No. 2 Indiana Will Face No. 3 Seed Louisville in NCAA Regionals

Saturday, May 20

Knoxville, TN

1:00 PM

Indiana University

Tennessee

No. 2 Indiana Will Face No. 3 Seed Louisville in NCAA Regionals

5/18/2023 8:30:00 AM | Softball

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana softball (42-16, 18-5 B1G) earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Knoxville Regional and is set to take the field this weekend against No. 3 seed Louisville in game one on Friday at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.

GAMEDAY INFO

Date	Opponent	Time (ET)	IUHoosiers Radio	TV
May 18	No. 3 Louisville	3:00 p.m.	Listen	ESPN2

TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
Information regarding tickets, parking and game updates can be found on the tournament central page HERE.

LAST TIME OUT

Indiana (42-16, 18-5) earned runner-up after falling to top seed Northwestern, 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning in the Big Ten Tournament Championship.
Sophomore Sarah Stone hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth against Penn State to advance to the semifinals.
IU advanced to the Championship game after hitting three home runs from sophomore duo Brianna Copeland, Taylor Minnick and Stone.
Kinsey Mitchell held a team high .375 batting average in the tournament on three hits. She one double, triple and home run with six walks, reaching base in nine out of 10 of her at bats. The Bloomington, Ind., native held a 2.250 slugging percentage and an OPS of 3.15.
Sophomore pitcher duo Heather Johnson and Copeland combined for two wins and a 2.86 ERA in the tournament.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

No. 3 seed Louisville (35-18, 16-7 ACC) fell in the ACC Championship quarterfinals, 2-1, against No. 23/22 Virginia Tech.
Sarah Gordon was named the ACC Softball Freshman of the Year and joins Korbe Otis and Taylor Roby on the All-ACC First Team.
Senior Kaitlyn Morrison ranks second on the team with a .328 batting average on the season.
Korbe Otis leads the Cards with a .406 batting average, 69 hits with 62 runs. She has also 21-for-21 in stolen bases and is tied for third in the nation with seven triples.
Alyssa Zabala leads pitching staff with 14 wins and 93 strikeouts in 119 innings. Roby holds a team high 2.56 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 112 innings pitched.

SERIES NOTES

The Hoosiers trail the Cardinals 20-4.
IU saw action against the Cardinals in non-conference play with a dominate 10-5 win in Bloomington

B1G Tournament

Indiana finished runner-up at the Big Ten Tournament Championships, falling 2-1 to top-seed Northwestern.
The Hoosiers battled for six innings, allowing 0 runs and held a 1-0 lead until the Wildcats scored two in the bottom of the seventh inning for the walkoff win.

BIG TEN PLAYER + FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

Taryn Kern was unanimously named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in addition to the league's Player of the Year award.
Kern leads the Hoosiers with two unanimous selections to the All-Freshman Team and as Freshman of the Year and the All-Freshman Team in addition to being awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year and to the First Team All-Big Ten
She has tallied six Big Ten weekly awards including three Player of the Weeks, and six Freshman of the Week honors. She began the season with three consecutive weekly honors and finished the regular season with three straight league awards.
The San Jose, Calif., native has set single season program records in home runs, RBI and runs scored and is the only Hoosier to win two individual postseason awards in program history.

SIX HOOSIERS EARN ALL-BIG POSTSEASON HONORS

Kern leads the Hoosiers with two unanimous selections to the All-Freshman Team and as Freshman of the Year in addition to being awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year and First Team All-Big Ten selection.
Indiana's Taylor Minnick was also named to the First Team All-Big Ten alongside Kern earning back-to-back All-Big Ten honors after she was named to the Second and All-Freshman Team in her first season with the Hoosiers.
Minnick is currently ranked second in the Big Ten in three categories: slugging percentage, OBS and OPS. In addition, she ranks in the top five in RBI and batting average.
Redshirt-junior Cora Bassett, freshman Avery Parker and Sarah Stone earning Second Team All-Big Ten honors.
Parker and freshman Cassidy Kettleman were also selected to the league's All-Freshman Team with classmate Kern after stellar performances in their rookie season.

RECORD TRACKER (Current Standing)
RBI (365)
1. 278 (1994)

Home Runs (78)
1. 56 (2022)

Runs Scored (389)
1. 328 (1994)

Hits (459)
1. 466 (1994)
2. 462 (1987)

Doubles (99)
1. 95 (1994)

Stolen Bases (102)
1. 141 (2019)
2. 120 (1987)
3. 114 (2022)
4. 112 (2018)
5. 96 (2020)

Batting average (.315)
1. .293 (1997)

TARYN IT UP

Indiana freshman Taryn Kern has tallied six Big Ten honors on the season, for the most since Michigan pitcher Meghan Beaubien was a five-time honoree in 2018.
Freshman Taryn Kern is tied second in the nation with 22 home runs with Louisville's Taylor Roby and behind Tennessee's Kiki Milloy (23).
Kern's 22 home runs are the second-most by a Big Ten freshman (23 by Michigan's Sierra Romero in 2013). She is also tied for seventh-most in conference history. The Big Ten record is 24 by Illinois' Angelena Mexicano in 2008.
The San Jose, Calif., native leads the Big Ten in seven categories: slugging percentage (.959), OBS (.581), OPS (1.540), RBI (67), home runs (22), walks (41), and hit by pitch (21). The Indiana freshman is tied first with teammate Cora Bassett in runs scored (65) and ranks third in conference in batting average (.411).
Kern has reached base in 47 consecutive games and has 19 multi-RBI games on the season as the leader of Indiana's offense.

MONEY MINNICK

Sophomore Taylor Minnick ranks second in conference in slugging percentage (.762) and OPS (1.303)
She ranks third in OBS (.541), RBI (54) and walks (35) and fourth in batting average (.408).
She has reached base in 35 consecutive games this season.
In 2022, Minnick was selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and Second Team All-Big Ten after a dominating season performance.
She had one of the best debut seasons in program history in 2022. The Bloomington native hit .305 with 29 hits, 17 runs scored, eight doubles, five home runs, 24 RBI and six stolen bases.
In conference play, she held a .310 batting average, 15 runs, 22 hits, seven doubles, five home runs and 22 RBI in 23 games. Minnick also started in 22 of the Hoosiers 23 conference games in the B1G.

COPELAND IN THE CIRCLE

Sophomore pitcher Brianna Copeland is 21-2 inside the circle this season.
The Pelham, Ala., native holds a 2.85 ERA with 142.1 innings pitched and 127 strikeouts.
Offensively, Copeland is batting .333 on the season with 53 hits. She has 15 doubles, one triple and 11 home run for 44 RBI on the season.
She threw her first career no-hitter against Prairie View A&M tallying a career-high ten strikeouts, along with no hits, one run and zero walks. After opening weekend, she has an era of .60 after pitching 11.2 innings and totaling 14 strikeouts.