No. 17 Indiana Travels to the Sunshine State for Seven-Game Swing

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - No. 17 Indiana Softball (17-2) heads down to Florida for a seven-game swing in the Sunshine State. First, the Hoosiers will visit Clearwater to take on Seton Hall, Saint Joseph's, USC Upstate, USF and Furman in the USF-Clearwater Parks and Recreation Showcase Tournament. All games of this weekend's tournament will be played at the Eddie C. Moore Complex. From there, Indiana will travel to Fort Myers for a Tuesday evening doubleheader against Florida Gulf Coast.

The road trip will mark the end of 26 straight contests away from Bloomington to start the season before IU opens play at Andy Mohr Field next weekend in the Hoosier Classic.

Live stats for all games will be available on IUHoosiers.com. Tuesday's doubleheader at Florida Gulf Coast will be streamed on Youtube Live. There will be no radio broadcast available for games this weekend.

IU IN THE RANKINGS
• For the fourth-straight week, the Hoosiers find themselves ranked in the weekly polls.

• The Hoosiers dropped one spot in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll to No. 17.

• Indiana received a No. 16 ranking in the ESPN/USA Softball poll and were ranked No. 16 by College Sports Madness, No. 14 by Softball America and received its highest ranking to date by Fastpitch News at No. 9.

CHECKING OUT THE COMPETITION
Seton Hall: The Pirates have started the season 7-6 and had a bye last weekend. Seton Hall is batting .269 as a team led by Hailey Ateaga (.447, 17 hits, 6 runs, 10 RBI). Reganne Camp (7.96 ERA, 3-3, 26.0 IP) and Kelsey Gumm (3.98 ERA, 0-3, 20.1 IP) have seen the most innings in the circle. IU and Seton Hall have met just once before - a 3-0 Pirates' victory in 2003.

Saint Joseph's: The Hawks have played just eight games this season and stand at 6-2 on the year, Saint Joseph's beat fellow Big Ten team Iowa on Feb. 16, 4-1. The team is batting .294, led by Sarah Ostaszewski (.429, 12 hits) and Taryn Grober (.412, 7 hits). Ashley Ventura (2.50 ERA, 4-2, 33.2) has led the way in the circle. Friday will be the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

USC Upstate: The first game Saturday will see a familiar foe as the Hoosiers face USC Upstate for the second straight weekend. IU defeated the Spartans in Baton Rouge, 2-0, behind a complete game shutout from senior Tara Trainer. The Spartans are on 15-3 on the year and winners of 12 of the last 14 games after picking up a doubleheader sweep against ETSU on Wednesday. USC Upstate is batting .289 as a team, led by Brittany Case (.383, 18 hits, 13 RBI) and Madison Lanoux (.367, 11 hits) The Spartans have posted a team ERA of 0.86, which ranks first in the country. Christina Biggerstaff (0.49, 9-0, 57.2 IP) and Erin Hill (0.89, 5-3, 47.0 IP) have thrown most of the innings. Hill tossed a complete game against the Hoosiers last weekend.

South Florida: The Bulls are 14-9 on the year and coming off a midweek win against fellow IU opponent Furman. USF is batting .242, highlighted by the bats of Bethaney Keen (.338, 22 hits, 19 RBI) and AnaMarie Bruni (.323, 21 hits, 17 runs). Georgina Corrick (1.19 ERA, 9-1, 64.2) and Nicole Doyle (3.10 ERA, 3-6, 61.0 IP) have led the USF pitching staff. Last season, USF finished the year 39-23 and earned an at-large bid to NCAA Regionals The all-time series between the two teams is tied, 9-9, with the last meeting coming in 2011 with a 5-1 IU victory.

Furman: The Paladins dropped a 7-1 game to USF on Wednesday and are 5-12 on the year. Marissa Guimbarda (.375, 18 hits, 21 RBI and 10 runs) is pacing the offense while Emily DeMonte (5.62 ERA, 5-7, 71.0 IP) has carried most of the innings. The Paladins are coming off a 41-15 2018 campaign, the second-most wins in a season in school history. The team was guided by interim head coach Wally King, who was named the permanent head coach last June. The all-time series is tied, 3-3, with Furman taking both matchups last season.

