Ball State (10-11) found success at the plate as the Cardinals collected 14 hits in back-to-back victories over East Tennessee State (4-12).
Graduate student Haley Wynn collected hit No. 200 as the Cardinals went 2-2 in the Colonel Classic.
Redshirt junior McKayla Timmons finished the weekend with a .529 batting average with five home runs and 12 RBIs.
Redshirt sophomore Jessica Hoffman led the Cardinals with a .333 batting average and finished the event with five hits.
Head coach Helen Peña and redshirt sophomore Jessica Hoffman both had career firsts in the River City Leadoff.
In its opening weekend, Ball State softball went 1-4 in the River City Leadoff.
With a new coaching staff and multiple seniors on its roster, Ball State softball looks to capitalize in its 2024 season.
Even though they have busy schedules due to their sport, Ball State athletes make time to be more than teammates.
After dealing with cancer in their family's lives, Ball State softball’s Emma Eubank and Hannah Dukeman are using their name, image, and likeness for something bigger than themselves. Now, they are being awarded for their charitable act.
After returning to the Mid-American Championship softball tournament for the first time since 2019, the Cardinals went through significant player and personnel changes during the summer, but remain confident going into 2023.
As associate head coach at Middle Tennessee State University, Peña led the Blue Raiders to their second-ever Conference USA Tournament title. This gave the team a berth in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional Final. Before being defeated in the regional by fifth-seed Alabama, the Blue Raiders won three regional games. This is the most wins in a regional by a Conference USA team since 2014.
Ball State Softball head coach Lacy Schurr is stepping down from her position and will move into a role with the coaching staff at the University of Pittsburgh, according to Ball State athletics. “We are grateful to Lacy for her contributions to the Ball State program, and we wish her well at Pitt,” said Director of Athletics Jeff Mitchell. “Our program is on an upward trajectory, and I’m excited to search for a coach that continues our upward path.”
The Yorktown Tigers and Cowan Blackhawks attempted to reach the promised land as they continued their journey in the state tournament. But there are no longer any Delaware County teams left as both teams had their quests cut just short as they were defeated in Saturday’s semi-state. In the first game of the 3A semi-state, the Tigers (17-9, 4-3 Hoosier Heritage) trailed Leo (26-2, 6-1 Northeast Eight) 4-1 in the seventh inning. But after a walk by Freshman Emma Reynolds, Yorktown hoped for a comeback at Twin Lakes High School.
When the state tournament for high school sports rolls around in Indiana, communities come together to show their support. Win or lose, they are always there. But when they see their team play great defense, never give up, and hit a walk-off single on their home turf, it becomes something that they will never forget. That’s what the Cowan faithful saw today as the Blackhawks softball team defeated the Tri Titans 2-1 for their third straight regional championship.
“Foul Ball, USA, hit the ball the other way, Aruba, uh uh, Jamaica, uh uh Hawaii, uh uh Aloha.” That was one of the chants that the Cowan softball team screamed from their dugout during the 1A Sectional #55 championship game. But when the seventh inning at Daleville Junior/Senior High School came to a close, those chants turned into cheers as the Blackhawks defeated Wes-Del 5-1 and became back-to-back-to-back sectional champions.
The Cardinals believed that they needed to open the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament with energy and needed to “leave everything on the field.” For the first three innings, Ball State did that. In the top of the third, they scored four runs after multiple hits and walks. But after a three-run home run on a two-strike, two-out pitch, the No. 4 team in the tournament could not make up ground and fell in their first game to the No. 1 Miami Redhawks 8-4.
One year after missing the Mid-American Conference (MAC) tournament by one spot, Ball State softball is heading to Miami University (Oxford, OH) for this year's edition of the conference tournament. It will also be head coach Lacy Schurr’s first time coaching in the tournament. The Cardinals finished the 2023 campaign with a 27-24 record. They went 17-12 in the MAC which set them up to clinch the fourth spot in the conference. Besides fifth-year Amaia Daniel and senior Jazmyne Armendariz, no other Cardinal on the roster has made the postseason.
In the middle of its season, Ball State softball was in a slump and sat in seventh place in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). To make the tournament, you have to be in the top four. Cardinal fans might have wondered, can this team pull themselves out of their funk? This weekend, that question was answered. After bouncing back and defeating Akron in their final regular season series, the Cardinals clinched a tournament berth.
When you ask Amaia Daniel about Ball State softball, she has three words: “A second family.” She won’t boast about her achievements with the Cardinals, even though she ranks in the top 20 of 17 different statistical categories in program history and in the top 10 of eight of those categories. She won’t talk about her love of the game; she will speak of her love for her teammates, her “second family.” “There's people on this team who have known me for that long, and there's people who I deeply trust with many, many things, and I respect them deeply,” she said. “I could honestly call them family, and I could treat them like family.”
After sweeping back-to-back Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents, Ball State softball fell in a mid-week series against Miami. A big reason for that was the Redhawks' starting pitcher: Brianna Pratt. In the first game of the series, Miami’s ace was at her best. After she gave up five hits and had nine strikeouts, the Redhawks (29-17, 16-7 MAC) defeated the Cardinals 6-0.
