Coldren, Dornbos earn MAC West honors
Junior Molly Coldren and sophomore Kara Dornbos swept the weekly Mid-American West softball honors with their play in Clearwater, Fla. last week.
Coldren won MAC West Player of the Week after a .400 batting average, .800 slugging percentage and just one strikeout in the seven games. She also hit two home runs, which put her at 19 in her career, tying the Central Michigan record.
“She’s really relaxing at the plate,” CMU coach Margo Jonker said of her slugger last week when she drove in four runs. “She’s picking the right pitches to hit.”
For the third time this year, a CMU pitcher claimed MAC West Pitcher of the Week when Dornbos went 2-1 last week. Her dropball impressed coach Jonker and helped her strike out 20 hitters and post a 0.76 earned run average in four appearances.
On March 11, Dornbos (4-2) went into Central Connecticut’s last at bats with a perfect game on the line. A double broke it up, but she still earned her second one-hitter of the season.
“I’m sure she was thinking about (the no-hitter),” Jonker said following the game. “But I didn’t even realize it; (I) focused on other things.”
Coldren leads the team with five homers on the year, a .762 slugging percentage and is tied with the most runs batted in with 13. Dornbos has the most wins, complete games at 5, shutouts with 3 and lowest opponent batting average of .159 on the pitching staff.
Coldren and Dornbos will try to keep their momentum going into the Hoosier Classic this weekend in Bloomington, Ind. CMU enters the trip 11-7 and will play against two Big Ten teams, Michigan State and Indiana twice.