Florida Gulf Coast: The Eagles are 9-9 on the season and will not play this weekend before hosting Indiana in a doubleheader on Tuesday. FGCU is batting .249 as a team, led by Racquel Fournet (.293, 17 hits). The pitching staff has had a stellar start to the year, collecting a 1.61 team ERA as the Eagles have not yet surrendered a home run this season. Riley Randolph (0.73 ERA, 7-5, 76.2) has pitched the most this year, fanning 102 batters, which currently leads the nation. IU and FGCU have met just once before - a 7-5 FGCU victory in 2009.

LAST TIME OUT
Indiana dropped its first game of the 2019 season last Friday, as the Hoosiers fell to Stephen F. Austin, 1-0. The loss snapped Indiana's 14-game winning streak. IU rebounded to defeat No. 10 LSU, 7-3 in the night came. It marked Indiana's second top-10 win of the season, believed to be the first time in program history IU has defeated two top-10 opponents. Indiana also dropped a game to Illinois State, but earned a win in the rematch and picked up a victory against USC Upstate to go 3-2 on the weekend.

NEWS AND NOTES
• IU's 14-game winning streak was the longest for the program since the 2011 squad put together a 15-game streak from April 9 to May 7 and stands as the fifth-longest winning streak in school history.

• Tara Trainer moved into second-place in Indiana history in career strikeouts on Sunday, surpassing Gina Ugo (1993-96). Trainer now has 688 strikeouts in her career, including 96 this season.

• For the third-straight week, Trainer was recognized by the NFCA as a Selected Top Performance for her efforts last weekend. Nationally, Trainer ranks top-10 in a variey of categories, including:
- T-1st in victories (12)
- T-3rd in shutouts (4)
- T-4th in strikeouts (96)
- 9th in ERA (0.66)

• IU has 52 stolen bases on the season, compared to just 21 from opponents. Indiana's 2.74 stolen bases per game average is the 7th-best in the nation. Sophomore Taylor Lambert leads the way as she has 12 stolen bags on the year.

• Sophomore Grayson Radcliffe is currently riding a team-best 12-game reached base streak. Radcliffe currently leads the offense with a .340 average and 17 hits.

• The Indiana pitching staff has been impressive as a group this season as the team's 1.11 ERA is fourth-best in the nation and first in the Big Ten. In addition, the team's 5.10 strikeout-to-walk ratio is good for 7th best in the country.

BROADCAST SCHEDULE RELEASED
• The Hoosiers will play four regular season games on national television this season, with three on Big Ten Network and one on ESPNU. IU's BTN games include Michigan State (March 31) and the doubleheader against Purdue (April 10). IU's series opener at Michigan will be shown on ESPN (April 5). In addition, every IU home game will be streamed on BTN Plus, as well as every road conference contest.

WHAT'S AHEAD IN 2019
The Hoosiers have 55 games on tap in 2019, including 16 to be played at Andy Mohr Field. Indiana will play 17 games against 2018 NCAA Tournament participants and nine games against teams who finished the season ranked or receiving votes in the final USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll of the year. In addition, Indiana will play 14 games against teams who finished in the top 50 of the 2018 NCAA RPI. This week's Coaches Poll saw six opponents either ranked or receiving votes.

After weather cancelled last Tuesday's scheduled home opener, IU will finally open play at Andy Mohr Field in the annual Hoosier Classic March 15-17 at Andy Mohr Field. The final non-conference game of the season is a March 26 visit to Louisville. Road Big Ten battles include Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State. Home conference contests feature Michigan State, Purdue, Maryland and Rutgers.

No. 17 Indiana Travels to the Sunshine State for Seven-Game Swing

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Lambert

Grayson Radcliffe

Tara Trainer