Indiana softball traveled to South Bend to take on the University of Notre Dame Wednesday with a chance to defeat the Fighting Irish but allowed nine unanswered runs en route to a 9-1 loss in six innings.
Coming off a stellar closing effort against the University of Louisville at home, sophomore pitcher Brianna Copeland suffered her first loss of the season, bringing her record to 15-1.
With defensive errors costing the Hoosiers two losses against Minnesota on April 8 and 9, mishaps in the field occurred again against Louisville on Tuesday and against Notre Dame in Wednesday’s defeat. Freshman utility player Avery Parker, redshirt junior catcher Lindsey Warick and Copeland all had an error to their name against the Fighting Irish.
“We had three errors and a few more miscues than that,” Stanton said after the game. “When you give a good team like that extra outs, they’re gonna make you pay.”
Although the middle infielders in freshman second baseman Taryn Kern and junior shortstop Brooke Benson have made multiple highlight reel plays throughout the season, they lead the team with 11 and 10 errors, respectively.
The Hoosiers lead the Big Ten in errors with a total of 53, just a year removed from leading the Big Ten with 76 errors in the 2021-22 season. Team 50’s fielding percentage of 0.956 ranks 12th out of the 14 Big Ten schools. After defeating Louisville, head coach Shonda Stanton stressed that defense is the key for Indiana during the rest of the season.
“We let (Louisville) back in it with some of the mistakes,” Stanton said. “That lack of clean (defense) is going to be the difference for us the rest of the way.”
Team 50’s schedule doesn’t get any easier the rest of the month of April with three-game sets against Nebraska and Michigan, two teams who rank in the top 50 of the RPI.
With a series against Nebraska on the horizon for Friday, April 14, Indiana’s defense will look to improve upon mistakes that have led to losing three of the last four games.
This weekend will bring an opportunity for Indiana to rack up wins against another quality opponent in Nebraska, a team who is coming off winning the Big Ten in 2022. The Cornhuskers currently hold an overall record of 27-13 and stand at 7-4 in conference play. Each of the three games this weekend will be televised on B1G+.
Follow reporters Austin Platt (@AustinPlatter) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) for updates throughout the softball season.
