A seven game winning streak is on the line for the Ball State softball team this weekend after a long road trip where the offense found some consistency and balance.
This week, two Cardinals were awarded Mid-American Conference Player of the Week honors. The awards went to Freshman outfielder Hanne Stuedeman and senior catcher Amanda Montalto, marking the third and fourth time a Cardinal softball player received the honor this season.
"We're not a team that relies on one person to get it done," coach Craig Nicholson said about the offensive balance. "I think any given day it could be anybody one through nine in our lineup that has a big day and drives in key runs at key times. There's no place in our lineup for teams to pitch around."
During the winning streak, the Cardinals have managed to score over seven runs a game while continuing the strong pitching that has kept them in games early on this year.
Montalto thinks the biggest change for the team offensively is proper adjustments and getting used to each players role in the batting order.
"The fact that we are able to change our approach, that's the biggest thing, " Montalto said. "We don't stick in the same thing that we're doing and if it's not working for us one week we make that adjustment for the next week."
After a slow start, Stuedeman has hit for a .538 average in her last ten games. She said the big change for her has been confidence.
"It's a different level of softball (in college), but it wasn't really hard to get used to just because I have been playing softball all my life and I've had to make adjustments so I just left the bad at bats in the past so that it wouldn't affect the future ones," Stuedeman said.
Nicholson is excited about his offense, especially when last year's home run leader, sophomore Jennifer Gilbert, still hasn't found the swing from her freshman campaign. He maintained his confidence in her at the top of the order.
"She'll hit," Nicholson said. "it just shows how deep our offense is and the fact that we've been able to still put up runs without our leadoff hitter doing what she is capable of doing yet."
The Cardinals travel to Oxford, OH for the Miami Invitational where they will face Loyola-Chicago on Saturday at 3p.m.
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