Coming off a disappointing sweep at Penn State, the University of Wisconsin softball team returns home tonight for a doubleheader against Notre Dame.
The two teams met early in the season in the Bama Bash Tournament, where UW won 2-0. While the Badgers have struggled to a 12-28 record since then, the Fighting Irish are now 25-13 and third in the Big East.
Wisconsin enters the series on a six-game slide and hasn’t won consecutive games since March 28. Notre Dame comes in with a four-game winning streak and is 8-2 in its last 10 games. Senior Theresa Boruta blames the Badgers’ recent struggles on a lack of consistency.
“You have to bring all aspects of the game, defense, offense and pitching,” Boruta said last week. “If one doesn’t come, the other two pick you up. But if we’re missing two, that’s going to be a problem.”
The Badgers will likely need to show more offensive flair than they did last weekend when they scored just one run on six hits in the series. Boruta accounted for four of the team’s six hits.
UW leadoff hitter Jen Krueger has seen her batting average slowly decline over the past two weeks. Second baseman Livi Abney is hitting .274 after a four-game hitless streak. Boruta said after the losses to Northern Iowa the team may not be as focused as it needs to be, leading to poor performances.
“The mental game is a huge aspect in any sports,” Boruta said last week. “If you let that get the best of you, you’ll produce what we [have recently]. We have to go out there with a better attitude and just kinda [know] there’s nothing to lose obviously at this point. It’s go big or go home.”
Notre Dame, on the other hand, has scored at least 10 runs in each of its last three games and averages 5.60 runs per game. The Irish have been shut out just four times on the season, one of those times being their meeting with the Badgers.
Junior Christine Lux is Notre Dame’s biggest offensive threat. The first baseman leads the team with 13 home runs and a whopping 40 RBIs to go with a .340 average and 1.217 OPS. She set the school record for home runs in a season as a sophomore with 14 and looks to be on pace to break that tally this year.
The Fighting Irish are not a one-woman show, however; Lux is one of seven regulars hitting over .300 and seven regulars with double-digit RBI totals. Notre Dame hits .304 as a team, which has supported their strong pitching as well.
Notre Dame’s Jody Valdivia got the start against Wisconsin in the teams’ previous meeting, giving up just three hits. One of those was a two-run home run to Letty Olivarez, which proved to be the decider. ND senior Brittney Balgar will likely start at least one of the games tonight. She is 15-8 with a 1.90 ERA, 123 strikeouts and just a .220 batting average against.
UW should counter with Olivarez and Leah Vanevenhoven, who have ERAs of 2.94 and 3.49, respectively. While a repeat of February’s shutout pitching performance seems unlikely, the Badgers think they have the talent to limit the Fighting Irish and stay competitive, so long as they forget their performances over the past couple of weeks.
“We can’t settle and … just get used to losing,” Olivarez said last week. “Obviously, people don’t play games to lose. We just need to keep up the heart and the faith and know that we can do it.”
The two teams have only faced each other three times, with UW holding a 2-1 edge in the series. Tonight will mark the first time Notre Dame comes to Madison, though UW played in South Bend last year, losing 5-11.
