Molly Coldren sets CMU home run record in win against Detroit
Junior Molly Coldren stepped into the batter's box in the bottom of the second inning on Wednesday against Detroit with senior Kari Seddon standing on second base.
She watched the first pitch go by, then drilled an inside pitch over the left-field wall bringing all over her teammates screaming and racing out of the dugout to begin the celebration at home before Coldren trotted around second base.
Coldren’s bomb broke the Central Michigan softball career home run record when she hit the towering shot over the left field wall as CMU beat Detroit 10-0 in five innings. The previous record was 19, held my Christina Novak who played her senior season last year for CMU.
“I’m honored, I honestly don’t really know what to say about it,” Coldren said. “It’s not really hitting me yet. It’s an honor for our team as well.”
Coldren’s 20th time watching the softball go over the fence in a Chippewa uniform was her team-leading sixth of the season. But a few hours after she broke the record, she added to it in the second game of the doubleheader.
“From previous at bats I knew she was grooving the first one,” Coldren said about third at bat of the second game. “So I tried to go with the first one.”
She put that first pitch just around the foul pole down the left field line for her second bomb of the day, seventh of the year and 21st of her career.
“Molly has great exit velocity on her bat,” said CMU head coach Margo Jonker. “When she’s loose she can rocket the ball."
It isn’t the first time Coldren will find her name in the CMU record books. Last year, as a sophomore, she set a single-season record with 11 home runs. Already with seven this year she has a chance at breaking that again. The only home run record she hasn’t filled is most in one game.
“It’s awesome,” Seddon said of the record. “I’m encouraging her to hit more and more, (and) set that record high.”
Coldren will have the rest of this year and all of next to improve her total.
“Obviously she has great bat speed,” Jonker said. “She’s got another year left so I anticipate that continuing on. We need her to keep hitting in pressure situations and get some RBIs because that’s what it’s all about.”
