Central Michigan University Athletics
Softball Heads to MAC Tournament as the No. 2 Seed
5/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
MOUNT PLEASANT -- The Mid-American Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championships is on the line this week in Akron, Ohio as the league’s top eight teams begin the MAC Tournament on Wednesday at Firestone Stadium.
Central Michigan (25-18, 14-7 Mid-American) is the No. 2 seed after winning the MAC West Division title. The Chippewas face No. 7 Ball State (34-30, 9-11 Mid-American) in a first-round game on Wednesday, May 7, at 5 p.m.
Regular season champion Kent State is the No. 1 seed followed by No. 2 CMU, No. 3 Bowling Green, No. 4 Miami, No. 5 Western Michigan, No. 6 Ohio, No. 7 Ball State and No. 8 Akron.
The championship game is set for Saturday, May 10 at 3 p.m. Complete tournament information, including live stats, is available at mac-sports.com.
Free, live audio webcasts of all of CMU’s games at the tournament are available online at the CMU Sports Zone on cmuchippewas.com.
“The team is committed to going out there and giving it our best shot,” Margo Jonker said. “We know we need to step up our level of play this weekend. We have the hitting, speed, defense and pitching needed to compete throughout the tournament.”
The Chippewas enter the tournament having lost four straight games. CMU was swept at Kent State in a pair of close games last Friday, 2-1 and 3-1. Central was rained out on Saturday and then Buffalo took two from CMU on Sunday to close the regular season. Game scores were 3-1 and 7-6.
“We are putting last week behind us,” Jonker said. “We are going to get back to playing Chippewa Softball.’ Playing well in the conference tournament comes down to mental execution. We spent a lot of time on the mental aspects of the game throughout the year. Now we have to rely on that mental preparation, along with stepping up our physical game.
“The key will be getting the hits when the runners are on base. We know we will get people on, we need to get that key hit to drive them in. It will take focus and concentration when the game is on the line.”
Tournament History: The Chippewas have been a part of all 18 MAC Softball Tournaments and CMU has won the title nine times. Central advanced to the final of last year’s tournament but the Chippewas lost to Eastern Michigan in eight innings, 6-5. CMU’s last tournament title came in 2002 at Firestone Stadium, the site of this year’s tournament. Last year, Ali Pettit and Christina Novak were both named to the MAC Championships All-Tournament team.
How the West Was Won: As the West Division Champions, the Chippewas automatically earned a top two seed. The MAC began divisional play in 1998 and CMU has never finished worse than second in the division. The Chippewas have now won six division titles with five runner-up finishes.
Lock Your Doors: Wednesday’s game between CMU and Ball State features two of the nation’s best base stealing teams. The Cardinals rank second in the country with 2.27 stolen bases per game while the Chippewas are 10th with 2.05. Alabama leads the nation with 2.78 per game. While BSU has a higher total than CMU, the Chippewas have been more successful at swiping bags. Central has a .863 (88-for-102) success rate while BSU is at .788 (145-for-184). Individually, CMU’s Tracy Kaatz ranks fourth nationally with 0.84 per game and Christina Novak ranks 41st at 0.47.
Batting Average Among the Best: The Chippewas lead the MAC in team batting average at .289. That mark currently stands as the second-best in school history behind the 1979 team that hit .309 in CMU’s first ever season of softball. The Chippewas’ average climbs to .317 in MAC play which also leads the league and is 24 points higher than the next nearest team.
First Loss for Seddon: Kari Seddon suffered her first MAC loss of the season last week in the 2-1 setback at Kent State. The game was one out away from going to extra innings when she gave up a two-out single and then triple in the bottom of the seventh. Seddon enters the tournament 8-1 against MAC foes with a save and a 1.60 ERA. In her meeting with Ball State this season, she allowed six hits and four runs while fanning a career-high 12 batters. Overall, Seddon is 10-7 with two saves and a 2.01 ERA. In MAC games, Seddon ranked second in the league in shutouts, fifth in ERA, strikeouts and opponent batting average and tied for fifth in wins.
