Over the weekend, it was a tale of two teams for the Wisconsin softball team, as the Badgers blasted South Dakota State for 11 runs in one game but only mustered one run in the two games against Big Ten competitor Penn State.
It was a microcosm of the Badgers’ entire season, as they have only won two games against teams with winning records this year and have failed to get a Big Ten win in six chances. The conference opponents Wisconsin (10-22) has faced are a combined 77-27 this year, and have outscored UW 47-9.
The Badgers had 13 hits and five walks in their 11-2 blowout of the Jackrabbits (10-26) in their third game of the weekend, but could only manage ten hits and six walks total in their first two games against a much tougher opponent in Penn State (25-11).
Wisconsin looked very confused at the plate against Penn State, but took advantage of some lesser competition, hitting two home runs against South Dakota State. The difference, the Badgers said, was the pitching.
“The [South Dakota State] pitcher was way slower and didn’t have as much movement,” UW outfielder Ashley Hanewich said.
Hanewich hit what was technically a walk-off homerun against SDSU, ending the game on the eight-run mercy rule as she ripped a line drive over the wall in the sixth.
South Dakota State pitchers had very poor control and did not vary their pitches much if at all, allowing UW’s batters to be patient at the plate and choose their pitch.
This was a luxury for the Badgers, as the Penn State pitchers threw hard with good command, taking the hitters off their rhythm. UW was much cooler at the plate in their last game, and the numbers reflect that.
“I think that we brought our confidence,” freshman Molly Spence said following the South Dakota State game. “We knew we had to come out here and make a statement after struggling the last two games. It was big for us to get a win.
“The pitchers were both very different; they both had their own style. We just seemed to like the second style better.”
Spence herself was a good example of how things have gone for UW this season. She went 2-for-2 with two walks, two runs and five RBIs, three of which came on a bases-clearing triple against South Dakota State.
It was her second at-bat of the game with the bases loaded, after she brought in a runner with a walk on the first occasion.
“It was just me being patient at the plate,” she said of her two at bats. “I wanted to see what the pitcher was throwing. The ump had a small zone so I wanted to make the pitcher work in the first at bat. The second at-bat I was ready to attack.”
“For the young hitters, confidence brings confidence,” head coach Chandelle Schulte said Saturday. “We’re capable offensively of much, much more.”
While Spence hit fantastically against South Dakota, she struggled against Penn State’s stellar pitching, going 1-for-6 with three strikeouts and leaving two on base.
Penn State’s Lisa Akamine got both of the Nittany Lions’ wins over the weekend, bringing her record to 14-3 on the season. She allowed only one run on a wild pitch, lowering her earned run average to 2.13.
“[Akamine] just has a good mindset, a good attitude, she goes out there and throws what she wants to throw,” senior Letty Olivarez said of her pitching counterpart. “When she’s out there she’s focused on us, she just throws her game.”
Base running errors also hurt the Badgers’ offense in their second game against Penn State. Wisconsin killed any momentum it had in the fourth inning after pinch runner Abby Gregory was thrown out at second base on her secondary lead.
And in the ninth, when the Badgers were threatening with runners on second and third with one out and the top of the order up, Hanewich attempted to come home from third on a bobbled infield ball but was easily thrown out, stifling the last inning surge.
Although the team was getting on base with some consistency, mistakes on the bases certainly destroy any chance the team has to compete with good teams.
“We put the ball in play with runners on,” pitcher Meghan McIntosh said. “We just missed out on some opportunities against Penn State.”
