Riding a 22-game win streak, No. 19 Indiana softball headed north this weekend to face Minnesota in its first true road weekend series.
Being away from home for the first time in three weeks did not treat the Hoosiers well, as they lost not only their record-breaking winning streak but their first conference series as well. Despite winning the first game 8-5 and having the lead both Saturday and Sunday, Team 50 dropped the next two games by scores of 6-5 and 8-5. The Hoosiers leave the Land of 10,000 Lakes 30-11 overall, 9-2 in the Big Ten.
Friday, April 7
The scoreboard may read a comfortable six-run victory for Indiana, but the game was tied after each of the first four innings. The game was scoreless after the first three frames, as Indiana sophomore Brianna Copeland and Minnesota 5th-year Autumn Pease dueled it out in the circle.
In the fourth inning, Copeland helped her cause by hitting her seventh home run of the season, a solo shot to center to break the deadlock. The Golden Gophers responded with a run of their own in the bottom half with a fielder’s choice.
An inning later, Indiana took a lead it would never relinquish, courtesy of a star player they’ve relied on all season long: freshman infielder Taryn Kern. With runners on the corners, Kern clubbed her 17th home run of the season to left-center to not only break the tie in the game but break the program's single-season home run record. The record, which lasted for nearly 30 season, was previously held by Indiana Athletics Hall of Famer and Olympian Michelle Venturella.
“It’s an honor,” Kern said. Kern mentioned that she considers hitting to the opposite field as a strength of hers, and with pitchers targeting away from the lefty, she has been able to capitalize on those locations.
The very next batter, sophomore Taylor Minnick, went deep to go back-to-back with Kern and extend the Hoosier’s lead to 5-1. It was Minnick’s seventh homer of the season to put her in a three-way tie for second on the team and knock Pease out of the game.
Trailing by four with just nine outs left, the Golden Gophers cut the deficit in half with two runs off Copeland in the fifth courtesy of Natalie DenHartog, who drove in a pair with a single to left.
Up 5-3 after five innings, Team 50 put the game away with three runs in the sixth and another in the seventh. In the sixth, freshman utility player Avery Parker, sophomore outfielder Kinsey Mitchell and senior utility player Cora Bassett all had RBI hits to make the score 8-3 before freshman outfielder Elle Smith scored on a passed ball in the final frame.
Copeland pitched her fourth complete game of the season in the circle, giving up three earned runs while striking out eight and only issuing one walk. Copeland remains perfect and picks up win number 14 in the circle.
That win pushed the Indiana win streak to 23 straight, as they hoped to make it 24 the next day.
Saturday, April 8
For the first time in over a month, Indiana was on the losing end of a game, as they fell 6-5 to the Gophers in game two of the series.
The Hoosiers scored all five of their runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead but were unable to hold the advantage, as Minnesota walked it off in the seventh to snap Team 50’s record win streak.
Minnesota freshman infielder Jess Oakland hit a solo home run in the second inning to give the Golden Gophers their first lead of the weekend.
That 1-0 edge lasted until the fourth when Indiana scored a quintet of runs. The big hit came from none other than Kern, whose ground-rule double gave the Hoosiers a three-run lead. The extra-base hit from Kern scored a pair, giving the freshman a season total of 49 runs batted in. Kern already broke Venturella’s single-season home run record, and now she has her eyes set on breaking the RBI record of 65, also held by Venturella in 1994.
Indiana led by four needing 12 more outs to secure win number 31 on the season. However, Minnesota clawed its way back, responding with two in the bottom half of the fourth and scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh.
Oakland hit another homer in the fifth, this time a two-run shot, to cut Indiana’s 5-1 lead in half.
After the Gophers tied the game in the sixth, Indiana went down in order in the seventh, meaning if it wanted to continue the win streak, it would have to do so in extra innings.
There would be no extra innings, however, as Minnesota took advantage of miscues from the Hoosiers to even up the series. Sophomore infielder Kayla Chavez began the inning with a routine ground ball to third base, but Copeland’s throw to first was too high and went out of play, moving Chavez to second with nobody out.
The next batter, senior infielder Sydney Strelow, hit a single to left field. The throw came in all the way to home plate to prevent Chavez from scoring. Chavez went to third, and Strelow started running to second after seeing the throw from the outfielder go to home plate. Strelow got caught in a rundown hoping a throw would score Chavez, who represented the game-winning run. Eventually, Strelow advanced to second as the throw from sophomore utility player Sarah Stone was late, eliminating the double play.
Freshman Sophie Kleiman walked the next batter on four pitches and got a pop-out to keep Indiana in it, but Oakland would have the last say for Minnesota. Already 3-for-3, Oakland hit a sacrifice fly to right field to end the game and Indiana’s win streak.
Sunday, April 9
Easter Sunday may have brought treats to some, but for Indiana, it did not mark the start of a new winning streak record.
Chavez, who scored the winning run Saturday, scored the first run Sunday as she hit a lead-off home run to right field. Indiana freshman catcher Avery Parker responded with a solo long ball of her own, her ninth homer of the season, in the next half inning to tie the game at one. Later in the inning, senior utility player Cora Bassett hit an RBI double to give Indiana a 3-1 lead.
The Golden Gophers answered with a pair in the second to tie the game at three. The back-and-forth tilt saw the Hoosiers regain an advantage after Taylor Minnick hit her eighth dinger, a two-run shot in the fourth to score herself and Bassett and give the Hoosiers a 5-3 lead.
But, just like the day prior, Minnesota came back from a multi-run deficit. The Golden Gophers scored two in the fifth and three in the sixth, with four runs coming off the bat of junior utility player Maddy Ehlke.
Indiana could not muster up a comeback in the seventh, losing by two despite outhitting the hosts 10-8.
For the second straight day, Kleiman took the loss as her record dropped to 1-2. For the first time since February 25-26, Team 50 lost two straight games.
“We knew, yesterday’s game and today (Sunday), we kind of gave it away with the mishaps defensively,” head coach Shonda Stanton said after the series. Stanton mentioned how proud she was of team during this run, and how the team has played well enough to be able to afford a bump in the road like this.
“For losing, I feel pretty good as a coach,” Stanton said.
Indiana still should feel pretty good about itself, as it still sits in second place in the conference, just half a game behind No. 20 Northwestern. Next up for the Hoosiers is a midweek clash against University of Louisville at Andy Mohr Field at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
