[media-credit name=’GREG SCHMITZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Coaches and players alike on the Wisconsin softball team have talked all season long about putting together a game in which offense, defense and pitching were all clicking at the same time.

Wednesday night, the team — at long last — did just that, defeating the UIC Flames 11-0 in a game that showcased all positive facets of UW head coach Chandelle Schulte's squad.

Wisconsin was relentless at the plate in extinguishing the Flames, connecting for 11 hits — including five for extra-bases — in just four offensive frames en route to its fourth run-rule victory of the year. In NCAA softball, games are made final if a team leads by eight or more runs after the losing team has batted five times.

Sophomore Theresa Boruta and senior Kaitlin Reiss paced the Badgers with two hits apiece, but it was sophomore Katie Hnatyk who stole the show for the cardinal and white. Hnatyk knocked off a homer in the first inning off Flames hurler Mercedes Lovato before putting her second ball of the game over the fence off Kelly Cross in the fourth.

Her team-leading total of nine home runs ties her freshman year output, and places her in a tie for third all-time on the career list at UW. With six games left in the conference season, Hnatyk is just two home runs shy of the all-time career home run record, in only her second year with the team.

"She's been making a lot of improvements," said Boruta about Hnatyk. "Early on, a lot of us struggled hitting the ball and being able to take pitches and turn on them. But lately, when pitchers make mistakes, she is able to capitalize on them. She is hitting the ball pretty far."

Both of Hnatyk's home runs were crushed. On the very first pitch she saw Wednesday, she pulled a Lovato offering well over the 218-foot mark in left-center field for a two-run home run. Junior Sam Polito, who had slapped a single through the right side of the infield to lead off the game, came in to score with Hnatyk, and the Badgers led, 2-0.

Hnatyk's second gopher ball was even more impressive, traveling significantly farther than her original blast, again to left-center. Two Badgers who had pinch-hit earlier in the inning, freshman Stephanie Doyle and junior Liz Klemp, came around to score on the play, finalizing the scoring for Wisconsin at 11 runs.

Doyle, the freshman infielder from Glen Ellyn, Ill., earned her first RBI as a Badger before scoring on Hnatyk's home run.

"It's such a relief," Doyle said of the RBI. "[Coach Schulte] keeps giving me chances, and I finally came through for us. … When you get your chance, you've got to take it."

Boruta was another player who took advantage of her chances in Wednesday's twilight matchup. She successfully moved Polito to second base with a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt in the first inning, before crushing a 220-foot double just left of dead-away centerfield in the second. She also bunted for a single in the third.

"Being in the second position in the batting order, [sacrificing] is your role," said Boruta. "When the first batter gets on, [you] move them over. Sacrifice bunting and bunting for a base hit is fine with me. It's getting on base and moving a runner — you're doing your job."

Boruta's double in the second inning chalked up dirt from the warning track.

"[The coaches] said that [the Flames pitcher] predominantly throws screwballs, so I backed off the plate," said Boruta of her approach on that particular at-bat. "The first pitch was there, so I thought I'd take advantage of it, just get a hold of it, and not look where it went."

In a game in which the Badgers scored 11 runs and recorded just 12 outs at the plate, Eden Brock's masterful performance at the mound was overshadowed. The junior pitcher was spectacular, scattering four hits in five innings and not walking a single batter.

"She has been awesome," said Schulte. "I think the last two weeks, Eden Brock has carried our team."

Alexis Garcia also shined for Wisconsin, walking three times and doubling sharply to left field in the second.

On a night where everything went the Badgers' way, the game was appropriately ended with a fantastic defensive play by Polito, the standout centerfielder. With two runners aboard in the fifth, she put out the Flames' threat, charging forward to snag a liner and throwing to second base to double off the UIC runner.

Schulte finally saw her team put together a complete victory, and as the Badgers head into the final stretch — their last six games are against conference competition — they will need to do more of the same to qualify for the Big Ten tournament.