournaments and high school to wrestling at Division I for No. 6 Central Michigan.

“The crowd here is good,” he said, “You get a lot of suport but the competition is a lot better than in opens.”

Having lost all five of his matches since moving into the starting lineup, Kearn said he is focused on listening to the coaches during practice and bring that into an actual match.

“I need to work on my feet a lot and getting up off the bottom,” he said. “I just need to work on maturing and getting stronger.”

Coach Tom Borrelli said he has seen a difference in Kern in his matches just over the course of the five matches.

“He has been very competitive in his last few matches,” he said. “He has had a chance to win both of those matches, he just has to stay basic and more fundamental and believe in the stuff he is working on in practice.”

After losing three straight matches by major decision when he moved into the lineup, Kern’s latest two losses have come by one point against Northern Illinois’s Zach Benzio and three points February 7 to Buffalo’s Josh Peters last Sunday.

Borrelli said Kern’s biggest issue is needs to adjust and stay with what the coaches and veterans on the team are teaching him during practice.

“He sometimes reverts back to things that aren’t as high percentage that worked back in high school and it ends up catching up to him in the matches,” Borrelli said.