Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Looking For Strong Finish To Regular Season
5/6/2016 8:15:00 PM | Softball
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A regular season that began on Feb. 12 in Tempe, Ariz., will come to end this weekend College Park, Md.
In between those dates, IU Softball (26-23, 8-12) has experienced a season of ups and downs. They've had hitting slumps. They've had pitching slumps.
But now, at the crux of their season, the pieces have started to fall into place for the Hoosiers to close out 2016 on a high note heading into the Big Ten Tournament.
"We just have to go take care of our own business," head coach Michelle Gardner said. "We can't control what anybody else does. It's controlling the controllables and going into it with a great attitude and great momentum. For me that's the message: Carry that momentum from last weekend into this weekend coming up and into the Big Ten Tournament."
The momentum started with a grand slam by senior Michelle Huber in the bottom of the sixth inning in a tied series with No. 25 Ohio State. The hit propelled Indiana to a 5-3 lead that they would carry through the final frame, clinching the Hoosiers first series win over the Buckeyes since 2011.
It was the moment when Huber's bat hit Lena Springer's pitch that everything seemed to click for Indiana. It pushed the Hoosiers, who had played top teams tight all season, over the hump, giving them their first series win over a ranked opponent of the season.
Now, they're channeling the upshot of the Ohio State win into the only thing that matters: a three-game series with the Terrapins (11-38, 3-17) that will help decide the compact conference standings.
"We have high expectations coming off a big series win against Ohio State," junior CaraMia Tsirigos said. "If we play our game, we can compete with anyone in the country."
Entering the weekend, Indiana is tied with Purdue and Rutgers for the ninth seed in the Big Ten. But a series sweep could land the Hoosiers as high as seventh and a more favorable match-up in the conference tournament, which begins Thursday in State College, Pa.
With such close proximity between dates and destinations, Gardner said, it didn't make much sense for the team to fly back to Bloomington on Sunday only to turn around and fly out to State College a day later. So the Hoosiers have planned a tour of the nation's capital the Monday following their series in State College.
With all phases of the game coalescing at the opportune moment for the Hoosiers to shake up the postseason tournament, there's a lot to be positive about.
But even so, this isn't the most positive Gardner said she has been in 2016. She's known what her team was capable of since Tempe.
"I've watched them mature throughout the year, through the good wins and the bad losses, they're very resilient," Gardner said. "They just keep coming back. In the middle of the Big Ten we had a lull, and they could have very easily quit. But they're not going to quit. This group doesn't quit, and I will never quit on them, and that's the bottom line.
"I believe in them and everything they're doing."
