By Julia Rivera, Staff Writer
The Miami University softball team hits the road this weekend for a three-game series with Western Michigan University.
WMU knocked Miami out of the conference tournament last year with a 5-3 win. The Hawks were 0-3 against the Broncos in 2015.
"[The team], especially returners, know how good of a team Western is," head coach Clarisa Crowell said. "But I think that they'll be ready to go. I feel very good about going into the weekend."
Miami stands at 22-13 overall (7-1 Mid-American Conference). Western Michigan is 14-17 (5-3 MAC) and is coming off Tuesday's doubleheader split against Central Michigan.
It's been a good week for the softball program. Miami is coming off a pair of wins against Bowling Green University, and two RedHawks earned MAC softball weekly honors.
Freshman shortstop Michaela Schlattman was named MAC East Player of the Week and senior pitcher Amber Logemann was named MAC East Pitcher of the Week. It is the second time this season Schlattman has been honored, while Logemann is receiving the honor for the first time this season and second time in her career.
Schlattman led an offensive run last week that saw the RedHawks score 34 runs in five games.
"That's a lot of runs in two games," Crowell said after the Bowling Green doubleheader Tuesday. "I hope we can save some of them for this weekend."
Schlattman drove in eight of those runs and scored six, finishing with a .467 batting average for the week.
After drawing six walks, she had an on-base percentage of .619. She had three doubles and two home runs, giving her a slugging percentage of 1.067.
Logemann led Miami to victories in all three of her starts this week. She gave up 15 hits in 22 innings pitched for a .192 opponent batting average. She struck out 19 and gave up only four earned runs in those three games.
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"I think our team's immense focus throughout both games won the double header for us," freshman infielder Johniann Wahl said. "We stayed locked and focused on how we could win every inning, and I think that's the biggest reason we've been so consistent."
Junior pitcher Erin Binkowski leads the Bronco offense with a .337 batting average, 10 home runs, 26 RBIs and a .737 slugging percentage. Senior pitcher Allyson Kus is WMU's leader from the mound. Kus is 9-9 with a 2.82 ERA in 20 appearances.
The first game of the WMU series begins at 3 p.m. Friday in Kalamazoo, Mich. The series continues with a doubleheader that begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.
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