After playing four games at the Embry-Riddle Invitational in Daytona Beach, Florida, and going 2-2 to start the season.
Ferris State softball heads south again, this time to Florence, South Carolina for the Swamp Fox Sizzler hosted by Francis Marion University.
The 2025 season did not finish up the way the Bulldogs would have liked it, losing all three games in the GLIAC tournament. Then losing in the first two games of the Midwest Regional against GLIAC rival Saginaw Valley and the Findlay Oilers.
The Bulldogs did start the 2026 season on a high note, winning the first two games of the Embry-Riddle Invitational against Mount Olive and Embry-Riddle, before losing the next two games against Columbus State and Pittsburg State.
Ferris State has a tough first day of the Swamp Fox Sizzler, taking on the No.10-ranked Francis Marion, who went 53-6 last season and went to the Super Regionals in the 2025 playoffs.
Francis Marion has a high-powered offense, led by redshirt senior outfielder Paige Strickland. In the 2025 season, Strickland hit for a .423 average, a 1.230 ops, 24 extra base hits, 14 home runs and drove in a team-leading 84 rbis.
On the mound, the Patriots’ pitching is bolstered by senior left-handed pitcher Alyssa Poston. Poston had a 28-2 record in 2025, pitching 198 innings to a tune of a 1.45 era, a .91 whip, a .206 batting average against while striking out 187 batters and only walking 29.
While not being in the same conference, the Bulldogs have faced the Patriots twice before, spanning all the way back to 1981, where the Bulldogs lost 1-0. Then the two matched up again 27 years later in 2008, where the Bulldogs won 2-0.
Head coach Jake Schumann knows that his team can compete with anyone and is ready for the tough matchup.
“The game plan against Francis Marion is the same as it is against every opponent we play,” Schumann said. “We have to worry about what we can do to be our best. The focus is on improving from last weekend, and continuing to make adjustments and attacking on offense, improving our strike throwing, and tightening up our defense.”
The Bulldogs are led on offense by junior first baseman Alexis Kozlowski, who in the 2025 season hit for a .368 average, a .431 obp, a .559 slugging percentage, while hitting 12 extra base hits, four home runs, and knocking in 43 runs.
A standout pitcher for the Bulldogs is junior right handed pitcher Cecelia Bell, who last season pitched 137 innings to the tune of a 2.45 era, a 1.27 whip, while striking out 59 batters and walking 36.
The second day of the invitational, Ferris State will face off against the Tusculum Pioneers, who in 2025 went 38-19 and made the Southeast Regional but lost to North Georgia.
The Pioneers offense ran through senior catcher Sammy Jimenez, who last season hit for a .331 average, a .539 slugging percentage, while smacking six home runs and knocking in 54 rbis.
Tusculum struggles on the mound, as last season the team had a 5.42 era, but in the off-season the Pioneers brought in a familiar face. That being former Bulldog right-handed pitcher Catherine O’Donahue, who last season for the Bulldogs pitched 94 innings, to a 3.28 era, a 1.43 whip, while striking out 66 and walking 42.
Looking ahead to the rest of the season, freshman infielder Emma Herremans is confident in her team this season.
“I am quite confident in our team, and I believe we can dominate throughout the rest of the season.”
The Ferris State Bulldogs softball team takes on the Francis Marion Patriots on Friday, Feb. 13, for two games before taking on the Tusculum Pioneers the following day for another two games.