2003 News
April 28: Softball Notebag
 | Nicki Merchant has belted a team-high eight home runs this season and is within two from tying the single-season school mark. |
Senior pitcher-designated player Amanda Opbroek (Sanford/Sanford-Meredian) has compiled a 0.82 earned run average in her last five appearances. She has allowed three earned runs in 25.2 innings pitched to go along with 19 strikeouts. Among FSU's career leaders, Opbroek's 28 victories ranks eighth best to date and she's two more wins away from tying Mary Gnatkowski (1982-85) and Brandy Coe (1999-00) for sixth place.
Amanda Opbroek has a current personal season-best seven-game hitting streak and is batting .385 (10-26) during that stretch. She presently ranks second on the team in multiple-hit games this season with eight total and is two away from tying junior first baseman Nicki Merchant (Wayland) for top honors.
Nicki Merchant hit her team-leading eighth home run of the season with a three-run blast in FSU's 9-2 game one win at Gannon last Friday (4/25) and moved into a tie for third place among the program's all-time single-season leaders in that statistical category. She tied Jody Gifford's home run output in 1997 and is now one shy of matching her production set in 1999 for second-place honors. Her career 10 roundtrippers is one shy from moving into a second-place tie with Anne Bentley (1997-00) on the program's career home runs chart.
Sophomore second baseman Krista Martelli (Midland) and junior designated player Danielle Maxwell (Bay City/Western) both turned in personal best game performances in the Bulldogs' 14-1 triumph over Lake Superior State last Tuesday (April 22). Martelli went two-for-three at the plate with a season-high tying three RBIs on a three-run home run in the first inning and scored three runs. Maxwell matched her season best with a three-of-four hitting effort, which included a two-run roundtripper along with a pair of doubles. She also scored two runs and posted a season-high three RBIs.
 | Krista Martelli hit her second home run this season with a three-run blast over the center field fence in the Bulldogs' home finale win over Lake Superior State last Tuesday. |
Ferris State's 14 run output versus Lake Superior State in a 14-1 five-inning victory represented a team high this campaign, bettering the 12-run mark which occurred in a 12-4 win over Charleston, W.Va. (3/2) and a 12-3 five-inning decision against St. Joseph's, Ind. (4/12). The 14 runs scored by Ferris were the most since last season (4/10) when the Bulldogs registered a 15-1 five-inning triumph over Lake Superior State.
Nicki Merchant's team-high 25 RBIs in 43 games this season to date is the most since the 2000 season when Kris St. Andre and Nadine Crowl each totaled 29 RBIs in 51 and 47 contests, respectively. Merchant's RBIs this campaign ties for the third highest season output in the last four seasons, matching Anne Bentley's mark set in 2000. Merchant is five more RBIs away from tying Ami Canen (1994) for 15th place on FSU's single-season RBI leaders list. She's also four RBIs shy of Staci Leyko's (1994-97) 13th-place 61 career total.
Junior third baseman Dana Peuler (Wyoming/Rogers) has hit eight more doubles (11 total) in 44 games this season to date than she compiled in the same amount of contests (three total) a campaign ago.
Freshman outfielder Adrienne Jager (Kalamazoo/Comstock) is hitting a team-best .667 (6-9) in her last four contests after batting .184 (9-49) in her previous 20 games this season.
The Bulldogs' 17 home runs this spring in 43 outings is one away from equalling the program's best season performance since 2000 when FSU smacked 18 homers in 51 contests. In the last two seasons (2001-02) combined, Ferris accumulated 18 home runs (11 in 2001) in 90 total outings.
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