Indiana Softball to Open Big Ten Play at Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ––––– Indiana Softball will open the conference portion of the schedule this weekend as the Hoosiers play at Penn State from Friday to Sunday.

The opening Big Ten series features the top-two ranked teams in the conference. Indiana owns a 22-6 record while the Nittany Lions are 20-6.

QUICK HITTERS:

After six weeks of non-conference play, it is finally time for Indiana to open the Big Ten schedule and the first series of the season will be an important one at Penn State.
The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions are the two current leaders in the conference standings, going 22-6 and 20-6 in non-conference competition, respectively.
The last time these two squads met was in the opening round of the 2023 Big Ten Tournament in Champaign, Ill. The game went to extra innings with Sarah Stone hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch a 5-4 Indiana win and to advance in the tournament.
Entering Big Ten play, the Hoosiers are at the top in the conference's statistical standings in a number of categories, including: stolen bases (76), opponent strikeouts (179), runs batted in (167), batting average (.319), total home runs (36), runs scored per game (6.68) and slugging percentage (.540).

LAST TIME OUT:

Last week, Indiana spent their spring break playing games in the Sunshine State with a road game at FAU on Wednesday and in a tournament at the University of Florida featuring games against Mercer and host Florida.
The Hoosiers went 3-2 on the week, defeating FAU and Mercer twice, but falling both times to the Gators.
Against FAU, Indiana defeated the Owls, 4-1. In the game, redshirt senior Cora Bassett recorded her 200th career hit. The hit occurred on the same field as her first career hit as Bassett began her college career playing in a tournament at FAU in 2020 when she was a student-athlete at Purdue.
Junior Taylor Minnick had an outstanding week in Florida going 9-for-15 (.600) at the plate, including two doubles and two home runs. The two home runs occurred on the same day, hitting one in the 9-2 win over Mercer and one against No. 10 Florida in the second game.
Sophomore Avery Parker and junior Sarah Stone both had two home runs over the week, as well.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:

Penn State enters the conference portion schedule with the second-best record in the Big Ten, going 20-6. The Nittany Lions are 19-0 in home and neutral games, while going 1-6 in road competition.
The Indiana-Penn State series will be Penn State's second home weekend overall and second in a row after just hosting the Penn State Softball Invitational from March 14-17 and going 5-0 in the event. The Nittany Lions defeated Lehigh twice as well as beating Cornell, Canisius and Binghamton.
The Nittany Lions' best win of the season was over No. 16 Arkansas on Saturday, Feb. 10 in Boca Raton. The Nittany Lions also have defeated two common opponents as the Hoosiers in FAU and Kansas
Bridget Nemeth leads the way in the circle for Penn State, going 10-0 with 69 strikeouts and a 1.03 ERA.
The team has four hitters recording a .350 or better batting average. Kaitlyn Morrison has the highest mark as she is hitting .366 with two home runs and 15 RBI.

SERIES NOTES:

Indiana leads the all-time series record against Penn State, 46-31.
The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions have split the past four games with each team winning two.

Indiana Softball to Open Big Ten Play at Penn State

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Players Mentioned

Cora Bassett

Taylor Minnick

Avery Parker

Sarah Stone

Indiana University Athletics

Indiana Softball to Open Big Ten Play at Penn State

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Cora Bassett

Taylor Minnick

Avery Parker

Sarah Stone

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