After four tournaments on the road, IU's softball team will head to Andy Mohr Field for its first home game of the season.
IU will play Miami University at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Ahead of the game, here are three things to know:
Scouting the opponent
Miami comes into Tuesday’s game with a 12-7 record.
The Redhawks played four games at home this past weekend, beating the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay twice and splitting its series with Eastern Illinois University.
Miami finished last season with a 35-16 record and was ranked 80th in the rating percentage index.
The last regular season game between IU and Miami was in 2015 at the Citrus Classic II in Orlando, Florida. Miami beat IU 3-2.
IU leads the overall series between the two teams 14-5. The Hoosiers have won all six games at home.
Deep Offense
So far this season, many players in IU's lineup have contributed to the offense.
IU head coach Shonda Stanton said the team’s roster is deep and allows her to go with a variety of starters for the lineup.
“It's like, ‘Do we want door number one or door number two?’” Stanton said. “Sometimes you pick it, and there’s a big old prize behind it. But when I go to open the door, I’m fired up to see what happens.”
Of the eight IU batters who have met the minimum requirement of two plate appearances per game, three of them have at least 10 RBI.
Junior Annika Baez leads the team with 12 RBI after adding six RBI this weekend in Tucson, Arizona. Junior Grayson Radcliffe has 11 RBI and sophomore Hannah Davis has 10. Senior Gabbi Jenkins has also contributed nine RBI.
Junior Taylor Lambert is one of three Hoosiers with a batting average above .300, along with Radcliffe and Jenkins.
Radcliffe and Baez both pace the team in home runs with four, while freshman Desiree Dufek has three.
Pitching Rotation
Senior Emily Goodin has pitched 89 2/3 of IU’s 114 2/3 innings this season. She is 7-7 in her 15 appearances this season and has now thrown 11 consecutive complete games, including her second career no-hitter against Bucknell University on Feb. 21.
Most of the other innings pitched have come from senior Josie Wood, who pitched 11 of her 17 innings this weekend.
Stanton said IU needs more production from the rest of the team’s pitchers. Before the Wildcat Invitational this past weekend, IU’s three other pitchers had only thrown 13 innings all season.
“They’ve got to stay the course and understand they’re climbing a mountain,” Stanton said. “It’s not straight up, but eventually they’re going to get to the top of that hill.”
Wood’s performances against the University of South Dakota on Friday and Saturday showed she can be a valuable second pitcher this season. Stanton said Wood needs to continue to pitch like that to provide backup for Goodin this season.