In the Books: Senior Amy Hudson is closing in on the end of her career. She will go down as one of the top players in school history when you consider she currently ranks third in career batting average (.355), tied for sixth in doubles (34), seventh in home runs (7) and tied for eighth in hits (193). She needs seven more hits to become just the third player in CMU history to record 200 career hits, 90 RBI and 10 home runs (Cathy Wylie and Elizabeth Barnes). Hudson finished third in the league in MAC games with .90 RBI per game and her .385 batting average was eighth. The third baseman currently leads the team in RBI with 25 and 19 of them came in MAC action.
Team Game: The Chippewas have 15 home runs on the season but no individual has more than two on the year. Nine different players have gone deep with Amy Hudson, Christina Novak, Katie Greenman, Suzie Giroux, Jill Schulz and Kim Cozat all homering twice. CMU had two homers last week, Schulz at Kent State and Hudson at Buffalo.
Kaatz Her if You Can: Tracy Kaatz is hitting a team-high .361 this season with 13 RBI. She has started in the leadoff spot in all 43 games and is 36-for-38 in stolen base attempts. The 36 stolen bases ranks second on CMU’s single-season chart and she is chasing the record of 46 set by All-American Pam Stanley in 1991. As a leadoff hitter she doesn’t bat with runners in scoring position often, but when she does, she is hitting a team-best .406 WRISP. Her 1.33 hits per game leads the MAC overall.
Looking to Bounce Back: After going 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA two weeks ago, Ali Pettit had a rough final week to the regular season going 0-3 to drop her record to 10-11. She suffered a 3-1 loss to MAC champion Kent State and then took the loss in both of the Buffalo games. In the nightcap at UB, she was a tough luck loser allowing just one hit and one run while the game-winning run scored on an error. Pettit is the first CMU pitcher to win 10 games in consecutive seasons since Amber Puchalski did it all four years of her career from 2001-04. Pettit was a MAC Championships all-tournament team selection last season after going 2-0 with a 1.81 ERA in three appearances.
Tournament Time is Novak Time: Sophomore Christina Novak was a standout in last year’s MAC Tournament with three home runs, including two in the championship game. With the pair of blasts she became the fourth player in school history to hit two home runs in the same game. She earned all-tournament team honors in her first postseason appearance. This year, Novak is hitting .341 with 24 RBI. She is 20-for-20 in stolen base attempts and ranks fifth in the MAC and 41st nationally with 0.47 per game. Novak is looking to get back on track after a rough week last week. She saw her batting average dip from an overall MAC leading .370 down to .341 after she went 1-for-13.
Nice Season, Rook: Brittini Merchant has quietly had a solid rookie season at shortstop. She has started all 43 games there and in MAC play her batting average was third-best on the team at .359. Merchant has six doubles and seven RBI in MAC play. Overall, she is tied for the team lead with 11 doubles this season and needs two more to move into CMU’s single-season top 10 list.
Hit and Run: The Chippewas went 8-5 against the MAC Tournament field during the regular season ... CMU enters the MAC Tournament on a four-game skid, the longest tournament-entering losing streak in school history; previously, CMU’s longest skid entering the tournament was one game on four occasions ... CMU’s 88 stolen bases are the most since the Chippewas swiped a school-record 126 in 1991; the 88 currrently rank as fourth-most in Chippewa annals ... Central’s current four-game losing streak ties for the longest of the season; CMU had a pair of four-game skids in Florida ... the Chippewas are 3-1 all-time against Ball State in the MAC Tournament ... during league play, CMU had six regulars hitting above .300 for the season ... the Chippewas are 20-2 this season when leading after four innings ... Central’s most productive offensive inning is the seventh as CMU has scored 33 times ... the Chippewas are 22-5 when they outhit the opponent.
