IU traveled to play No. 17 Kentucky on Wednesday confident and riding a hot streak, but lost 3-1.
IU’s offense struggled against Kentucky left-handed pitcher Meagan Prince, who entered the game with a 1.97 ERA and a spotless 8-0 record and came two outs away from a perfect game.
Prince entered the final frame having retired the first 18 batters, but senior Kassi Farmer and senior Kelsey Dotson put a pair of hits together and got a run on the board for the Hoosiers. Prince ended the game with 6.2 innings pitched to go along with a single run and two hits.
Freshman pitcher Tara Trainer matched Prince’s scoreless frames throughout the first four innings for IU, but flirted with danger several times early on.
Ultimately, she gave way to fellow freshman Josie Wood to start the sixth inning after allowing three runs on five walks and five hits.
“I thought our pitching did a good job keeping us in a good position,” IU Coach Michelle Gardner said. “Tara worked her way out of a few tough spots but we just couldn’t get it going offensively.”
Trainer, who fell to 5-6 on the year after the loss, allowed a solo home run to the leadoff batter in the fifth inning to break the scoreless tie.
But after a pair of singles, a walk, a sacrifice fly and some clever base running by the Wildcats, the Hoosiers found themselves down 3-0.
With the tough loss, the Hoosiers completed a stretch of 19 games in a row away from home to begin the season.
The offense seems to have suffered the most from being on the road, as Indiana has only scored more than five runs on three occasions this year.
“We’ll need to quickly move on because we play again in a few days,” Gardner said. “We’re looking forward to being at home and playing in front of our crowd.”
Up next for IU is its own 2016 Indiana Classic, from March 12-14.
The tournament will feature the Evansville, Ohio and Drake.
The following weekend, the Hoosiers will welcome three more teams to Bloomington for the 2016 Hoosier Classic.
That tournament will be followed by three consecutive home series to begin Big Ten play.
Last weekend in Auburn, Alabama, junior CaraMia Tsirigos said the team was excited to start playing home games.
“We’ve got five weeks at home now, and that changes everything,” Tsirigos said. “We have more time to do mechanical work and get more feedback from the coaches, so we love playing at home.”
