Hoosiers head to Evansville before Big Ten road trip

With only a handful of games left in the season, the IU women's softball team will head to Evansville Tuesday to face the University of Evansville Purple Aces in their last non-conference game of the year. The game will mark the start of the Hoosiers' last Big Ten road trip this season. IU will look to finish the season capitalizing on performances that kept them in close games with Minnesota and Wisconsin this weekend. Despite the competitive games, the Hoosiers were unable to come away with a win. \nIn Friday's game, the deciding factor was two costly runs given up by IU in the sixth inning, which led to a 3-2 Golden Gopher win. On Saturday, it was IU that made a late charge in the game, scoring four runs in the seventh inning but coming up just short in a 5-4 loss. \n"A loss is a loss," freshman Janetta Deaven said. "But it always helps when you are hitting."\nOffense was no problem for the Hoosiers almost all weekend, as they racked up 13 runs on 33 hits in four games. However, the team struggled to put pitching, defense and offense together to close out both tight games against Minnesota and Sunday's first game against Wisconsin.\n"It'd be better if we were able to put it all together with the hitting and the pitching," sophomore Rachel Terry said. "But there are always positives. We came out and hit against Minnesota and Wisconsin. We just weren't able to pull it out."\nThe Hoosiers hope they can stay hot offensively and use their defense to smother the Purple Aces as they prepare for the last stretch of the Big Ten season, which includes games at Ohio State and Purdue.\n"We had a lot of offensive support this weekend. We just weren't able to put it all together," junior pitcher Megan Roark said. "Hopefully we can put it all together against Evansville."\nIU will look to capitalize on Evansville's offensive inconsistency of late; the Purple Aces have scored only 10 runs in their last five games.\nEvansville currently sits eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference with a league record of 5-16 and an overall record of 14-28. \nIn the 26 times the Hoosiers have played Evansville, IU has won 21, including the last four matchups.\nThe University of Evansville's WUEV will be broadcasting the game live at 6 p.m. Tuesday. A link is available on www.iuhoosiers.com to access the live audio.\nAfter the Evansville game and the visits to Ohio State and Purdue, the Hoosiers will return home for their last home game, against in-state rival Purdue, at 1 p.m. May 8.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Kevin Dwire at kdwire@indiana.edu.