A rainy, cold weekend in Bloomington resulted in rescheduled games and a long delay for Indiana softball, but that didn’t get in the way of the Hoosiers’ strong weekend performance against Maryland in their weekend series April 6-7 at Andy Mohr Field.
The pitching was a struggle throughout the first game of the series, with the rain affecting both teams' efficiency at the mound. Senior pitcher and utility player Brianna Copeland started at the mound in game one of the series for Indiana, but after walking seven batters, Copeland was replaced in the top of the second inning by freshman pitcher Jasmine Reyes. However, Copeland was subbed back into the game midway through the third inning after Reyes struggled in the rainy conditions, walking four runners and giving up two runs off walks.
After the over one-hour rain delay during game one of the series, the Hoosiers pitching rebounded with Copeland finishing out the game, allowing only two more additional runs. The Hoosiers finished the top of the third inning down 8-4 but were able to rally and put up 16 runs, holding the Terrapins to only two runs scored to finish the game out in run rule victory 20-10 Sunday.
After showing much perseverance throughout the rainy conditions in the first game of the series, the Hoosiers pitching put together back-to-back complete games the following day to wrap up the series sweep for Indiana.
In the first game of the doubleheader Monday, freshman pitcher Jasmine Berry held Maryland to just four hits throughout seven innings as she threw a complete game and secured the win for the Hoosiers over the Terrapins in a final score of 2-0. Berry leads the team in ERA percentage with a 2.87 and has a record of 9-3 on the mound this season.
The strong performance from Berry was followed by another complete game and a win for Copeland. Throughout the game Copeland accumulated nine total strikeouts.
In Indiana’s last series played March 29-31, Copeland threw a career high 13 strikeouts in the victory over then-No.18 ranked Ohio State on March 31. Copeland has an ERA percentage of 4.93 and a record of 10-4 on the mound.
The Hoosiers’ three wins moved them to 26-10 on the season and 6-5 in Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers are 14 wins away from a third consecutive 40-win season, which would be history for the softball program and an early preseason goal of Team 52. However, with only 13 regular season games remaining, the Hoosiers would have to do work in post season games to obtain this goal.
Indiana will look to extend its win streak to five games in its next matchup against the University of Louisville at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Andy Mohr Field.
