Eastern Hits the Road for Seven Games in Six Days

EASTERN HITS THE ROAD FOR SEVEN-STRAIGHT: The Eastern Michigan University softball team has struggled as of late, losing its last seven games in-a-row. EMU will hit the road for seven consecutive games, April 9-14, before returning home.
    First, the Eagles will travel to Fort Wayne, Ind. Tuesday, April 9, for a doubleheader with the IPFW Mastodons at the IPFW Softball Field. The twinbill is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
    Next, the Eagles will trek just across Washtenaw County to take the the No. 12-ranked Michigan Wolverines Wednesday, April 10, for a 6 p.m. game under the lights at Alumni Field in the Wilpon Complex.
    Friday, April 12, the Eagles will stay in-state and head to Kalamazoo, Mich. to take on Western Michigan for a Mid-American Conference doubleheader. The double dip will begin at 1 p.m.
    Finally, EMU will head to DeKalb, Ill. for a two-game two-day series with Northern Illinois. The Huskies and Eagles will square off at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, and will finish the series at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 14.

ALL-TIME AGAINST THE COMPETITION: EMU holds an even 4-4 all-time record against IPFW. The Eagles and Mastodons have only met eight times on the softball diamond. The Eagles fell to IPFW, 4-3, in an March 27, 2012, in their last game on the field.
    Michigan and Eastern have met 62 times with Michigan holding a decisive 54-8 record. The Eagles fell in both games with U-M last season, but took them into the ninth in a 4-2 loss, May 1, 2012.
    Friday will serve as EMU and WMU's 101st and 102nd games between the two. Last season the Broncos swept the Eagles in a pair of games at Varsity Field, 7-3 and 2-0.
     The two-game series between EMU and NIU will be the 35th and 36th games between the Huskies and Eagles. Nothern Illinois holds a 34-20 edge in the all-time series.

SKIDDING ALONG THE WAY: Eastern is currently on a seven game losing streak, including losing its last five straight games in Mid-American Conference contests. As a team, the Eagles are hitting just .239 in the last seven contests, while its opponents are hitting at a .307 clip. EMU pitching has struggled as well, going 0-7 with an ERA of 4.34, while the Eagles' opponents are posting a 2.10 earned run average in the last seven games.

THERE ARE SOME BRIGHT SPOTS: Despite struggling on a seven game losing streak, the Eagles have multiple student-athletes that have stepped up their game on the diamond. Amanda Stanton is leading the way hitting .368 after starting all seven of those games. The junior is 7-for-19 with a double, a triple and two RBI, while Nellie Coquillard has posted a .348 batting average while slugging at a .652 clip in those seven losses. Coquillard went 8-for-23 with a pair of solo homers and a double. Amanda Herron has continued to swing a hot stick after batting .333 in the last seven games with five RBI, a homer and a pair of doubles.

THOSE ARE SOME TOUGH LUCK LOSSES: Junior pitcher Lauren Wells has yet to pick up her first win of the 2013 campaign and went 0-6 before the Eagles started their seven game skid. Despite posting just a 3.00 ERA, the best of any EMU pitcher over the last seven games, Wells has gone 0-4 in five appearances. Although she has not been able to pick up her elusive first win, her last seven games have been her best stretch of the season where she has tossed 21 innings, allowing nine earned runs and punching out 18.

LOE COMES ON STRONG: Senior catcher Courtney Loe has had five RBI and her first homer of the 2013 campaign in the last seven games. She is hitting .313 in those games, while posting a .476 on-base percentage.

TWO DAYS, TWO BOMBS: Eastern Michigan senior infielder Nellie Coquillard launched a pair of long balls against the University at Buffalo Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7. Coquillard extended her home run total to six on the season. Coquillard's season high for home runs is seven (2012). In her career, the third baseman has lifted 23 balls over the outfield fence since donning the Green and White.

NEED DEFENSE TO WIN THE GAME: The Eagles dropped a pair at home to Buffalo Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7. In the opener, the Eagles committed four errors which in turn lead to seven unearned runs. Without the errors, EMU would have surrendered just one run in the 8-4 loss. Lauren Wells was stuck with her ninth loss of the season after she surrendered four unearned runs in two innings of work.

A LOOK AT THE SITUATIONAL STATS: As a team, Eastern is struggling at the plate and Eagles are really hurting when they face a left-handed hurler. EMU is hitting just .188 when a southpaw is tossing, while hitting .260 against right-handers. However, the Eagles have been stellar when hitting with a runner at third and less than two outs this season. Eastern is hitting .488 in that situation, including Courtney Loe coming through 4-of-5 times, while Amanda Stanton is 7-of-11.
     The EMU pitchers have sturggled this season. Left-handed hitters are hitting .350 agaisnt EMU pitching, while righties are knocking the Eagles around at a .303 clip. With runners on base, the Eagle pitchers are being touched at a .340 average, while leadoff batters are getting on 42.1 percent of the time. With two outs, the Eagles are really hurting, allowing at .320 batting average. None of the EMU pitchers are averaging more than 4.07 innings per appearance.

CLIMBING THE CAREER RANKS: Several players on the EMU squad are making their marks in the program's career records list. Nellie Coquillard sits at fourth in career home runs with 23 round-trippers. Coquillard is also fifth in EMU laurels for runs batted in, knocking in 100 in her career. In the circle, Jenna Ignowski is climbing the ranks in career wins, as she has posted 36 already, which ranks fourth all-time. Ignowski also holds the third most strikeouts in EMU history with 314, while tossing 394.1 innings, good for eighth most in Eastern laurels. Also finding her form in her third season is pitcher Lauren Wells. She has the ninth most punchouts in a career with 234. Katy Blaharski has legged out 38 career stolen bases which is tied for eighth all-time at Eastern.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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