This Week: Notre Dame College softball gets back on the diamond this weekend when Frostburg State University (March 23) and Fairmont State University (March 24) travel up to South Euclid for start times of 12 and 2 p.m. After a postponement of the games on March 19, the NDC Falcons will now play Salem University, on March 26, at 2 and 4 p.m.
 
Records: Notre Dame has started the season with a record of 15-8, going 2-2 in its first four Mountain East Conference games over the weekend. Salem is 6-10 early on this year. Frostburg State has gone 9-8 (4-0 MEC), while Fairmont State currently sits at 16-6 (3-1 MEC).
 
Coaches Corner: Kelsey Stopp is in her sixth season at NDC, leading the NDC Falcons to a record of 107-126 (57-73 MEC). Steve Potts is now in his 16th season in the dugout at Salem, Bill Vasko is entering year number six at Frostburg and Brooke Sullivan is in her first season at Fairmont State.
 
Rankings: None of these teams are ranked in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II top 25.
 
Series History: Notre Dame has not played Salem since 2013. Back then, NDC split a doubleheader, winning game one by a score of 1-0 in nine innings, before losing, 7-4. NDC and Frostburg State first met in the 2021 campaign but have already played each other in 14 games, which includes two conference tournament games. The NDC Falcons lost the first 10 games of this series, before winning all four games last year. In a fairly balanced series, NDC has a record of 15-20 against Fairmont State, since 2014. Fairmont is 4-2 against NDC over the last six matchups.
 
Noting the NDC Falcons: Last week, Notre Dame came back from Florida and had a record of 3-3 over six games. The Falcons hosted Mercyhurst and split with the Lakers, before heading to West Virginia, where NDC lost two against West Liberty, on Saturday, and swept Wheeling, on Sunday.

Several players had a solid day against Wheeling as NDC combined for 15 runs and only allowed three (6-2, 9-1). Meadow Odum recorded four hits over the two games, including a home run and stole three bases. Jocelyn Quior went 4-for-4 at the plate with three RBI, which included two doubles in game two. Destany Blake went 3-for-3 at the plate in the first game of the day. In the pitcher's circle, Grace Fisher picked up her seventh win of the season, allowing two runs, one earned, and struck out 12. Allison Weilnau picked up a win in game two by pitching a complete game, allowing one, unearned run.
 
Danielle Fick leads the MEC, and ranks 11th in NCAA Division II, with four triples and she leads the team with a batting average of .352, 25 hits, seven doubles, 16 RBI and 40 total bases. Destany Blake is not far behind with a batting average of .349, 22 hits and 15 RBI. Katelyn DeWeese is 14-for-16 on stolen base attempts so far this season. Allison Weilnau has a 2.67 ERA and a 5-3 record. Grace Fisher has seven wins this year with a 3.03 ERA, and leads the team with a 1.21 walks-and-hits-per-innings-pitched mark (WHIP), nine complete games and two shutouts in 68 1/3 innings pitched with 65 strikeouts. As a staff, the Falcons have a 3.53 ERA.

Noting the Bobcats: Frostburg State had a solid week, splitting a doubleheader with Clarion University before sweeping Davis & Elkins and West Virginia Wesleyan. In all five of their wins last week, the Bobcats scored at least seven runs in every game. In the doubleheader sweep of West Virginia Wesleyan on Sunday, FSU finished game one with 13 runs on 13 hits, and then had eight runs on 15 hits in game two. Wesleyan scored one run the entire day.
 
Jamie Roberts was awarded MEC Player of the Week for her performances last week. She recorded four multi-hit games. Overall, she went 13-of-22 (.590) at the plate with three doubles and four home runs. Roberts also scored 10 runs and drove in 14 RBI. She picked up three wins in the circle, throwing three complete games allowing seven earned runs in 19 innings with 12 strikeouts.
 
Roberts leads the league, and ranks 23rd in the country, with eight home runs, while also leading the team with 30 RBI and 59 total bases and she is second in batting average, at .477. As a team, Frostburg State is hitting .310 and six players are hitting at least .345 on the season. Behind Roberts, Samara Funk is hitting .464, with a .929 slugging percentage and three home runs in just 28 at bats. As a pitcher, Roberts also leads Frostburg State in ERA (3.59), WHIP (1.31), complete games (4) and strikeouts (34).
 
Noting the FSU Falcons: Fairmont State has already scored eight, or more, runs in 10 games this season. Last week, Fairmont State split a doubleheader with Tusculum, before sweeping West Virginia Wesleyan and splitting with Davis & Elkins, over the weekend. It was battle on Sunday between the Falcons and the Senators in Elkins, W.Va. as both games went to extra innings. D&E won on an error in the eighth inning of game one (7-6) and then Fairmont battled back to score one run in the fifth inning and three in the sixth to tie the game at five, before plating three runs in the eighth inning to win 8-5.
 
Fairmont State is hitting .331 as a team so far. The FSU Falcons have eight players hitting over .300 and three (Bella Hess - .474, Elizabeth Waszkiewicz - .415, Abbie Keilholz - .405) hitting over .400. Hess has 27 hits on the season and has gone 12-for-12 on stolen bases. Emily Riggs leads FSU with four home runs and an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of 1.193. Their pitching staff has been strong, as well, posting a team ERA of 3.09. Delaney Haller has a record of 7-1 and an ERA of 1.48. She has six complete games and two shutouts in nine starts, along with 41 strikeouts.

Noting the Tigers: Salem was still playing in Florida, up until March 12. Last Monday, they beat Missouri-St. Louis, 11-9, in Auburndale, Fla. Last weekend, Salem made the trip to Wheeling and split with Wheeling University, before losing both games to West Liberty. In their one win last weekend, Salem's offense scored six runs with the top of the order (Meladie LaRance – 3 hits, Sierra Chapa – 3 hits, Kaydee Anderson – 2 hits) combined for eight of the Tigers' 10 hits.
 
Meladie LaRance leads the team with a batting average of .373, four doubles, two triples, a home run and 16 RBI. The Tigers have four regular starters (LeRance, Sierra Chapa - .341, Ricki Garay - .333, Kaydee Anderson - .311) who are hitting over .300. However, Salem only has one home run on the season. The pitching staff does not strikeout many batters, as Kendall Lemley leads the team with 19. She also leads the staff with a 3.59 ERA, two complete games and 37 innings pitched.