As a head coach the past three seasons, Lane’s team set offensive records with the highest batting average, runs scored, doubles, triples and home runs. Lane came on CMU head coach Margo Jonker’s radar when she was an assistant at Northern Illinois.

“I’m very similar to coach Jonker, very firm, we have the same philosophy,” Lane said. “I think we’ll work great together.”

Lane will help as a hitting coach for the Chippewas with her South Dakota State teams having much success.

“I look for power and average,” Lane said. “We have to create opportunities on offense to generate runs. Stealing bases, getting hits and scoring runs — whatever it takes.”

She isn’t worried about moving from head coach to an assistant role and is excited to learn from Jonker and adding her knowledge to the program.
“My goal is just to coach from a successful program,” Lane said.

Lane graduated from Georgetown in 2002, she joins the staff with another new addition of Jenna Alexander who’s a graduate assistant. Alexander played and was a student coach at Purdue.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity,” Lane said. “Two new people on the staff. It’s exciting.”

Jonker and Lane will have to focus on replacing vital seniors from last year’s team including Kari Seddon, Brittini Merchant and Amanda Patrick.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a rebuilding year,” Lane said. “Obviously the goal every year is to win though. There’s a lot of positions with no returning starters, so there will be competitions every day.”

CMU returns Kara Dornbos and Molly Coldren, leaders from last season. Coldren has nine more career home runs than any other player in program history.

If she gets 35 runs batted in next season, she’ll become the program leader in that as well. She had 39 last season.

“We do have things to build on,” Lane said. “Molly Coldren is coming off a great season and had a great tournament run.”

Dornbos is a piece the Chippewas can build off of in the circle last year.

Dornbos will be the ace after finishing with a team-best 2.25 earned run average and second team all-conference.

“I’m very excited to come to the program and compete for a championship,” Lane said.

The Michigan Amateur Softball Association held its annual state tournament in Mount Pleasant at CMU’s intramural fields this past weekend where it welcomed 102 teams.

“I love this sport,” said Katie Howard, a 17-year-old Drillers outfielder from Jehnsen Lake. “I love the atmosphere when you’re here, and that when you’re on the field all of your worries are gone and nothing else matters.”

The state tournament welcomes teams from across the state of Michigan to participate, while the first-, second- and third-place teams are offered a spot in the national tournament.

The tournament is broken up into four age groups with some being broken up into two levels. The age groups are 12 and under, 14 and under A and B, 16 and under A and B and 18 and under.

“This tournament offers better competition for the girls,” Shepherd resident Bill Albaugh said. “There are more teams here and more travel elite teams so this tournament only makes each girl better.”

Howard said playing better teams makes each individual player better.

That way, she said, no matter win or lose, you’re still getting something out of it.

Kaye Bouck, director of the Mount Pleasant Girls Softball Association, helped organize the tournament.

Bouck ran to each field to drop off extra balls, made sure every game ran smoothly and occasionally did some bookwork in the middle of it all.

“She does so much for this tournament, but not only the tournament, (also) for girls around this area,” Albaugh said. “She is willing to help anyone who needs the help. She does a ton.”

Bouck has been active in softball her whole life, and started coaching her oldest daughter at the age of 10.

Though Albaugh said Bouck did a lot of work to put the tournament together, she would not take all the credit.

“I don’t do any of the organization of the tournament,” she said. “The City of Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant Parks and Recreation and MASA does all that. I’m just the assistant director.”

Bouck also spends her time working with the recreational league in Mount Pleasant.

That was the case May 15 as in-state rival Western Michigan beat the Central Michigan softball team 9-0 in the Mid-American Conference consolation semifinal in Akron, Ohio.

Senior pitcher Kari Seddon didn’t have an ideal day in what was her final time on the mound as a Chippewa. She allowed four hits and seven earned runs in just one and two thirds innings. Meanwhile, junior Meredith Whitney maintained a one-hitter with seven strikeouts to carry the Broncos.

WMU’s second inning was one to remember. Arguably, the largest hit was when senior Michelle Bendewald hit a three-run home run over the left field wall.

Senior infielder Amanda Patrick was the only Chippewa to get a hit off Whitney all afternoon.

The Broncos went on to win the 2011 MAC Tournament Championship later in the day. Whitney was named the tournament MVP, pitching three complete games.

Junior Ashley Gilson got the start in left field, only her second start since April 5. She didn’t disappoint with two hits and three runs batted in.

“It’s been a roller coaster year for me,” Gilson said. “Coach gave me a chance today and I just wanted to step up and get us back to playing Chippewa softball. It picks my spirit back up.”

