Just a few days removed from a record-breaking win streak coming to an end against Minnesota, Indiana softball returned home to Andy Mohr Field Tuesday night, hoping to do what it had done ten times prior this season: win in front of the home crowd.
The Hoosiers did just that, doubling up the University of Louisville 10-5 to improve their record to 31-11 this season while breaking another record in the process. Indiana had RBI on all 10 runs it scored, setting the single-season record for most RBI as a team with 282. That number bested the previous record of 278 set by the 1994 squad.
It’s also the first time the Hoosiers have beaten the Cardinals since 2014, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the series.
Team 50 scored early and often, pushing across three runs in both the first and second innings to jump out to a quick 6-1 lead.
Sophomore first baseman Sarah Stone was responsible for batting in half the runs Indiana scored on the night, with four of them coming in the first two innings. Stone hit a two-run triple in the first, her first three-bagger of the season, and a single up the middle an inning later to score another pair.
Indiana head coach Shonda Stanton said Stone hit the ball well at Minnesota, but did not have a hit to her name over the three-game weekend series, and she was happy that she finally got rewarded with multiple on Tuesday.
Louisville graduate utility player Hanna File hit her sixth home run of the season in the top of the second to make the score 3-1 at the time.
Down by five entering the fourth, the Cardinals scored a trio of runs off of a wild pitch, an RBI groundout, and a bases-loaded walk to cut Indiana’s lead to 6-4.
“I felt like the losing team the way we were playing,” Stanton said, referring to the top of the third inning. “We just looked a little stressed and a little tight and let them back in it with some mistakes and a lack of clean D.”
After not scoring in the third, Indiana scored in the remaining three innings they came to the plate. Team 50 scored two in the fourth to counter Louisville’s three, one in the fifth, and one in the sixth to put the game away.
Freshman infielder Taryn Kern and sophomore outfielder Taylor Minnick each had RBI base hits in the second half of the game. Minnick finished 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs batted in to boost her season average to .425, just nine points behind Kern for the team lead amongst qualified players.
In the circle, four Hoosiers combined to get the 21 necessary outs to win the game, with sophomore Brianna Copeland getting the final six outs, four of them via the strikeout while only allowing one baserunner to reach on a triple. Copeland did not give up a run and earned her 15th win of the season to remain perfect. Copeland recorded strikeouts number 100, 101, 102 and 103 in her career. Copeland’s ERA dropped to 2.78 on the season, a team low.
“That’s one of the best two-way players out there right now,” Stanton said about Copeland.
Indiana has a quick turnaround as they travel to South Bend on Wednesday for a tilt with another ACC team, this time the University of Notre Dame. First pitch against the Fighting Irish is scheduled for 5 p.m.
