IU softball will play its last tournament of the regular season this weekend at Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Florida.
IU will play two games Thursday and Saturday and one Friday. The Hoosiers will play against five different teams during the weekend.
IU plays its first game at noon Thursday against Creighton University and will play the University of Toledo immediately after. Friday’s schedule will start at 2 p.m. against Central Michigan University.
IU was scheduled to play Brown University at 4:30 p.m. in its second game Friday, but the game was canceled after the Ivy League suspended all spring sports due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
IU will play South Dakota State University at 9 a.m. Saturday and Butler University at 11:30 a.m.
The Spring Games include over 500 collegiate softball teams from Divisions I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA.
The Division I games, which are played at two different locations, started Feb. 14 and go through March 18. According to the Spring Games website, more then 80 Division I teams are participating in the event.
IU is coming off a 1-0 walk-off victory Tuesday over Miami University. Senior Gabbi Jenkins earned the walk-off hit, scoring freshman Chloe Steinhaus.
Jenkins’ RBI was her 10th of the season. She joined juniors Grayson Radcliffe and Annika Baez and sophomore Hannah Davis as Hoosiers with 10 or more RBI on the season.
Senior Emily Goodin led IU from the circle against Miami. She struck out a career-high 14 batters and only allowed two hits in her 12th consecutive complete game. It was also her fourth shutout of the season, leaving her tied for ninth in the country in that category.
IU is now 10-9 this season and will now enter what head coach Shonda Stanton called the easier part of the team’s schedule.
In the season’s first updated rating percentage index, IU was ranked 52nd. After playing No. 4 Arizona on March 8, IU will play nine consecutive games against teams ranked 80th or lower.
“This is the point of the season where we thought we’d continue to work out some kinks and build some confidence,” Stanton said.
The Spring Games will lead IU into its first Big Ten games of the season against Penn State on March 20-22. IU won two of three games at Penn State during conference play last season. In the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, IU defeated Penn State 4-2.
