This week: Notre Dame College will play Wheeling Jesuit University on March 18 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and then West Liberty University on March 19 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Both double-headers and will be played in West Liberty, W. Va. The games are the first conference battles for the Falcons in 2018.

Records: Notre Dame is currently 4-9, while West Liberty is 6-4 and Wheeling Jesuit is 4-11.

Coaches Corner: Amy Kyler is in her 12th season as head coach at NDC and holds a record of 272-250-1. Herb Minch is entering his 19th season as head coach of the Hilltoppers. He had been the head coach from 1995 until 2011, when he stepped down. In his second stint with WLU, Minch has a 21-35 record. Last season, the team went 8-24 in the Mountain East Conference. Sara Pelegreen is currently in her second season as the head coach of Wheeling Jesuit after being an assistant coach in 2015 and 2016. She has a record of 28-36 and, last year, went 17-15 in the MEC.

Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the NFCA Coaches Poll.

Series History: The Falcons are 13-3 against West Liberty since 2014 and they are 5-15 versus Wheeling Jesuit since 2013.

Noting the Falcons: After dealing with delayed flights and bad weather, Notre Dame missed the first four games of their trip to Florida. NDC went 4-9 on the trip and took on one ranked opponent, No. 22 Merrimack College. They played a double-header with Wilmington University on March 7, which they swept with 4-3 and 10-2 wins. Last season, the Falcons went 13-19 in Mountain East Conference games.

Amy Hoover currently leads the team with a batting average of .429 and a .455 on base percentage. Shelby Stephens leads the team in at-bats (43), hits (14), home runs (2) and total bases (21). Mikayla Grajczyk went 11.1 innings this season before giving up a run. In her most recent game in the pitching circle, she gave up three runs, but still has an ERA of 1.56. She has struck out 12 batters and holds hitters to a batting average of .151. The Falcons did well in Florida when they led after three innings. They won four games on their trip and went 2-1 when they were leading after three.

Noting the Cardinals: After splitting a double-header with Seton Hill University on February 20, Wheeling Jesuit then went 2-8 on a trip to Florida. The Cardinals played three games in Salem, Va. and went 1-2 before canceling their last four scheduled games. They have been shutout six times this season.

Brianna Grimes leads the team with a batting average of .278. Courtney Rogers has three home runs, 10 RBI and 21 total bases. Mallory Chapman hits .268 and leads the team with six doubles. Cassie Holstein has gone 9-for-10 on stolen base attempts. As a team, the Cardinals are 16-for-19 on steal attempts. WJU has only used two pitchers, Chapman and Erin Unterbrink. Chapman had a 2-5 record in 53.1 innings pitched. She has 38 strikeouts and eight complete games.

Noting the Hilltoppers: West Liberty got off to a strong start this season, playing three games at the Queens Invite in North Carolina. They began the invitational with a pair of 7-2 wins over Queens University of Charlotte and Johnson C. Smith University. They then had a 4-3 record in Salem, Va., winning their last four games.

The Hilltoppers' only home runs this season have come from Sydney Bennington (2) and Katie Beeman (2). Bennington also has 17 total bases and Beeman has eight RBI. Kelsi Johnson leads the team with 13 hits. WLU has gone 6-for-10 on stolen base attempts so far. Savanna Sieger leads the team pitching with an ERA of 2.41. Makenzie Amend leads the team with two complete games, 29 innings pitched and an opposing batting average of .177.