Chippewa Softball Heads to MAC Tourney
5/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan softball team will begin its quest for the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship on Wednesday at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio.
The Chippewas, who are 25-21, earned the fourth seed in the tournament with a 12-8 league record. They open against rival Western Michigan (21-24, 11-9), the fifth seed. The game is the tournament opener, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. first pitch.
The winner advances to play either top-seeded Kent State (39-11, 17-4) or eighth-seeded Ohio (15-30, 7-11) on Thursday at 1 p.m. The Central-Western loser drops down to the elimination bracket and will play the Kent State-Ohio loser at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
The Chippewas swept the Broncos, 9-1, 4-3, in Kalamazoo 10 days ago.
Veteran CMU coach Margo Jonker, who led her Chippewas to the tournament title two years ago, knows that things tend to tighten up at tournament time. What that means is CMU must take advantage of every opportunity.
"We need to do a lot better offensively, especially with runners in scoring position," Jonker said. "We are going to have to pick it up tremendously if we are going to do anything in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
"We need to take advantage of our opportunities, you can't let opportunities go by, in life, or in the game."
The Chippewas split their final regular-season weekend, winning two and losing two to Toledo and Bowling Green at home.
CMU entered the season with a relatively young team, and then lost one of their top players, shortstop CarolAnn Sexauer, to an injury just nine games in.
It took some time, as Jonker knew it would with such a young cast, to gel. The Chippewas were swept by Ball State on the opening weekend of the MAC season and stood 8-15 at the time.
That was the mid-way point of the season, and CMU has turned it around, going 15-4 in April. They averaged 3.5 runs per game in the first 23 of the season, and have averaged 5.0 in the last 23.
"I think we understand now that we have to play Chippewa softball every inning and every pitch," said shortstop Trista Cox, one of three seniors on the roster. "We can never let up on any team, no matter who's across the field from us."
Cox, along with the likes of Katelyn Rentschler and Chelsea DeLamielleure, have surged at the plate throughout the second half of the season.
On Tuesday, Rentschler was named the MAC Player of the Year and was joined on the All-MAC First Team by DeLamielleure and Cox. CMU's Sara Hansen earned the league Freshman of the Year Award, was named to the All-Freshman squad, and earned a spot on the all-conference second team along with pitcher Rachael Knapp.
The improvement has come in the circle as well as at the plate. Knapp carries a 15-10 record into the MAC Tournament and her earned run average is just north of 2.00. Hanna Warren, who has established herself as CMU's No. 2 pitcher, earned a spot on the MAC All-Freshman squad.
While the likes of Cox, DeLamielleure and Rentschler are veterans who have been through the pressure of the league tournament, much of the Chippewa squad is untested in that environment.
"I have a great group of seniors and I hope that they can finish their season strong by performing in the tournament in the way we know we are capable of," Jonker said, adding that her message to her team "is to first get through exams, do well academically.
"Secondly, once we get to Akron, every team has to step up their game and everybody that does well in the tournament does step up their game. Everyone on the team needs to step it up a little bit, and if everybody does that, then overall the team will have a big jump."
The other half of the tournament bracket features No. 2 Ball State taking on seventh-seeded Akron, and third-seeded Miami playing No. 6 Northern Illinois. Both games are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
