IU softball to face three top-25 foes in one weekend

The IU softball team will have traveled 10,460 miles in four weeks of play after this weekend’s Easton Invitational in Fullerton, Calif. The Hoosiers are geared up to take on three top-25-ranked opponents, two of which they have already faced earlier this season.

The team takes on Cal Poly at 2:15 p.m. Friday, followed by a matchup with Cal State Fullerton at 6:15 p.m. At noon Saturday, the team has a rematch with No. 8 California, who dealt them a 9-1 loss Feb. 10. They finish off the day’s double-header with a 4:30 p.m. game against No. 24 Oregon State. The team completes its weekend of play at 11:30 a.m. Sunday with a game against No. 16 Stanford, who dealt them an 8-2 loss Feb. 9.

“The biggest challenge is always facing top-25 teams, and we have three of them, but Cal Poly and Fullerton are both very good teams,” IU Coach Michelle Gardner said. “We just have to show up and play.”

Despite having to travel more than 2,000 miles to reach Fullerton, the team said they are excited to be playing in warm weather and be in the home state of many players.
Senior Breanna Saucedo, senior Samantha Heyman, junior Shelby Gogreve, sophomore Miranda Tamayo and sophomore Brianna Meyer all reign from the Golden State.

“There are so many people from California (on the team) and we have all been looking forward to this trip,” sophomore and pitcher Lora Olson said. “We’re going to have a lot of fans there, so that will definitely help us.”

The team is trying to stay focused and not let the four consecutive weekends of travel wear them down, Gardner said. During this week’s practice, they went back to the basics, working on fine-tuning the fundamentals for this weekend’s invitational.

“We kind of went back to some mechanics and basics, just because I felt like last week we just weren’t on,” Gardner said. “It’s good when you’re not on and you can still win three games, but I want to get back to what’s right.”

Pitching has played an important role in the team’s success in recent games. Prior to the Sunday game against Pacific, the team had only allowed four runs and a .99 earned run average at last weekend’s NFCA Leadoff Classic. They came out of the weekend posting a still solid 2.65 earned run average.

“(We’re) focusing on only controlling what we can control,” Olson said. “My expectations are just to have fun, play loose, and make some good things happen against some really good competition that we’re going to see out there.”

Olson has played an integral role in the pitching of the team thus far, posting a 5-2 record and a 1.83 earned run average on the season.

The Hoosiers go into the Easton Invitational hoping to improve upon their 10-5 record.

“We actually have fared well in California (in the past), just because of a lot of family around there, and the kids are excited,” Gardner said. “Of course we always want to win, but I just want to come out and play well.”