The Wisconsin Badgers Softball team (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) started their season in Boca Raton, Florida where they took part in the Paradise Classic. On Friday, they took on Stonehill college and Army.
The first game started early Friday against Stonehill with sophomore Kendra Lewis taking the mound for the Badgers. Lewis pitched two clean innings, only allowing a single hit and striking out three batters.
Meanwhile, the Badgers offense gave Lewis a lead to work with. In the first inning, junior Alivia Bark delivered a two run double then was driven in on junior Danielle Lucey’s two run triple to make the game 4-0 Badgers.
Junior Hilary Blomberg added onto the lead in the second inning with a sacrifice RBI, followed by Lewis, giving herself a bigger lead with an RBI single to push the game to 6-0 Badgers after two innings.
Following Lewis on the mound was sophomore Jordan Felci who finished with a similar stat line to Lewis, pitching two innings and only allowing one hit.
In the bottom of the third inning, Lucey picked up another RBI on a single. Lucey finished 2/3 with a triple and three runs batted in in game one.
Lewis and Bark each picked up another RBI in the fourth inning to put the Badgers up 9-0. Senior Shelby Jacobson pitched the fifth inning and allowed no runs to enact the mercy rule as the Badgers were up by more than eight runs after Stonehill got five chances to bat.
Game two against Army took place soon after on Friday. Freshman Berritt Herr made her first collegiate start and impressed. Herr pitched four innings, only allowing two hits, a walk and striking out four batters.
The offense would impress again, starting with two runs off the bat of Bark. Bark then made it home off an Army wild pitch followed by Lucey picking up another RBI, the Badgers fourth run of the first inning.
The Badgers never let up, adding five more runs in the third and fourth inning including another run batted in from Lucey and Blomberg hitting her first home run of the season. These runs gave Jacobson the opportunity to close out her second game in a row, which she did.
The Badgers finished the day 2-0 with some impressive performances. Blomberg finished 4/5 with four runs and three RBI, including a home run and Lucey finished 3/5 with four RBI. On the pitching side, Herr stood out with four shutout innings in her college debut and Jacobson pitched a clean inning in both games, closing out each game.
The Badgers will look to continue their hot start this weekend as they play Stonehill again after playing Florida Atlantic on Saturday night then close out the weekend Sunday morning against conference rival Ohio State.
