Kent State University
Eastern Michigan
Softball Travels to EMU for Opening Series of MAC Season
3/23/2017 11:00:00 PM | Softball
Kent State is back on the road to start the Mid-American Conference season at Eastern Michigan. The Golden Flashes and Eagles are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday at 1 p.m. with the series finale slated for 3 p.m. Saturday. Game 1 of Friday's twinbill can be heard on Golden Flashes iHeart Radio.
The Golden Flashes (8-13) look to end a six-game skid. Kent State has been outscored 30-4 during this stretch, with each opponent being among the top-31 in the season's first RPI that was released on Tuesday.
Last Time Out
Kent State lost at Pitt, 7-0, in mid-week action Wednesday afternoon. Senior Nicole Teefy delivered the Golden Flashes' only hit of the game.
Senior Janel Hayes had five strikeouts and allowed seven runs on nine hits. Freshman Kristyn Eckl recorded a strikeout in a scoreless inning of relief.
MAC Preseason Poll
Two-time defending MAC regular season champion Kent State was picked to win the MAC East Division by the conference's 12 head coaches prior to the start of the season.
The Golden Flashes received five first-place votes in addition to three votes to win the conference tournament and earn the conference's automatic bid to NCAA Regionals.
Kent State, which seeks to become just the second MAC program to win three consecutive regular season titles, is the East Division favorite for the first time since 2014 after being picked to finish third a year ago and second in 2015.
Ohio was picked to finish second in the East Division and had six first-place votes. The Bobcats were chosen as the favorite of the 2017 MAC Softball Championship with four votes.
Northern Illinois received eight first-place votes and was selected to successfully defend its MAC West crown. The Huskies were the only other team to receive more than one vote to win the conference tournament.
| East Division (First Place Votes) 1. Kent State (5) 2. Ohio (6) 3. Miami 4. Akron 5. Buffalo (1) 6. Bowling Green |
West Division (First Place Votes) |
MAC Tournament Champion: Ohio (4), Kent State (3), Northern Illinois (2), Bowling Green (1), Buffalo (1), Miami(1)
Oakley Closes in on Century Club
Kent State head coach Eric Oakley seeks to reach a milestone victory at the place where his collegiate coaching career began. Oakley, who has won 98 games as a head coach, spent five seasons on the coaching staff at Eastern Michigan and earned 19 victories as interim head coach in 2010. After leading North Dakota to 48 wins over three seasons, Oakley came to Kent State as the pitching coach prior to the 2015 season. The 2016 MAC Coach of the Year guided the Flashes to 37 wins a season ago. Kent State has won 78 games since Oakley's arrival, which is its most successful two-year stint in program history. Its 78 wins are 11 more than any other MAC school during the span and its 33 conference wins are five more than the next-closest school.
Scouting Eastern Michigan (11-12)
• Eastern Michigan had its three-game winning streak snapped in an 8-2 loss at No. 19 Michigan on Wednesday.
• The Eagles are batting .287 as a team but average only 3.65 runs per game. They have been struck out 90 times while drawing just 46 walks.
• Alexis Solak is the team's top hitter with a .358 batting average, 19 RBIs and a .493 slugging percentage.
• C Taylor Wagner is having a breakout season at the plate and is batting a team-leading .450. The senior went 3-for-19 for a .083 batting average last year.
• All-MAC OF Michelle Kriegshauser is batting .395 and leads the Eagles with 30 hits, 18 runs scored, 8 doubles, 5 home runs, 20 RBIs and a .697 slugging percentage.
• INF Brandice Olmos (.358), OF Lucy Lopez (.346) and INF Olivia Logan (.306) are all hitting better than .300 on the season.
• EMU has a team ERA of 4.96 and the Eagles' pitching staff has issued more walks (83) than strikeouts (69).
• P Abbie Minsker (2-1) owns a 2.38 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 22.2 innings. Minsker has thrown the team's only shutout in just three games started.
• P Trisha Trujillo (7-6) has a 4.12 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 63.1 innings.
Series History vs. Eastern Michigan
• Kent State is 49-32 all-time vs. the Eagles.
• The teams have split a pair of games each of the past two seasons.
• EMU won the opening game at the Diamond at Dix a year ago, 6-0, while Hunter Brancifort and Brooke Dodson homered to give Kent State a 3-1 victory in the second game.
• In the Golden Flashes' last trip to Ypsilanti during the 2015 season, they pulled out a 2-1 victory in 11 innings and then lost, 2-0.
On Deck for the Flashes
Kent State continues its Spring Break trip Tuesday at No. 9 Alabama and then stops at Evansville Wednesday for a doubleheader on the way back up to Central Michigan for a MAC series next weekend.
