Softball head coach Keri Becker recorded her 400^th career vic­tory on Saturday in a 4–1 vic­tory over Tiffin.

The Bulldogs grabbed split two dou­ble­head­ers as they came out with a 2–2 record for the weekend.

 After split­ting the week­end with Ashland and Tiffin, Ferris improved to 18–13 over­all this sea­son and 9–6 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs improved to fifth in the con­fer­ence standings.

On Saturday, Ferris lost 4–3 to Tiffin in the first game and won the sec­ond game of the dou­ble­header 4–1. Becker, in her 13^th sea­son with the bull­dogs, is the all-time win­ningest coach in FSU soft­ball history.

Photo By Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

The Bulldogs got out to an early lead with a run in the first inning of the sec­ond game. Sophomore third base­man Makenzie Peterson drilled in the first run and fin­ished the day with two RBIs on two hits. Senior pitcher Kayle Stevenson allowed one run on five hits over four innings of work.

In the first game, fresh­man pitcher Dana Bowler opened with four score­less innings and tal­lied nine strike­outs on the day. Tiffin recorded eight hits on the day and scored four runs over the final three innings. The Bulldogs late sixth-inning rally was not enough to over­come a three-run deficit.

“Those are games we need to win down the stretch and the sting of yes­ter­days’ games are a lit­tle bit worse now with a win over Ashland,” said Becker.

With a 3–1 win over NCAA Division II Midwest Region No. 2-ranked Ashland in game two on Sunday, the Bulldogs showed they could tus­sle with teams atop the GLIAC stand­ings and region rank­ings. Ferris allowed five hits and com­mit­ted no errors in the vic­tory. Sophomore first base­man Chelsea Morris hit a two-RBI sin­gle in the fourth, help­ing the Bulldogs get the victory.

“Being able to steal one from Ashland is a good accom­plish­ment because Ashland is a very good team,” said Becker.

Keri Becker | Ferris Softball Head Coach

Splitting the week­end was not what Becker had in mind, but with a 6–3 loss in the first game of the dou­ble­header, that is all she could hope for. Ashland man­aged to bat in six runs on eight hits and Ferris com­mit­ted three errors in the loss.

“The offense needs to do their job a lit­tle bit bet­ter with a lit­tle bit more timely hit­ting,” said Becker.

Pitching is what has kept the Bulldogs in games and Becker plans to rely on pitch­ing to help the offense through­out the end of the sea­son. Ferris has allowed five or more runs once in its pre­vi­ous nine con­tests. Becker said the pitch­ing has kept the team close most of the sea­son and will rely on the pitch­ing for the rest of the year.

With the GLIAC Tournament three weeks away, Becker says that she thinks a hand­ful of teams will be all jum­bled up. The top seven teams in the con­fer­ence stand­ings are sep­a­rated by six games or less.

“I think every­body is going to have about the same amount of wins and the same amount of losses,” said Becker. “It’s really going to be a crap­shoot for who’s going to be in the tour­na­ment, which makes it exciting.”Softball sea­son ups and downs