After three consecutive weekends at home to start the Big Ten schedule, IU travels north this weekend to visit Michigan State for three games.
The Spartans (20-20, 2-8) will be hosts to the Hoosiers (22-17, 5-6) after dropping a midweek game at home to Michigan on Wednesday.
IU played Louisville at home Tuesday and led early before succumbing to the Cardinals’ offensive pressure. The Hoosiers lost 12-2 in a five-inning game.
IU Coach Michelle Gardner cited recent struggles from IU’s young pitching staff as something the team will need to overcome to change their string of poor results.
“We’ve got to get through some freshman growing pains, and the hard part is they’re all basically freshmen,” Gardner said. “So they’ll have to learn some things.”
Sophomore pitcher Emily Kirk, having thrown 10.1 innings in her freshman year before a season-ending injury, is the only pitcher entering the season with any NCAA experience.
Freshman pitchers Josie Wood and Tara Trainer have combined to throw nearly 250 innings so far this season, and as newcomers to the Big Ten, their conference foes are starting to figure them out.
Pitching carried the Hoosiers through the first part of their season when the they started 20-10 through 30 games, but the IU has lost seven of its last nine games since sweeping Iowa to start Big Ten play. The staff has allowed more than one earned run per inning in the last nine games.
But Gardner said she is confident the pitchers can bounce back, and there have been flashes of success in the past two weeks that show what IU is capable of.
Trainer tossed a shutout against Purdue last Tuesday, and Kirk earned her first win of her career with a strong six-inning performance against Penn State on Sunday.
This weekend certainly won’t be any easier for the Hoosier pitchers, however, as the Spartans have four batters hitting .374 or higher.
Michigan State’s offense is its strength, and it will be on the IU lineup to put runs on the board against Michigan State’s pitchers, who rank 10th in the conference in ERA with a 4.18 mark.
IU’s lineup has been forced to try to match crooked numbers on the scoreboard for the past two weeks, but they have improved since the beginning of the year. The Hoosiers have scored almost five runs per game in their last six games.
The Hoosiers are tied for eighth place in the Big Ten standings, but with three games against the No. 13 Spartans, the Hoosiers have a prime chance to move up.
Three of the last four Big Ten series for IU will be on the road, and Gardner said she hopes the change of scenery will shake things up.
“We haven’t been on the road in quite a while, so I’m looking forward to it,” Gardner said. “We’ve just got to go play, and we’ll see what happens.”
