A 5-2 win, like Iowa’s victory over UW softball Friday, seems like pretty solid win, right?
If the Badgers’ story is heard, Wisconsin came closer to beating the No. 23 Hawkeyes than it seemed. Inside that score was a game filled with missed opportunities that might have reversed the outcome of the game.
It was not that the Badgers were unable to get any offensive opportunities; rather, it was the inability on the team’s part to capitalize on the opportunities they did earn.
At the game’s end, the Badgers totaled six hits, two RBIs, were struck out nine times and put out 21 times. But the most staggering number was the 11 batters UW left on base, including one in the final inning to end the Badgers’ chance at a comeback.
“We left a ton of people on base and it has plagued us all year,” head coach Karen Gallagher said. “At this point in the year, you want to come up with a big hit. Anna Jones scored a couple of runs for us in the later part of the game, but we needed to do that in the third or fourth inning.”
The trend continued in Sunday’s doubleheader against Northwestern, as runners left on base became a big factor in the first game.
In five of the first six innings, the Badgers stranded at least two runners and as many as three.
In the seventh and eighth innings?crucial times in the game?UW failed to score two runners and was forced to play yet another inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Finally, in the ninth inning, captain Meghann Reiss stood up and led by example, driving home the winning run.
UW scored twice in that first game, but the Badgers went nine innings without scoring a run?even though they had had 14 other opportunities to do so.
“Fourteen runners left on base is a lot. Way too many,” Gallagher said. “I think we have to continue to work on that.”
But she also looked at the positive side after a victory.
“At least we are getting people on base. Three weeks ago we weren’t even doing that, so it’s a good thing,” Gallagher said. “We need to continue with the key hits. We need to score those runners?that was way too many people left on base. That shouldn’t have been an extra-inning ball game.”
The team did fare better in its last game of the weekend, a 3-2 win over Northwestern, leaving only four runners on base.
“This has been a problem for us lately,” Sheena Padovan said. “At least everyone is hitting the ball?maybe not when we need them, but as long as we keep hitting the ball, eventually we are going to start getting the hits when we need them. We squeaked by today getting a couple of hits when we needed them, but it’s going to come.
“If you hit the ball it is going to come.”
–Kim Geiter contributed to this report
