Leading off . . .
•     The Washburn Ichabods softball team will wrap up its home slate with a rescheduled doubleheader against Emporia State on Tuesday afternoon at the Washburn Softball Complex.
•     Following the games with the Hornets, Washburn will play its final eight regular season games on the road with doubleheaders at Central Missouri, Southwest Baptist, Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri.
•     The Ichabods are 21-24 this season already surpassing last season's win total and tying last season's MIAA win total. The Ichabods were 19-27 last season and 8-18 in the MIAA missing the conference tournament.
•     The Ichabods sit in ninth place in the MIAA standings, one game in the loss column behind Northeastern State entering the week.
•     Erica Harper leads the team with a .365 batting average with a team-high 50 hits and nine home runs and is tied for the team lead with 25 RBI.
•     Savannah Moore is batting .323 with 42 hits and 10 doubles with 25 RBI and she is second on the team with seven home runs … she leads the team in MIAA play with a .370 batting average.
•     Dakota Sanders is batting .284 with 27 hits and Jordan Erickson is batting .264 with a team-high 11 doubles.
•     Erica Harper has 14 multi-hit games to lead the team and Jordan Erickson has 13. Savannah Moore leads the Ichabods with four three-hit games. Taylor Kemp has eight multi-hit games and Ashley Ruder and Dakota Sanders each have six multi-hit games.
•     Savannah Moore leads the Ichabods with seven multi-RBI games and Jordan Erickson has six. Erica Harper has a 5-RBI game earlier this season.
•     Savannah Moore is riding a nine-game hitting streak … the longest hitting streak by any Ichabod this season has been 11 by Erica Harper.
•     Erica Harper has a six-game hitting streak entering the week and has reached base in six-straight games entering the week.
•     The four saves by Samantha Carson this season is the most by an Ichabod pitcher since 1997 when Kathy Mohler had three setting an Ichabod single season record. Carson now has six in her career which is a school record breaking the three Mohler had.
•     Washburn has outscored its opponents 36 to 30 in the first inning, but have been outscored 24 to 5 in the second inning … from the second to the fifth innings, the Ichabods have been outscored 118 to 67.
 
 
The Week that was . . .
•     Washburn was 3-1 sweeping a doubleheader with Nebraska-Kearney and splitting a doubleheader with Fort Hays State.
•     Erica Harper and Taylor Kemp each had four hits to lead the Ichabods in the week.
•     Harper, Maddie Anderson and Savannah Moore each drove in two runs.
•     Lexie Crabtree recorded both wins going 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA with 10 strikeouts and two walks allowing one earned run in 14 innings pitched.
 
Where to follow . . .
•     Fans can also follow the Ichabod softball team at @WashburnSB for updates as well at the athletic department twitter handle at @wusports.
•     Live stats for certain game will be linked at www.sidearmstats.com/washburn/softball.
 
This week's opponents . . .
Emporia State
•     The Ichabods and Hornets split a non-conference doubleheader on April 1 in Emporia with ESU winning 7-1 and falling 3-0 in the nightcap.
•     ESU is 25-19 overall and 10-6 in the MIAA this season entering the game.
•     Caitlin VanVleck leads the team with a .372 batting average with 48 hits.
•     Sarah Glasss has a team high 31 runs scored.
•     Eryn Stockman has a 1.67 ERA with a 17-8 record in 167 1/3 innings pitched with eight shutouts and 19 complete games.
 
Central Missouri
•     The Jennies are 19-22 and 9-7 in the MIAA entering the week.
•     Makayla Schoonover leads the team with a .384 batting average with Lauren Mabe next at .282.
•     The Jennies are hitting .249 as a team and have a team ERA of 3.27 with Alexa Bradley going 8-11 with a 3.05 ERA.
 
Southwest Baptist
•     The Bearcats are 26-14 and 10-8 in the MIAA entering the week.
•     Jaidyn Mawhinney leads the team with a .407 batting average with 48 hits.
•     Kacey Ayers is 13-8 with a 2.16 ERA and Claire Miller is 10-4 with a 1.53 ERA.
 
Last time out . . .
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod softball team split an MIAA doubleheader with Fort Hays State falling in game one 3-2 before coming back in the second game earning the split with a 3-0 win on Senior Day at the Washburn Softball Complex. The Ichabods will wrap up the home slate on Tuesday in a pair of MIAA games against Emporia State in a rescheduled double dip from March 31.
Game 1 – Fort Hays State 3, Washburn 2
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on a bases loaded walk by Lily Sale scoring Claudia Vasquez who pinch ran for Bailey Boxberger after doubling to lead off the inning. The Ichabods came right back with two of their own in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back solo home runs by Savannah Moore, her seventh of the season, and Erica Harper, her eighth staking the Ichabods to a 2-1 lead.
Fort Hays State came back to take the lead with two unearned runs in the sixth inning taking a 3-2 lead.  Washburn put one on base in the bottom of the inning, but couldn't put any across to tie the score as the Tigers took the win.
Taylor Kemp had two hits to pace the Ichabods seven-hit attack. Ashley Wills took the loss in the circle allowing two hits and two unearned runs in 3 2/3 innings pitched falling to 8-6 on the season.
 
Game 2 – Washburn 3, Fort Hays State 0
Washburn (21-24, 8-8 MIAA) took the lead for good in the bottom of the first taking advantage of four Tiger errors in the inning as Erica Harper scored putting Washburn up 1-0. The Ichabods added one more in the fifth off another error by the Tigers scoring Maddie Anderson and then added another in the sixth when Anderson's single to left scored Ashley Ruder who walked.
The three runs were all starting pitcher Lexi Crabtree would need as she pitched her three-straight complete game with a four-hit shutout over the Tigers improving to 3-3 on the season with a season-high seven strikeouts.
Anderson had two hits to lead the Ichabods as each team finished with four hits and the Tigers finished with six errors in the game.
 
Head coach Brenda Holaday
•     is 21-24 in her first season as the Ichabod head softball coach.
•     coached the previous 19 seasons at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka compiling a 351-93 record.
•     led the Junior Blues to three 6A state championships as well as winning 14 league championships earning 16 6A state tournament berths, five second-place state finishes and three third-place state finishes.
•     was named the Centennial League Coach of the Year and City Coach of the Year nine different times earning the Midwest Sectional Coach of the Year in 2011 and the 6A Kansas Coach of the year two times in 2008 and 2011 and was named the overall Kansas Coach of the Year in 2011.
•     while at Washburn Rural, she coached more than 40 players who have gone on to play college softball including three at the NCAA Division I level including for Ichabod head softball coach Lisa Carey, the winningest coach by wins in program history.
 
Washburn Ichabod softball history . . .
•     The Ichabods are 1134-861-1 in their 48th year of softball.
•     The Ichabods have made three NCAA Tournament appearances (1999, 2006, 2008).
•     Washburn won the 2002 regular season MIAA title.
 
Up Next . . .
•     Washburn will play its final eight regular season games on the road with doubleheaders at Central Missouri, Southwest Baptist, Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri. The MIAA Tournament starts April 27 in Oklahoma City for the top eight teams in the final MIAA standings.