Gilson came into the day with only four hits, one RBI and one extra base hit. She tripled her RBI total and, in her first at-bat, hit her first home run of the season, tying the game at 1.

Sophomore pitcher Kara Dornbos takes the rubber Sunday against EMU. Dornbos pitched five innings and had seven strikeouts during the Chippewas' 11-3 win. (Andrew Kuhn/Staff Photographer)

“She gave me the ball on a silver platter,” Gilson said of the pitch. “I just had to relax and swing.”

Gilson made a full-extension diving catch down the left field line with runners on in the final inning.

“She was key for us today,” CMU head coach Margo Jonker said of Gilson. “Obviously her first at bat she hit a home run and that defensive play was an amazing play that could have been a game changer. She did awesome today.”

Molly Coldren hit her grand slam in the middle of a nine-run fourth inning that saw five CMU hits and one Eagle error.

Kara Dornbos won her team-high 11th win in the circle after throwing five innings, striking out seven and only giving up two earned runs.

“Dornbos’ drop ball was moving quite well today,” Jonker said. “It was good for her to get ahead of hitters.”

CMU (26-18, 10-8 Mid-American Conference) will take tomorrow off and hold a few workouts during finals week, focusing on softball after that. On Friday, the Chippewas host Kent State for a doubleheader and play Buffalo on Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re hoping to shift this momentum into next weekend against Kent State and Buffalo,” Gilson said.

“We didn’t play well,” said CMU head coach Margo Jonker. “I was feeling good when we were up 4-1, but we cannot give up a lead like that in one inning. It’s ridiculous.”

The Eagles scored three runs in the sixth inning, on a pair of home runs from Sarah Gerber and Kayla Kostirch, and added another in the seventh to get their first lead since the first inning.

Two solo home runs from seniors Amanda Patrick and Kari Seddon helped build an early lead, while Seddon drove in another run in the fifth to put the Chippewas up 4-1.

Senior first baseman Amanda Klosterman bats during Saturday's game against Eastern Michigan. Klosterman went 1-for-3. (Kaitlin Thoresen/Staff Photographer)

After that the mistakes aided an EMU comeback.

“We made defensive mistakes,” Jonker said. “We made base running mistakes. We threw the ball too much.”

The loss was only CMU’s second at home this season.

“We did not hustle,” Jonker said. “A couple people in particular did not hustle.”

Dornbos picked up the loss after walking two and allowing one to score in her only inning of relief. Seddon started the game, pitching six innings and allowed four runs.

The loss puts CMU at 25-18 and 9-8 in the Mid-American Conference. To qualify for the MAC tournament, a team must finish in the top two of their division or top four teams after that.

The teams will meet again at 1 p.m. Sunday at Margo Jonker Stadium.

“We got to win,” Jonker said. “Without winning we’re not even going to get into the tournament. We better have more guts then that when we come out tomorrow.

“(We have to) be ready to play 100 percent – we were not tough enough today.”

At the age of six she was already throwing to her mom and a coach. Now Seddon is a fifth-year senior at Central Michigan and still works on her pitching, even at the tail end of her collegiate career.

“Our parents always were involved with sports,” Seddon said. “There’s a picture of us being rolled out of a gym in strollers. We were always gym rats.”

Seddon even worked with Jonker at a young age.

“She came here to a clinic when I think she was eight years old,” said CMU head coach Margo Jonker. “Her dad’s really into it — it’s certainly a bat/ball family.”

Her older brother Brad and younger brother Joel are naturals on the diamond, just like Kari.

“It was weird because our dad always coached high school basketball and the boys played football,” Seddon said. “We’re a softball and baseball family now. My dad has become very knowledgeable.”

In high school Kari played basketball and volleyball at St. Clair High School along with softball. She was all-state for basketball twice.

“I loved it. It kept me in shape and helped me with my softball abilities,” Seddon said. “I always knew I was better at softball. It became clear when I was a freshman and sophomore — coaches were coming to my games and had interest in me.”

Brad gave Kari help during the recruiting process, since he already did it as a Michigan baseball player.

“He was huge for me, especially when I was talking to coaches and trying to pick a school,” Seddon said.

Brad pitched at Michigan from 2003-07, and now is assistant coach at St. Clair High School.

“It’s been great to watch her go up there and she has been so successful for the last five years,” Brad said of Kari coming to CMU. “It’s been a joy to watch her grow.”

Kari has grown up into a Chippewa leader. She has won 42 games in the circle, one off breaking the program’s top ten, and is in the top 10 in career strikeouts, appearances, innings pitched and complete games.

