•The Washburn Ichabod softballl team will now start postseason play after wrapping up the regular season with a 27-16 record and a seventh-place finish in the MIAA standings by taking on Central Missouri, the No. 2 seed, on Friday and Saturday in Warrensburg, Mo.
•The Ichabods and Jennies split a doubleheader on May 3 in Topeka with the Ichabods taking game one 3-2 before the Jennies picked up a 3-1 win in the second game.
•The Ichabods have compiled a 33-49 record in the MIAA Tournament dating back to the 1991 season.
•The Ichabods are 5-6 against the Jennies in the MIAA Tournament.
•Washburn has just finished a stretch where they played 20 games in 16 days.
•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 OUT
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod softball team wrapped up the 2021 regular season with a doubleheader split with Central Missouri on Monday at Yager Stadium taking the opening game 3-2 before falling 3-1 in the nightcap.
Game 1 – WU 3, UCM 2
In the opening game, the Jennies (31-11, 20-6 MIAA) took advantage of an Ichabod error in the top of the first to jump out to the 1-0 lead. The Ichabods (27-16, 13-13 MIAA) would get on the board in the fourth inning on a solo home run by Ashton Friend, the first of two home runs of hers on the day after hitting one in the second game. Friend's home run tied the score at one.
In the fifth inning, Kimi Patterson led off the fifth inning with a solo home run and then after a double by Brianna Fuchs, Hadley Kerschen drove her in with a single to left.
The Jennies cut the lead to one in the sixth with back to back doubles but did not score again as the Ichabods as Reagan Hamm retired the five batters picking up the win moving to 14-10 on the season with seven strikeouts and one walk allowing one earned run.
Six different Ichabods had one hit in the opener.
Game 2 – UCM 3, WU 1
As in the first game, Central Missouri scored an early run off an Ichabod miscue, one of three in the game, to go up 1-0 in the second game. Washburn as held without a hit until the fourth inning when Marrit Mead hit a single down the left field line.
The Jennies did not collect their first hit of Ichabod starter Ashlie Thissen until the seventh when Jessica Sader started the inning with a single and then Abbey Fischer cleared the bases with a triple to center for both of their hits in the game.
Mead also had a single in the sixth inning and then Friend hit her team-leading 12th home run of the season in the seventh avoiding the shutout but the Ichabods went down in order to finish the game
 
 Ichabods in the MIAA tournament
The Ichabods have compiled a 33-49 record in the MIAA Tournament dating back to the 1991 season.
1991 • 1-2
1992 • 2-2
1993 • 1-2
1994 • 1-2 (4-1 in MIAA Inter-division play-in tournament qualifier)
1995 • 2-2
1996 • 2-2
1997 • 2-2
1998 • 3-2
1999 • 1-2
2000 • 3-2
2001 • 1-2
2002 • 2-2
2003 • 1-2
2004 • 0-2
2005 • did not qualify
2006 • 1-2
2007 • 3-2
2008 • 1-2
2009 • 0-2
2010 • 0-2
2011 • 1-2
2012 • 1-2
2013 • did not qualify
2014 • did not qualify
2015 • 0-2
2016 • did not qualify
2017 • did not qualify
2018 • 0-2
2019 • 1-3
2020 • no tournament held
 
 In the MIAA Tournament . . .
Central Missouri • The Ichabods are 5-6 against the Jennies.
Central Oklahoma • The Ichabods are 0-1 against the Bronchos losing the last meeting on April 30, 2015 in Overland Park.
Emporia State • The Ichabods trail the ESU in tournament match ups 10-2.
Fort Hays State • The Ichabods lost the only meeting in MIAA Tournament play to the Tigers on May 7, 2011 in a 5-3 loss.
Lincoln • The Ichabods are 3-0 against the Blue Tigers.
Missouri Southern • The Lions lead the conference tournament match ups 5-2.
Missouri Western • The Ichabods are 2-9 against the Griffons in MIAA Tournament meetings.
Northeastern State • Washburn is 0-1 against the RiverHawks.
Northwest Missouri • Washburn is 3-2 against the Bearcats winning the last meeting on May 6, 2011 with a walk-off grand slam.
Pittsburg State • The Ichabods have played the Gorillas the most in the tournament, nine times with the series tied 5-5. The Ichabods last played the Gorillas in the opening round of the 2015 tournament.
Teams no longer in the MIAA
Missouri-Rolla • The Ichabods lead the meetings in the tournament 4-1.
Missouri-St. Louis • The Ichabods are 1-2 against the Tritons in the tournament.
Truman • The Ichabods are 3-7 against the Bulldogs and have lost four of the last five meetings in the tournament.
Southwest Baptist • The Ichabods have won all three meetings leading the series 3-0.
 
 Bods and Ends
•Ashton Friend leads the team with 11 home runs … she has hit six of those in the last 13 games.
•Brianna Fuchs has started all 118 games of her career as an Ichabod.
•Bri Francis has played in 155 games as an Ichabods with 130 starts and has a career fielding percentage of .991 with 699 putouts and 51 assists with only seven errors.
•Marrit Mead has 29 multi-hit games.
•Ashton Friend has a team-high 14 multi-RBI games.
•The Ichabods are 15-2 this season when scoring in the first inning and 24-5 when scoring first.
•The Ichabods are 21-1 when leading after four innings this season.
•The Ichabods 23-4 when out hitting their opponents this season.
•Washburn has outscored its opponents 221 to 151 this season including a 30 to 10 advantage in the first inning, 35 to 16 in the second and 46 to 15 in the third inning … the only innings the Ichabods are being outscored in this season is the fifth (28 to 24) and the seventh (22 to 15).
•Washburn is fourth in the nation in total sacrifice flies and Ashton Friend is third in the nation in sacrifice flies.
•Marrit Mead is 22nd in the nation and second in the MIAA in batting average and ranked fifth in the nation in hits.
•Washburn is seventh in the nation in doubles.
 
 Season Stat Record outlook. . .
•Marrit Mead's 45 runs scored is eighth on the Ichabod single season chart and her 71 hits is eighth on the single season chart as well.
•Ashton Friend's 46 RBI is 10th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Ashton Friend's six sac flies is the most for the Ichabods in program history for a single season and her career eight is one shy of the career record.
•Marrit Mead's 22 stolen bases is 12th on the Ichabod single season chart.
•Washburn's current batting average of .311 is sixth on the Ichabod single season chart.
•The 18 team sac flies are the most in school history.
 
 Opponent quick scout . . .
Central Missouri
•The Jennies are 31-11 this season and 20-6 in the MIAA after splitting with Washburn on Monday.
•Bailey Fowler leads the team with a .375 batting average and Ashlyn Cook leads has a .371 batting average.
•As a team the Jennies are batting .312 and have stolen 72 bases in 78 attempts.
•Paige Petefish is 13-3 in the circle with a 1.94 ERA and Sadie Parks is 10-2 with a 1.93 ERA … as a team UCM has a 2.33 ERA.
•Washburn leads the series 39-37.
 
 Head Coach Brenda Holaday . . .
•is 136-100 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 1195-925-1 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.
 
 Up Next . . .