Heading into the UT-Martin Tournament at the University of Tennessee at Martin, the Ball State University softball team will look to ride the momentum it gained last weekend.
The Cardinals (5-5) return to the state of Tennessee, where they went 4-1 last weekend at the Panera Bread Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Coach Craig Nicholson said Ball State will try to build upon the solid weekend at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
"I think it's big for us in terms of confidence," he said. "Our thing right now is just trying to get on a roll and get some consistency."
Pitcher Tiffany Garofano said confidence is very important to the team as it continues to improve and gel together.
"I think it's going to be very important, just as long as you don't get too overly confident or cocky," she said.
Ball State opens up its tournament play against another Indiana school, Indiana State University (2-3), at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Cardinals then continue play against the host the UT-Martin (5-6) at 12:30 p.m. They conclude their first day of play at 3 p.m. against the University of Minnesota (11-5). Ball State then concludes its weekend with games against the University of Northern Iowa (7-2) at 10 a.m. and Dartmouth College (0-0) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Nicholson said Ball State is in a spot with its weekend schedule in which it can win three or four games. While the Cardinals have the ability to finish on the plus side of .500 this weekend, he said, the teams on the schedule are good, especially those in the Saturday games.
Making the Saturday games even more challenging is that there are three of them back-to-back-to-back, Nicholson said, a feat the team is not used to. It is important for Ball State to set the tone early, he said.
"The first game is huge," Nicholson said, "just being able to get out there and get things going."
The difference in setting the tone will determine if the consecutive games are a good thing, Nicholson said.
If the Cardinals struggle early it would be a challenge to claw back, and it would be nice to go to the hotel and regroup, he said. If they get momentum going, they would like to keep playing and keep the momentum, he said.
With four freshmen starting at least nine games, and a fifth starting three more, it is important to keep reinforcing the positives, Nicholson said.
"For us, anything positive we can build on is a plus," he said.
Some positives last week were Amanda Pick and Garofano, who won the Mid-American Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week awards for their play in the Panera Bread Tournament.
Garofano said she didn't think she deserved the award last weekend and that she has a lot of work to do before the Cardinals get to conference play. She said this weekend is important and she will work on hitting her spots and helping the team.
"It's very important," she said. "All of our tournaments are important to the girls of the team together."
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