IU travels to Palm Springs to play against nation’s elite

The IU softball team will travel to Palm Springs, Calif., to play in the Cathedral City
Classic today.

The Hoosiers will look to continue their winning ways after a 3-2 weekend in the USF Tournament in Florida, in which they outscored their opponents for the second straight weekend.

While the Hoosiers have outscored their opponents by a combined 10 runs this season, sophomore Amanda Wagner said she feels the team can still be more consistent.

“We are producing the runs, we just need to produce them more when we absolutely need to get them,” Wagner said.

“Offensively our consistency is what we need to work on.”

IU coach Michelle Gardner said the team has been productive thus far, but the Hoosiers need to continue to set the tone.

“I just want to go out and really be productive early,” Gardner said. “I think that is going to be a key for us and no matter what happens with us we need to keep battling at the plate.”

With No. 4 Florida and No. 14 California coming up this weekend, Gardner said the team needs to focus on when it has opportunities with runners in scoring position.

“When we have runners in scoring position, obviously we want to be driving the ball to the right side of the infield or right side of the field with runners at second and third but really just being able to situational hit,” Gardner said.  “With less than two outs a flyball scores me a run, so I think it is executing and knowing what your job is at the plate.”