Ball State will travel to Fort Wayne, Ind., today to face IPFW for the first time since falling to the team 5-4 in 2010.
Cardinals offensive leader junior Jennifer Gilbert has yet to face the Mastodons in her collegiate career and has one goal in order to be successful: “See the ball, hit the ball,” she said.
Gilbert is not worried about her stats at the plate, but is focused on putting the ball in play against a defense she has never played against.
“Taking advantage of mistakes when they are thrown at you,” she said.
Coach Craig Nicholson does not anticipate a lot of scoring early on between the two strong offensive teams as they adjust.
In preparation for seeing the team for the first time since 2010, Nicholson plans on making pregame adjustments to the Cardinals defense by battling early and taking advantage of their offense.
“The second and third time through, our offense is better,” he said. “The good thing is they are going to be in the same boat with our pitching,”
Freshman Nicole Steinbach has been winner of the Mid-American Conference West Division pitcher-of-the-week for three consecutive weeks. Steinbach recorded no walks Saturday against Toledo, and a solo walk against Bowling Green on Friday.
“It starts with her throwing strikes,” Nicholson said. “When she uses all of her pitches, she is going to be very effective.”
Nicholson continues to strengthen his team’s defense to match its offense by using repetition and potential game situations in practice.
“It is definitely an area that we need to clean up a little bit,” he said. “We tend to put so much into what we are doing offensively that we relax a little bit when we are playing defense.”
Ball State will play its first home game of the season Friday in a double header against Northern Illinois.
