The Wisconsin softball team heads south this weekend for its final regular season tournament, where Oklahoma State will host the Mizuno Classic.
Wisconsin (4-11) plays a double header against Rutgers (5-10) and No. 20 Oklahoma State (15-6) today before finishing the first part of the tournament against Prairie View A&M Saturday morning. The remaining two games will be decided by the outcomes of the previous games.
The Badgers will use this weekend to correct some of their more prevalent mistakes, like getting the top of the order on base, strengthening relief pitching and cutting down on errors. All of these problems, the team says, can be fixed with just a more relaxed mentality on the diamond and confidence through time playing together.
Junior leadoff hitter Jen Krueger, the Badgers’ offensive leader last season, has gotten off to a poor start, but she’s showing signs of improving, which the Badger offense desperately needs. Batting just .189 heading into last weekend, she went 3-9 with three walks and three runs scored in the Badgers’ three games.
“She actually had much better at bats [last] weekend so she’s seeing the ball better, she’s putting the ball in play more, and as a lead off hitter, that’s half of her struggle,” head coach Chandelle Schulte said. “When she’s on, that’s huge for us; we can steal her to second, she can go to third.”
Krueger said she’s finally comfortable at the plate and has been studying her swing, trying to get back to her previous form.
“In the first few tournaments, I wasn’t seeing the ball so I was just swinging at everything, and I’ve just been focused on putting the ball in play,” Krueger said. “I was hitting the ball to the third baseman instead of the shortstop. If I hit it to the shortstop, I get on. If I hit it to third base, I get out. So it’s just an inch I need to make an adjustment for.”
Krueger getting on base is vital because of her speed and her growing ability to steal. Last season, she was 18-for-23 in steals and this year she’s 9-for-11. Her success, she said, comes from developing a head first slide in the offseason.
“It’s a lot harder for the shortstop to tag me out,” she said. “I read the shortstop and see where she’s coming, but otherwise, I try to slide around the base and get my hand in there.”
In addition to offense, Wisconsin has some corrections to make on pitching and defense. Freshman relief pitcher Meghan Mcintosh is 1-2 with a 5.67 ERA and is also coming off an injury. While she threw a terrific game in her win against San Diego, the next day she let in four runs, though only one was earned.
The loss, Schulte said, was mostly due to the injury and Mcintosh’s fitness, not her mentality. Mcintosh says she has no problem being put into tough spots in games.
“I guess your mindset is different, when you come in and you just have to buckle down and get the job done, but you’ve just got to go in and hit your locations,” she said. “Let [the hitters] put the ball in play and get outs, don’t get too nervous, just relax and get the job done.”
Schulte expects good things from Mcintosh’s young arm.
“Meghan throws between 65-66 mph, which is, in fast pitch, is pretty hot,” she said. “When she’s not coming with that speed, she’s right at what we call ‘hitting speed,’ meaning it’s a great speed to hit it out of the park or connect so she’s going to have to hit her spots because she’s not going to be able to just throw the ball past them.”
On the defensive side, the Badgers have committed 19 errors this season, leading to 24 unearned runs. With a young team and eight freshmen, chemistry can take time, and Schulte says the defense will improve.
“One of the biggest issues we have now is our short game,” Schulte said. “We’ve really been working hard with kids that are young in those positions to get used to how to play with each other, so we spent a majority of our practice doing that. The reality of it is they just need to relax and make the plays that they can.”
