IU softball opened up its best weekend of the season with its best game of the year when senior Emily Goodin threw a no-hitter Friday in a 13-0 victory over Bucknell University.
IU went 3-1 at the Fairfield Crabtree Invitational in Raleigh, North Carolina, defeating Bucknell twice and Saint Joseph’s University once. IU fell to North Carolina State University in extra innings Saturday.
“We’re just getting better,” IU head coach Shonda Stanton said. “It’s like a completely different team from that opening weekend. And that's what you want, you want to get better.
Goodin struck out seven batters over five innings in her second career no-hitter. In what looked to be a good pitching matchup between Goodin and Bucknell senior Raeanne Geffert, who came into the weekend second in the country in strikeouts, the game was dominated by IU.
Stanton said Goodin powered the team all weekend.
“Goodin was absolutely phenomenal,” Stanton said. “She’s rung the bell every time we’ve asked her to do something, and she’s done a fantastic job.”
IU finally had its offense show up as well. The team scored 13 runs, led by senior Gabbi Jenkins’ four runs batted in and sophomore Hannah Davis’ three. Freshman Desiree Dufek added two RBI on her third home run of the season in the third inning.
Goodin continued her work in the circle Saturday against Bucknell, pitching all eight innings of IU’s 8-3 victory. She allowed three runs in the first inning before shutting down the Bison, only allowing two more hits over the next seven innings.
The Hoosiers scored one in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie the game. In the eighth, junior Grayson Radcliffe had a three-run home run. Junior Annika Baez added a two-run home run to put the game away for IU.
IU’s second game Saturday against NC State extended into extra innings before the team fell 2-1. The Hoosiers scored in the first inning but couldn’t get enough offense to back Goodin, who once again threw all eight innings.
NC State ended the game with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Against Saint Joseph’s in the final game of the weekend, IU was powered by Radcliffe’s third home run of the weekend in the first inning. Radcliffe would add two more RBIs in the fourth, bringing her weekend total to eight.
“Grayson was huge for us today,” Stanton said. “She led us all weekend hitting the ball really hard.”
Goodin did more of what she'd done all weekend in the pitcher's circle, throwing all seven innings in her eighth straight complete game. She finished her weekend with a nine-strikeout performance.
IU has won the last game of every tournament it has played in so far. Stanton said she’s glad to see IU improve by the end of each weekend.
“You want to have a fast start, to play hard, but for us, it's all about how you finish,” Stanton said. “I like how we are finishing weekends now.”
The Hoosiers will take the momentum from the weekend into a bye week. The team doesn’t play again until the Wildcat Invitational on March 6-8 in Tucson, Arizona.
“It’s gonna be nice to be able to rest and recover,” Stanton said. “Then we’ll get some good training in. You can just focus all that time and energy on ourselves.”