Her 434 strikeouts are fourth-best in CMU history.

“She is a power pitcher,” Brad said. “She attacks batters. I was more of a finesse pitcher. I was a soft-tossing lefty.”

Even through all her accomplishments, like All-MAC honors in 2008, Kari stayed humble. After all her great performances in the circle or at the plate she gives credit to her teammates and coaches.

“It’s a big part of our lives, we were taught to have good character,” Brad said. “No matter what you do on the field you have to do the right things off the field.

Her softball coach thinks that she has done a good just of being a good person with great character.

“Kari Seddon is a great person and great individual as well as a great player,” Jonker said. “She comes from a very good family.”

Kari is really close with her two brothers and parents. So close that her and Brad are looking for work in Columbia, S.C. because next year Joel will be going to play baseball for the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Joel, like Brad and Kari, is a pitcher.

“Joel is probably the most athletically gifted,” Brad said. “But you can’t beat Kari’s competitiveness.”

Wednesday, Kari showed that, throwing 11 innings as CMU beat Michigan State in East Lansing. She had runners on base in several scoring positions, but managed to work her way out of the jams.

“Put her in tough positions and she’ll find a way to get out of it,” Brad said. “For example look at the Michigan State game; she just wouldn’t let them lose that game.”

Kari wants to move down to Columbia and be a teacher and coach, just like her big brother and dad. All while helping her brother on and off the field.

“(Brad) was a support system for me. When I had bad days he picked me up,” Seddon said. “I’m looking to move there so I can be that for Joel.”

The sophomore pitcher leads the team with a 2.26 earned run average, good enough for third in the Mid-American Conference with pitchers that have thrown more than 10 innings. Dornbos has thrown the most innings of any Chippewa and is tied with senior Kari Seddon for most wins (10).

Against now No. 1 Michigan, she threw six innings and only allowed three runs. Her outing kept CMU in the game and kept it within striking distance.

She was named MAC West Pitcher of the Week after throwing two complete games, including a shutout while striking out eight against Central Connecticut.

Dornbos has thrown four shutouts and 15 complete games in her team-high 24 appearances. There have only been three times Dornbos has started the game in the circle that she didn’t finish.

Time and time again Kara came out and shut down her opponent. Between her and Seddon, they are arguably the best pitching combination in the MAC. Dornbos is only a sophomore but has a bright future ahead at CMU.

Honorable Mention: Kari Seddon

The senior leader from St. Clair did it both in the circle and in the batters box. Whenever the Chippewas needed a big pitching outing or clutch hit, Seddon delivered.

Her 2.35 ERA helped her win 10 games, including a big win at Michigan State where she threw all 11 innings. Offensively she has three home runs, 24 runs batted in and .303 batting average.

Honorable Mention: Molly Coldren

Coldren belted 12 home runs so far this season and broke her own single-season record.

She shattered the career record for home runs as the junior belted 26 homers for the Chippewas.

The shortstop has driven in 35 runs and has the highest average amongst players with more than 10 at bats with a .406 average. She also has the second best slugging percentage in the MAC.

The Chippewas are 9-1 this season at home.

“There’s a little bit of a comfort zone (at home),” CMU head coach Margo Jonker said. “We just have played well and played with great energy. Just need to keep that going.”

The Eagles come to Mount Pleasant on a skid — losing four of their last five games. EMU is currently ahead of CMU by the slimmest of margins in the MAC West standings at 8-6, while CMU is 9-7.

“Eastern is one of our rivals and one of our goals is to beat all the in-state schools and beat all the conference schools,” Jonker said. “They fit into both categories, so obviously we’re big on beating Eastern.”

EMU has the MAC’s third-best team batting average at .312 and second-best earned run average — allowing 2.6 runs a game.

“(EMU) is notorious for good hitting and they always fired up to play us,” Jonker said. “They always play their best game against us.”

That ERA is very much due to the stellar play from sophomore Jenna Ignowski. She is 12-4 with a 1.92 ERA and has tossed six shutouts while striking out 103 batters.

“They’re good competition,” said CMU senior Kari Seddon. “We always have close games with them, they’re a scrappy team.”

The MAC tournament takes the top two teams in both divisions and then the next four best teams. Currently CMU would barely make the tournament as one of the last seeds.

“It’s huge that we get the next two wins for our resume,” Seddon said. “We’re trying to earn a spot in the MAC tournament.”

Seddon and the Chippewas are coming off a big win at Michigan State were she threw an 11 innings in an 8-3 win.

