No. 19 Indiana Travels to Minnesota for Weekend Series

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – No. 19 Indiana softball (29-9, 8-0 B1G) travels to Bowling Green, Kent., for a midweek match up against Western Kentucky (21-14, 2-4 B1G) at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium this weekend.

GAMEDAY INFO

Date	Opponent	Time (ET)	IUHoosiers Radio	TV
April 7	Minnesota	6:00 p.m.	Listen	B1G+
April 8	Minnesota	2:00 p.m.	Listen	B1G+
April 9	Minnesota	1:00 p.m.	Listen	B1G+

LAST TIME OUT

The Indiana Hoosiers are coming off a 3-0 shutout win against Western Kentucky as they captured their 22^nd straight win.
Sophomore Taylor Minnick hit .500 against the Hilltoppers recording two hits and one RBI.
Freshman Taryn Kern hit her 16^th bomb against WKU for two RBI to extend the lead.
Junior Brooke Benson hit a team high .667 going 2-for-3 at bat with one double and one stolen base. She also held a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage against the Hilltoppers.
Sophomore pitcher Brianna Copeland pitched five innings with four strikeouts as she improved to 13-0 inside the circle.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

Minnesota (21-14, 2-4 B1G) is coming off a five-day break after a series win against Penn State. The Gophers won the first game, 2-0, blanking the Nittany Lions before splitting the doubleheader on Sunday.
On the season, the Gophers hold a .271 batting average with 252 hits, 160 RBIs and 42 home runs.
Pitcher Autumn Pease holds a 1.64 ERA with a 14-5 record inside the circle. She has pitched 123.2 innings tallying 160 strikeouts.
Sophomore catcher Taylor Krapf leads the team in hitting with a .357 average on 34 hits, four doubles, one triple and a 10 home runs.

SERIES NOTES

Minnesota holds a 54-43 advantage in the series.
The Hoosiers split a doubleheader against the Gophers in Leesburg, Fla., with a 7-5 victory in game one before falling, 6-2, in the second game on Feb. 28, 2021.

(W)INDIANA

The Hoosiers win 22 straight setting a new program record for the longest win streak.
No. 19 Indiana moved up five spots in the D1 Softball poll and are receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll.

SWEEP, SWEEP - HOOSIERS ARE CLEANIN' UP

Indiana remains the only undefeated team in conference play as they swept the series against No. 22 Maryland, Purdue and Ohio State.

OUT OF THE PARK(ER)

Parker held a .500 batting average as the Hoosiers won 21 straight games setting a new program record, picking up wins against Butler and sweeping Purdue and Ohio State.
She held a 1.636 OPS with eight hits with two doubles and two home runs. Parker totaled seven RBI and scored eight runs on the week. Parker was perfect from the field and behind the plate with a 1.000 fielding percentage.
The Westfield, Ind., native had a team high .500 batting average scoring three runs on three hits and two RBI against archrival Purdue.
She ranks fourth in the Big Ten in slugging percentage (.721).

On the season, she holds a batting average of .378 with 34 hits. She has scored 29 runs, nine doubles, one triple, eight home runs and 30 RBI.
Parker hit her first career home run against Lipscomb. She added three more on the weekend, totaling eight RBI in Nashville, Tenn.

MONEY MINNICK

Minnick hit .500 on the week as the Hoosiers defeated Butler and swept Purdue and Ohio State as they made program history with 21 straight wins.
She totaled eight hits, two doubles, two home runs, six runs, eight free passes and seven RBI on the week.
The Bloomington, Ind., native hit a team high .750 against Ohio State with a 1.750 slugging percentage and a 2.555 OPS. She hit two home runs, four RBI with six hits and five runs scored against the Buckeyes.
In the Big Ten, she ranks second in OBS (.534), third in OPS (1.276), doubles (11) and batting average (.416).

TARYN IT UP

Teammate Taryn Kern collected two hits for two home runs with three RBI and two runs scored in her first games against archrival Purdue. The freshman also totaled four free passes and had a stellar performance in the field with five assists and six putouts.
Last weekend, Kern hit a team high batting average of .556 as they extended their win streak to 15 and swept the No. 22 ranked Maryland Terrapins earning herself Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the third straight week. She totaled five hits with two doubles, two home runs with three RBI with an outstanding 2.111 OPS.
The San Jose, Calif., native leads the Big Ten in seven categories, slugging percentage (1.011), OBS (.595), OPS (1.606), RBI (42), home runs (15) and walks (27) and hit by pitch (11).
The IU freshman is second in conference in batting average (.435) and runs scored (41).

HOME RUN HISTORY

Kern is on pace to set a new single season record for most home runs in a season. She is currently tied with IU Hall of Famer and Olympian Michelle Venturella who totaled 16 bombs in the 1994 season.

COPELAND IN THE CIRCLE

Sophomore pitcher Brianna Copeland is 12-0 inside the circle after earning wins against Purdue and Ohio State.
The Pelham, Ala., native holds a 2.81 ERA with 82.1 innings pitched and 82 strikeouts.
Offensively, Copeland is batting .350 on the season with 36 hits. She has 17 extra base hits and 31 RBI on the season.

HOOSIER BATS ON FIRE

Indiana leads the Big Ten in batting with a .333 average on the season. The cream and crimson have totaled 315 hits, 68 doubles, six triples, and 52 home runs.
They have tallied 254 RBI along with 130 free passes and 63 hit by the pitch.

THE NEXT 60 FEET

Indiana leads the conference with 80 stolen bases.
IU's eight stolen bases against IUPUI is the most in a game from a Big Ten school this season.
Nationally, IU is tied 29th in stolen bases and rank second in the Big Ten.
The Hoosiers tallied 16 stolen bases at the Lady Bison Classic.

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No. 19 Indiana Travels to Minnesota for Weekend Series

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brooke Benson

Brianna Copeland

Taryn Kern

Taylor Minnick

No. 19 Indiana Travels to Minnesota for Weekend Series

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brooke Benson

Brianna Copeland

Taryn Kern

Taylor Minnick

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