CMU softball kicks off 12-game, 12-day series in Florida on Friday
Central Michigan softball can expect plenty of warm weather and good competition during its trip to Clearwater, Fla. next week.
But fans?
Yep. Head coach Margo Jonker said CMU can expect to be represented in Florida over the team’s spring break down south.
“We’ll get fans there,” Jonker said. “We get alumni to come and retired professors that live down there.”
The Chippewas can also expect to play a wide variety of teams over the 10 days in the Sunshine State. CMU will play 12 different teams over eight days of games.
“It’ll be good – it’s a lot of games and a lot of pitchers with different styles,” Jonker said.
The offense sputtered in CMU’s last trip to Florida two weeks ago, getting shut out twice and scoring three or less runs in three other games.
“With playing more the offense will come,” Jonker said. “It’s always the last to come.”
Jonker was also displeased with her the location of her pitching staff’s pitching selection. So in the two weeks between games the pitchers have worked in the cages with batters standing beside the plate.
“That is good for our hitters too because they can track the pitches,” Jonker said. “I want to see more consistency for our offense and improve our on-base percentage.”
CMU didn’t get complacent on what helped them off to a 3-3 record either.
“We wanted to keep our skills sharp … we focused on our (sacrifice) bunting, which we did well on,” Jonker said. “We worked on things we weren’t sharp on, like consistency on defense.”
The Chippewas travel Thursday and plays the first two games of the trip Friday against College of Charleston (10-5) and Radford (3-6) to kick of the Under Armour Invitational, hosted by the University of South Florida.
Other Mid-American Conference teams Ball State, Western Michigan and Toledo will be also take part in the tournament, but CMU won’t face any conference teams or Michigan, who’s also playing in the invitational.
The team doesn’t play Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday will be an off day for the players, while Thursday CMU will practice before the final weekend in Florida.
“We head to Florida and the focus shifts to all softball for a week,” Jonker said excitedly. “Focus is all softball this week.”
CMU Softball Spring Break Schedule USF Under Armour Invitational (Clearwater, Fla.) - Mar. 4 College of Charleston, 10 a.m. - Mar. 4 Radford, 12:30 p.m. - Mar. 5 Columbia, 10 a.m. - Mar. 5 Quinnipiac, 12:30 p.m. - Mar. 6 Wagner, 9:30 a.m.
Mar. 7 Maine, TBA (Clearwater, Fla.) Mar. 8 St. Joseph, TBA (Clearwater, Fla.)
USF Under Armour Showcase Tournament (Clearwater, Fla.) - Mar. 11 Central Connecticut, 12:30 p.m. - Mar. 11 Colorado State, 5:30 p.m. - Mar. 12 South Florida, 3 p.m. - Mar. 12 Long Island, 8 p.m. - Mar. 13 Boston University, 12 noon
