Final Exam: Chippewas Gear Up to Defend Title
5/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
AKRON, Ohio – It’s final exam time in the classroom, and on the softball diamond.
The Central Michigan softball team will set out to defend its Mid-American Conference Tournament championship beginning Wednesday at Akron.
The Chippewas, who are seeded sixth, will take on the third-seeded Zips in a first-round game of the double-elimination tournament at 7:30 p.m. at storied Firestone Stadium. CMU and Akron did not meet during the regular season.
It’s final exam week for CMU students, and that has cut into the Chippewas’ practice time.
That’s a concern, longtime coach Margo Jonker said, particularly in light of the fact that her Chippewas lost five of their final six regular-season games.
“Since we didn’t really perform to our best level this past weekend it would have been nice to have a couple of practices to get ready,” said Jonker, whose team dropped three of four last weekend in visits to Ball State and Miami (Ohio). “But that isn’t how it is, so we need to get going from the get-go, and it’s my job to figure out how to get them ready.”
The MAC is set to embark on its 23rd championship tournament – the Chippewas have won 10 times, far and away the most in league history – and never before has the event fallen during CMU exam week.
“It’s going to be very different this year, and that’ll be a challenge for our student-athletes to get all of their exams in Monday and Tuesday,” said Jonker, who is in her 35th year as CMU’s coach, “and then take off Tuesday night after their exams are completed and then on Wednesday get ready for the game.
“So we won’t be focusing a lot of time just on softball until Wednesday just prior to our game. It’s about how mentally tough we can be. I think the good part is that once exams are over, they can totally focus on softball.”
Focus, execution and health are what it takes to win the tournament and its prize -- a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
“We have to play with a little more passion than we have been, and we just have to execute and have all parts of our game going,” Jonker said. “We’ve had all parts going, at times, but we haven’t had them all together so we’re going to need to have that for the whole tournament. That’s going to be a challenge for any team to continue to be sharp through every game.”
Regular-season champion Ball State is the top seed and will open the tournament against eighth-seeded Miami; Buffalo is seeded No. 2 and opens against seventh-seeded Northern Illinois; and Kent State is seeded fourth and opens against Ohio, which is seeded No. 5.
All four tournament openers are scheduled for Wednesday.
“I believe this year the conference is very equal and I believe that anybody can win this tournament,” Jonker said. “There’s not one team that I feel is significantly better than any other team. I really believe that this tournament will go to whoever wants it the most, whoever is hot, and whoever is the most healthy.”
A year ago, that team was Jonker’s Chippewas who rode a dominant pitching performance by Kara Dornbos into extra innings of the title game, then got a dramatic two-run homer from Trista Cox in the 11th inning to win in walkoff fashion.
That gave CMU its first league tournament title since 2002. Several Chippewas who were in uniform during that 2013 run will be there again Wednesday when CMU takes the field against Akron.
“They know what it took to win, they know how difficult and challenging it was, every single game, and every single inning, especially the last game,” Jonker said. “That part will help tremendously.”
Dornbos, who allowed just one run in 24 1/3 innings in last year’s tournament, is gone to graduation. Chelsea Sundberg, who relieved Dornbos and was the winning pitcher in the 2013 title game, is back, as are a slew of other Chippewas who basked in the glory of the title a year ago.
Catcher Cory DeLamaielleure among them.
“Cory’s done a great job for us – awesome, and the majority of the team is back,” Jonker said. “That part we’re going to draw on.”