Pitching staff key to Hoosier success

The women's softball team ended last season with a 3-2 loss to rival Purdue. This last game was one of eight Big Ten games the Hoosiers lost by two runs or less. Head coach Stacey Phillips said she believes an improved pitching staff will turn those close losses into wins.\nThis weekend, Phillips begins her second year as softball coach -- her first without the interim tag -- when the team travels to the Chicagoland Classic in preseason action. During the offseason, the team acquired two new assistant coaches, Tarrah Beyster and Michele Puls.\nPhillips said the addition of Beyster will greatly improve the pitching staff. \n"Coach Beyster is one of the best pitching coaches in the country," she said. \nBefore arriving at IU, Beyster was a standout collegiate player at Oregon State, where she was part of a nationally-ranked Beaver team. Following her collegiate career, Beyster gave private pitching lessons to young players and later took on a role as assistant coach at Bradley University.\nBeyster said the key to improving IU's pitching staff is teaching it what pitches do.\n"If you don't know what pitches do, you won't know how to use them," Beyster said. "You need to know when a pitch breaks and where it is going to break to."\nAdditionally, Beyster said an adjustment in the pitchers' mentalities will create better pitching situations.\n"I teach them not to be dependent of me," she said. "I teach them to be dependent of themselves -- to be independent. I teach pitchers to be their own best pitching coach."\nShe said that means getting ahead in counts and being aggressive -- using pitching as an offensive tool.\n"There's no excuse to go to a three-ball count," Beyster said.\nLast year, the pitching staff's ERA was 3.33, well above their opponents' average ERA of 1.75. \nOutfielder Heather Hohs has noticed a difference in the pitching staff.\n"You can already see them improving," she said. "They worked a lot over the summer. It inspired all of us to work our butts off."\nFellow outfielder Lauren Hines thinks once the pitching staff improves, the softball team could be the best team in the Big Ten.\n"We've been pretty strong defensively," Hines said. "We need to keep the batting up. We're not settling with just being average. We have a lot of young talent. Everyone is working harder."\nHohs agrees. \n"I think we're going to have a breakout year," she said.\nThe Hoosiers will face Lewis University, Bradley University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Olivet Nazarene University and DePaul University this weekend.