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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports softball

IU softball sweeps Penn State

IU swept its three-game series when it traveled to University Park, Pa., last weekend to play Penn State.

“These wins were huge,” sophomore CaraMia Tsirigos said. “Any win that we can get in the Big Ten is huge.”

The Hoosiers picked up their first road win of the season with a 9-3 victory Friday.

In the top of the first inning, with runners on first and second, junior Katelyn Conenna hit a long single off the wall in right-center field to score juniors Kassi Farmer and Kelsey Dotson to give IU an early 2-0 lead.

Senior Lora Olson was throwing a one-hit gem going into the bottom of the fourth inning before Penn State tied the game at two on a pair of RBI doubles.

The Hoosiers backed up their pitcher with a big fifth inning, scoring four runs. Senior Shannon Cawley hit a sacrifice fly to score freshman Rebecca Blitz. One batter later, Dotson hit an RBI single to score Farmer. The inning was then capped off with a two-run home run from junior Michelle Huber to make the score 6-2.

“We had all parts of the game working,” IU Coach Michelle Gardner said. “We played solid defense and had timely hitting.”

In game two of the three-game series Saturday, the Hoosiers picked up their second consecutive victory, 5-4, behind the bat of Tsirigos.

Conenna continued where she left off in game one, leading off the second inning with a double. Huber, the next batter up, put the Hoosiers on the board first with an RBI single to left field.

In the third inning, after a pair of singles from Dotson and Conenna, Huber walked to load the bases for Tsirigos, who hit her first career grand slam to give the Hoosiers a 5-0 lead.

“I just really wanted to come through and help my team,” Tsirigos said. “I got a good pitch to hit and I was pumped to see the ball go over the fence.”

Penn State would try and battle back late, picking up a run in the third and fifth inning and two more in the sixth, but pitchers Olson and senior Miranda Tamayo put the clamps down and secured IU’s second win in as many days.

In the series finale, the Hoosiers completed the three-game sweep of Penn State by a final score of 7-4.

The perfect weekend is the first Big Ten sweep for the Hoosiers since a three-game set at Michigan State in 2012.

“All weekend, from top to bottom, we were really solid,” Tsirigos said.

In the second inning, the Hoosiers took an early 2-0 lead on a pair of RBI singles from Tsirigos and freshman Taylor Uden. Blitz would add onto the IU lead with a sacrifice fly.

Penn State would answer quickly in the bottom half of the second with two runs of its own to make it 3-2.

In the seventh inning, Conenna and Huber hit back-to-back home runs for the Hoosiers to extend the lead to 7-2, marking the 13th time this season that the Hoosiers have hit multiple home runs in a game.

The Nittany Lions would plate two runs in the bottom of the seventh but would get no closer as IU secured the three game sweep.

Olson picked up three wins this weekend, and Tamayo earned saves in two of them.

With Tsirigos’ home run on Saturday, the Hoosiers surpassed their team single-season home run record of 40, which was set back in 2006. After the weekend was complete, the Hoosiers stood at 43 home runs.

IU will now travel to play No. 4 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., next weekend.

“We need to continue to do what we do,” Gardner said. “Michigan is going to score runs, so we need to play clean defense.”

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