Stepping away from conference play for a bit, the University of Wisconsin softball team continues its home stand Tuesday against Northern Illinois today at Goodman Diamond.
The Badgers are coming off a two-game series that resulted in a split with Purdue and their only Big Ten win in 10 tries.
Wisconsin (11-25) will face a weaker team in Northern Illinois (18-24) than they would against a conference opponent, and Wisconsin has fared better in nonconference play with a 10-16 record as opposed to 1-9 in the Big Ten.
Additionally, despite the Huskies holding a better overall record than the Badgers, UW has a better record against common opponents at 5-3, while Northern Illinois is 4-5.
If there is one thing the Badgers need to work on this series, it is their hitting at the bottom of the order. Whether players need to be moved around in the order or different players need to be introduced remains to be seen until Tuesday, as head coach Chandelle Schulte was not available for comment over the weekend or Monday.
What the players know is they need to stay positive and continue encouraging each other.
“I think you just got to keep pumping each other up,” senior Katie Soderberg said. “Somebody’s up before you, you got to tell them to be aggressive and if they’re hacking away, then you’re going to feed off of that, and you’re going to hack away, and we’ve just got to keep rolling.”
Aside from the two games against South Dakota State, in which the number 5-9 hitters combined for 11 hits, that same part of the order has only managed 13 hits between five people in six games at home against quality opponents.
Even with the South Dakota State games included, that’s only 0.6 hits per player per game in the first eight games of this Badger home stand. Their lack of hitting included a penchant for strikeouts, as the bottom of the order has 22 in the same time span compared to only nine walks.
Two players who exemplify this trend are freshman Kendall Grimm, who has gone 5-for-22, and sophomore Karla Powell, who has hit 2-of-20 in the last eight games. With Powell moving off first base and switching places with offensive leader and former designated hitter Molly Spence, her position at DH may be in jeopardy.
“We’ve just got to make sure they each know what their specific goal is,” senior ace Letty Olivarez said of struggling set of hitters. “I feel like they were thinking a little bit too much. They’re just going to have to fix that in practice.”
The top of the order has been strong, though, with Whitney Massey and Molly Spence hitting the ball particularly well. Jen Krueger is still struggling compared to last season, but most of the runs and RBIs have been scored or knocked in by the first four hitters.
Fatigue may be a factor, as the Badgers have played eight games in ten days. Soderberg mentioned a lack of intensity in their loss to Purdue on Sunday.
“I just felt like we were quiet in the first inning,” Soderberg said. “I felt like we had to find the energy from somewhere, and it was really hard.”
Catcher Maggie Strange felt the same way.
“Obviously we came out on top [Saturday], we came out on fire,” Strange said following Sunday’s loss. “Today we just couldn’t get that fire lit.”
Olivarez has been the workhorse for Wisconsin all season, logging 157 innings — the next closest Badger has 41 — and she was pulled in the fourth inning, though she claimed it had more to do with the Purdue hitters and a tighter strike zone than her arm and fatigue. One way to combat both hitters and fatigue is to put batters away early, and Olivarez is focused on doing just that.
“I’ve got to just make sure I get ahead,” Olivarez said. “If you don’t get ahead on the batters, it’s not really the easiest to come out with a groundout or something like that. Once I get behind, they’re expecting my pitch and by that time, they usually can foul me off.”
