Hoosiers fall to Cardinals

The IU softball team was dealt a tough 4-1 loss in Wednesday night’s game against the No. 11 Louisville Cardinals.

The contest in Louisville, Ky., marked the Hoosiers’ final matchup of their 25-game regular season schedule.

The Hoosiers opened up the game with an early 1-0 lead off of a first-inning solo home run by senior infielder Amanda Wagner. The team would hold on to their lead until the Cardinals rung in a leadoff home run in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game at 1-1.

“It set the tone, but we didn’t capitalize on it,” IU Coach Michelle Gardner said of the Hoosiers’ early lead. “I felt like we were in a good place — we just didn’t continue to do what we needed to do.”

After a scoreless fourth inning for the Hoosiers, the Cardinals would hit a three-run home run to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth.

The Hoosiers threatened to cut into Louisville’s lead in the top of the sixth, with two outs and bases loaded. The Cardinal defense was able to keep the Hoosiers from scoring, and they held on to their 4-1 lead.

With neither team scoring in their final at bats, Louisville was able to pull off the win.

“I’d say we did pretty good. We just had a hard time getting the ball in play for hits,” freshman catcher and first baseman Kassi Farmer said. “Defense did great. We didn’t have any errors. They had runners in scoring positions multiple times, and we didn’t let them score. One runner scored all of their runs, and you really can’t control that.”

Louisville’s sophomore shortstop Whitney Arion led the Cardinal offense, scoring two home runs and holding all four RBI.

“[Sophomore pitcher Lora] Olson gave up two home runs, and she doesn’t normally give up home runs, so that was unfortunate because she threw well,” Gardner said.
Olson was dealt the loss after throwing five innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. The sophomore falls to 6-5 on the season.

Freshman pitcher Brooke Boetjer closed out the game for the Hoosiers, giving up two hits and striking out one.

Farmer went 2-3 to post her third career multi-hit performance, while Wagner went 1-3 for the night and improved her hitting streak to six games. Wagner’s home run was the only score of the game for the Hoosiers and the senior’s fourth home run of the year.

“Our pitching has shown consistent improvement, and I’d like to see our hitting do the same,” Gardner said. “We are scoring runs, but we need to capitalize on situations where we have runners in scoring position.”

The Hoosiers had their hands full with the Cardinal defense, led off by junior pitcher Caralisa Connell. Connell allowed three hits and one run while striking out nine in the contest.

“We weren’t able to string our hits together and have consecutive good at bats and put the pressure on them,” Wagner said.

The Hoosiers fall to 3-2 on away games and 15-14 on the season. The team returns to action at 3 p.m. Friday with their Big Ten opener against the Ohio State Buckeyes.