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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports softball

IU softball not worrying about 2 losses at Texas A&M Invitational

A pair of close losses to No. 16 Texas A&M could have left IU demoralized and uninspired at the Texas A&M Invitational this weekend, but wins in their other three games showed the team’s resilience.

Yet another tournament featuring strong pitching and timely hitting has the Hoosiers optimistic with about a quarter of their regular season schedule 
completed.

IU Coach Michelle Gardner said the losses to A&M, by a final of 4-0 Friday night and 4-2 Saturday night, were disappointing but 
promising.

“We were in both of those games — we were really competing well,” Gardner said. “We had some opportunities, but we just didn’t quite get it done either night.”

The Hoosiers did get the job done against their other opponents, however. IU won its first game 3-0 Friday afternoon against University of Texas-El Paso and beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6-2 Saturday afternoon.

A second win against UTEP by a final of 5-4 Sunday morning gave the Hoosiers a 3-2 tournament record and 8-6 mark for the season.

For the second weekend in a row, a freshman pitcher started for IU. Last week Josie Wood picked up Big Ten co-Freshman of the Week honors. This trip, it was Tara Trainer who struck out 24 batters and allowed just four runs on 10 hits in 15.2 innings during the tournament, which led the team to pick up two wins and a loss.

Trainer arguably pitched her best in defeat, as she gave up just three runs in 7.2 innings in two games against the vaunted Texas A&M 
offense.

A&M scored at least 10 runs and won via mercy rule in each of their three games of the weekend that weren’t against IU.

In the first game against Texas A&M, Trainer started and pitched through 5.1 innings while allowing three runs.

Trainer said after she switched some things up in the second matchup, and she was able to come on in relief for 2.1 scoreless innings as IU mounted a valiant rally that ultimately fell short.

“They’re a great hitting team, and obviously I knew they were going to make adjustments for me,” Trainer said. “So I definitely had to make adjustments for 
them too.”

The Hoosier offense, though still not explosive, was sufficient in providing enough support for the young pitchers in their wins.

Sophomore transfer Aimilia McDonough led the Hoosiers with six hits in 11 at-bats. Leadoff batter Rebecca Blitz also notched six hits and swiped a total of five bases.

Taking advantage of their opportunities has been a key for IU’s season, as they have yet to score more than six runs in a game.

Junior second baseman Erin Lehman was the catalyst this weekend and totaled eight RBIs on just five hits, including her first home run of the season.

“Being an upperclassman, early on this season I wasn’t setting a great example with my performance,” Lehman said. “But I had a totally different mindset going into this weekend, and hopefully this will get me back on track.”

Lehman raised her season batting average to .273 with the strong showing in Texas.

One of her biggest hits from the weekend was an RBI single in the two-run Hoosier sixth inning against A&M on Saturday.

The runs snapped a 31-inning scoreless streak by Aggie pitchers.

IU now has three narrow defeats against ranked teams this season, with the first being a 7-6 loss to No. 21 
California.

Though coaches and players alike have said they can take good things away from close losses to ranked teams, the Hoosiers know they will soon need to start winning the tight games to get to the level in which they want to be.

“We’ve given the best teams some great games so far,” Lehman said. “It’ll start to come together more as the season goes on. Everyone’s bought in, and we all know we’re good this year.”

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