Chippewas' Tournament Journey Begins Wednesday
5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
AKRON, Ohio - The Central Michigan softball team begins its quest for the Mid-American Conference Tournament title on Wednesday (6 p.m.) when it takes on Toledo in a quarterfinal game at Firestone Stadium.
The Chippewas are the sixth seed after finished 12-11 in league play. Toledo, which went 16-7 and shared the MAC West title with Ball State, is the No. 3 seed. CMU is 22-24 overall, while the Rockets are 32-19.
The winner plays at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday in a semifinal game. The loser falls into the elimination bracket and is scheduled to play at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The Chippewas have endured an up-and-down season. They opened MAC play with a trip to Ohio, where they were swept by the team that would go on to win the league regular-season championship and earn the No. 1 seed in this weekend's tournament.
CMU bounced back from that sweep at Ohio to win nine consecutive games, eight of them in MAC play. That streak was followed by a three-game losing skid, and the Chippewas did not put together back-to-back wins over their final 13 games of the regular season.
"We have to play fearless softball, and we have to be aggressive, intelligently aggressive in the circle, in the batter's box, and on the bases," longtime Chippewa coach Margo Jonker said. "We do that we'll be in great shape."
The CMU-Toledo winner will play the Ball State-Northern Illinois winner on Thursday. The two losers will meet in an elimination game on Thursday night. Ball State is the No. 2 seed; NIU is seeded seventh.
CMU took two of three from the Rockets 10 days ago in Mount Pleasant. The Chippewas lost two of three to both Northern Illinois and Ball State. CMU went on the road for both of those series.