IU softball will start its season Thursday with the Black and Gold Tournament in Orlando, Florida, against the University of Central Florida Knights.
“It’s like any other opening weekend,” IU head coach Shonda Stanton said. “You’re excited to get out there, and you want to get out to a start fast. You want to dominate the details.”
The tournament will continue through Saturday. IU will play Duke and UCF again Friday, then St. John’s University and Clemson University on Saturday.
The Hoosiers finished last season ranked 53rd in the Rating Percentage Index while the Knights were ranked 51st. They will face off in what looks to be an equally matched start to the season, but Stanton does not want to prioritize a single opponent ahead of another.
“You want to win them all,” Stanton said. “You focus one pitch at a time, what’s important now. You get on base.”
Clemson provides a challenge to IU compared to the other teams in the tournament. This is Clemson’s inaugural season, so Stanton has little opportunity to scout its roster. She said she listened to the team’s podcast and has looked for information about the players on social media, but a majority of her scouting will come by watching them play throughout the weekend.
“Every opponent is the same — we’re just playing with that little yellow ball every time we take the field,” Stanton said.
The Hoosiers return most of last season’s roster after graduating only three seniors. The biggest loss is that of Tara Trainer, who graduated as one of the best pitchers in Indiana history. Senior Emily Goodin looks to step up in her place, but Stanton said the team will likely pitch by commission.
Goodin has been working over the offseason to build endurance in preparation for a heavier workload this season. She’s also been scouting ahead of this weekend’s games.
“We’ll watch film or go over the scouting reports with coach (Chanda) Bell,” Goodin said. “We’ll watch film from last year if we played them last year and talk through, ‘This is what worked with this batter last year.’”
With a full roster returning and two seasons of momentum to build off, Stanton’s third season is lining up to be one of the team’s most successful in recent history.
“We got more options,” Stanton said. “It's like, ‘do we want door number one or door number two?’ Sometimes you pick it, and there’s a big old prize behind it. But when I go to open the door I’m fired up to see what happens.”
IU is looking to repeat the hot start it got off to last season when the team won its first 14 games, including two top-10 wins over No. 6 Georgia and No. 10 LSU. The Hoosiers ended with a nonconference record of 26-8.
But they floundered in conference play, finishing with a subpar 10-13 record and missed the NCAA playoffs as one of the first four teams out.
The Hoosiers look to combine last season’s successful nonconference run with their conference play in 2018, where they went 17-6 and had a chance to win the Big Ten before losing to Michigan.
A NCAA tournament berth would be IU’s first since 2011.