“If we play like we have been, we should have a good weekend,” she said. “We just need to play Chippewa softball.”

The Eagles are two and a half games behind Ball State on top of the MAC standings.

“EMU is right in the running,” Seddon said. “It should be a good weekend.”

On 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday CMU will host EMU. The Chippewas will most-likely throw Seddon and sophomore Kara Dornbos a game each.

Junior Molly Coldren has been hitting good at the plate. She holds a .406 batting average and a team-high 12 home runs. The 12 home runs broke the single-season home run record she set last year at 11.

Coldren has hit at least one home run in the past four games, overall four in the past five games.

“Great win today,” said CMU head coach Margo Jonker. “Kari Seddon pitched a great game today and Patrick obviously had a big hit. We were clicking on all cylinders.”

The two teams went scoreless in three extra innings knotted up at 3 until Patrick, a senior infielder, put the ball over the right field fence, scoring freshman Brittney Horan and sophomore Macy Merchant.

“It was awesome to see,” said Seddon, who was able to enjoy the sight from the on deck circle. “As soon as it hit the bat I knew it was gone.”

Seddon threw her ninth complete game of the year, allowing three runs off eight hits and five strikeouts.

“It was very important to Kari for a number of reasons,” Jonker said. “I’m sure it was nice for her to beat Michigan State.”

Seddon earned her 10th victory of the season and 40th of her career.

“I had great defense today, they made awesome plays to get out of jams,” Seddon said. “Cory (DeLamielleur) did a great job behind the plate framing pitches and my change-up felt good. My ball was moving well.”

Trailing 3-1, Michigan State came back in the bottom of the sixth. Lindsey Hansen hit her second home run of the game — her 15th and 16 this season, respectively — to make the score 3-3.

“One player had (Seddon’s) number, and we just starting walking her,” Jonker said.

The Spartans had several opportunities in extras as they left five runners on base. In the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, MSU put a runner in scoring position but couldn’t capitalize as Seddon pitched her way out of jams in each frame.

“Most innings they had runners on and we just had awesome defense,” Seddon said. “Molly and Brittini (Merchant) made some awesome plays so I just knew we were going to get out of them.”

Junior Molly Coldren scored in the second and fifth from a double and single, respectively. She also added two insurance runs by hitting a two-run homer after Patrick in the 11th.

“I could finally breathe after that,” Seddon said.

Coldren finished the day 3-for-4 with three runs scored, two runs batted in and two walks.

“Molly had a really good day at the plate,” Jonker said. “She was seeing the ball well and hitting pitches in the middle. They started walked her a couple times. They remember two years ago she hit one over the fence against them.”

Beating Michigan State is nothing new to CMU. The Chippewas have beaten MSU in four of the last five years.

“It’s not abnormal,” Jonker said. “You like to beat all your in state rivals.”

CMU will host in-state rival Eastern Michigan on Saturday and Sunday at Margo Jonker Stadium.

They came back from the break to being swept in Cleveland as apart of completely collapsing over the next month to quickly drop off the playoff radar.

If the Tigers would have picked themselves up after that four-game sweep against the Indians, they could have still been in the hunt. But they collapsed with injuries and players slumping to start the break 5-19.

CMU softball is facing a situation somewhat similar to what the Tigers faced after the Indians sweep. They went 1-3 this weekend in heart-breaking fashion to two teams they should have beaten, just like the Tigers should have beaten the Indians then.

But the Chippewas have an opportunity to not be like the 2010 Tigers. They can pick themselves up and, instead of collapsing, finish the season strong. They still have six more Mid-American Conference games left to play. It’s most likely too late to catch Ball State, but still an opportunity.

They also have an opportunity to give themselves some great momentum heading into the MAC tournament.

This past weekend, although it yielded bad results, should have given many CMU hitters confidence. Seniors Amanda Patrick and Kari Seddon each hit two homers, while junior Molly Coldren hit three just on Saturday.

Sophomore Macy Merchant had a two-hit, three-hit and four-hit games. Freshman Brittney Horan had a three-hit game along with Seddon, Patrick and Coldren.

The bats were clearly warm, scoring 15 runs on Saturday alone. If the pitchers can get back to their non-conference form CMU is still a team to be reckoned with, especially come tournament time.

It’s also vital the Chippewas finish the MAC at home. They are 9-1 at home this season, while just 2-6 on the road in conference play.

The Chippewas are at the boiling point of the season much like the Tigers last year in mid-July. Will they finish strong and continue their home dominance, or collapse facing adversity much like the Tigers did last season?

Only time will tell.