IU welcomes Ball State for final warm-up before Big Ten Conference play begins

After thousands of miles of travel, numerous hotel stays and countless hours spent waiting in airports, the IU women's softball team finally got to play at home this weekend. Bloomington was the site of Sunday's IU Classic, giving the Hoosiers a chance at a fresh start before Big Ten play begins.\nThe team began on the right track, picking up an 8-0 win in its early game against IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne as junior pitcher Megan Roark threw a perfect game.\nThe Hoosiers will look to continue the play that smothered IPFW Sunday when they play in-state rival Ball State University today.\nIU leads the all-time series with the Cardinals 35-29, but Ball State won two of the last three match-ups between the teams, allowing only seven runs in the three games combined.\nThe Hoosiers will hope for a reemergence of the offense that produced 14 hits against the Mastodons Sunday to help out the pitching staff.\n"We want to get on a roll," Roark said. "Then hopefully we can pick up a few more wins as we head into the Big Ten season."\nThe team's first conference game is a double header against Michigan State University April 1-2 in Bloomington.\nUntil then, the team will use the Ball State game, a road game at Indiana State and another home game against the University of Illinois at Chicago in preparation for what could be its toughest stretch of the season.\n"We are going to get a little rest," said IU coach Stacey Phillips. "We have some muscle injuries that could use a few days rest but other than that we are going to focus on consistency and try to keep hitting like we have been."\nBall State will look to win its second game in a row after starting off the season slowly, with losing streaks of three and five games early on. The Cardinals' record currently stands at \n6-15 on the season, but the team won its last game 6-4 against Oakland University this Sunday.\nRegardless of injuries or who their opponent might be, the Hoosiers insist they will come out ready to play today.\n"It's our home field," said junior catcher Tory Yamaguchi. "We are going to go all out and come full force."\nToday's game is at 3 p.m. at the IU Softball Field, located off Fee Lane behind Foster Quad.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Kevin Dwire at kdwire@indiana.edu.