•The Washburn Ichabod softball team will finish off the regular season with a flurry with eight games starting with Missouri Western on Tuesday night in St. Joseph before returning home to face Central Missouri on Wednesday at Gahnstrom Field in its regular season home finale.
•Washburn will finish off the regular season on April 30 at Northeastern State and at Rogers State on May 1 before starting the MIAA tournament on May 7 with a best 2 of 3 series at the top four teams in the final standings.
•Washburn enters the games this week with a 24-11 overall record and a 10-8 MIAA mark.
•The MIAA has made a change to the 2021 Championship Softball Tournament after a unanimous vote from the conference's athletic directors and SWAs. This year's format will include a best-of-three game quarterfinal series starting the weekend of May 7-8. The advancing four teams will play in a double-elimination tournament at the University of Central Oklahoma the following week, beginning on Thursday, May 13. The quarterfinal round weekend will feature games at the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds from the regular season. Those teams will host seeds No. 5-8, with the winners advancing to the semifinal round in Edmond, Okla., the following weekend.
 
 Last time the Ichabods were in action
•The Ichabods were 5-5 last week playing 10 games.
•Marrit Mead batted .556 in 10 games with 20 hits, 14 runs scored, three doubles, two home runs and 4 RBI going 8 for 8 in stolen bases during a busy week for the Ichabods. She also recorded a .806 slugging percentage and a .579 on base percentage with no errors in 35 chances at third.
•Ashton Friend drove in 16 runs in 10 games with three home runs and five doubles batting .438 with 14 hits and seven runs scored collecting 14 base hits and had a .875 slugging percentage.
•Hadley Kerschen batted .419 with 13 hits with 10 runs scored.
•Jaycee Ginter drove in 11 with two home runs.
•Jaycee Ginter was 3-2 with 3.80 ERA with three complete games and five starts and Raegen Hamm was 2-3 with three complete games and a save.
 
 Bods and Ends
•Brianna Fuchs has started all 110 games of her career as an Ichabod.
•Marrit Mead has 26 multi-hit games and is currently on an 11-game hitting streak.
•Ashton Friend has a team-high 13 multi-RBI games.
•The Ichabods are 13-1 this season when scoring in the first inning and 22-4 when scoring first.
•The Ichabods are 20-1 when leading after four innings this season.
•The Ichabods 21-2 when out hitting their opponents this season.
•Washburn has outscored its opponents 202 to 121 this season including a 24 to 7 advantage in the first inning, 35 to 11 in the second and 45 to 12 in the third inning … the only innings the Ichabods are being outscored in this season is the fifth (23 to 19) and the seventh (20 to 12).
•Washburn is fourth in the nation in total sacrifice flies and Ashton Friend is third in the nation in sacrifice flies.
•Marrit Mead is 16th in the nation and second in the MIAA in batting average and ranked sixth in the nation in hits.
 
 Season stat record outlook. . .
•Marrit Mead's 40 runs scored is 19th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Ashton Friend's 40 RBI is 17th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Ashton Friend's five sac flies is tied for first on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Marrit Mead's 19 stolen bases is 14th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Ashton Friend's 40 RBI is 17th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Washburn's current batting average of .331 is second on the Ichabod single season chart trailing the 1996 team and its .333 batting average.
•Marrit Mead's current batting average of .492 would be the highest on Washburn's single season chart, but 125 at bats are needed to qualify - she's currently at 124 at bats.
 
 Opponent quick scout . . .
Missouri Western
•The Griffons are 24-14 and 13-7 in the MIAA and have lost their last three games.
•Sydni Hawkins leads the team and the MIAA with a .534 batting average leading the MIAA.
•Kaili Hinds is 11-5 in the circle with a 2.24 ERA and Sydney Rader is 11-6 with a 2.70 ERA …as a team the Griffons have a 2.39 ERA.
•The Griffons lead the series 45-32 and have won the last four in the series.

Central Missouri
•The Jennies are 28-10 this season and 17-5 in the MIAA and have won their last three games.
•Ashlyn Cook leads the team with a .396 batting average.
•As a team the Jennies are batting .325 and have stolen 64 bases in 78 attempts.
•Paige Petefish is 12-3 in the circle with a 2.00 ERA and Sadie Parks is 8-2 with a 2.18 ERA … as a team UCM has a 2.44 ERA.
•Washburn leads the series 38-36 winning the last meeting.
 
 Head Coach Brenda Holaday . . .
•is 133-95 in her fifth 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 and was inducted into the Washburn Rural High School Hall of Fame in 2018.
•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 former Ichabod head softball coach Lisa Carey, the winningest coach by wins in program history.

 Washburn Ichabod softball history . . .
•The Ichabods are 1193-921-1 in their 52nd year of softball.
•The Ichabods have made four NCAA Tournament appearances (1999, 2006, 2008, 2018).
•Washburn won the 2002 and 2018 regular season MIAA titles.
 
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