Starting a homestand on a good note is always key, especially when it culminates in a showdown with No. 12 Michigan in two weeks. This weekend, the Badger softball team (2-4 Big Ten, 15-14 overall) did start well, winning the first game, but could not finish the doubleheader with a second win. Great pitching only got the Badgers so far against Minnesota (1-7, 12-21) at the Goodman Softball Complex Sunday.
The first game was largely a pitcher's duel, with each team only scoring one run before going into extra innings. The Gophers jumped on top early as Lisa Parks hit an RBI double in the first inning to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Wisconsin would not get into the runs column until the fourth, when pinch hitter junior Liz Klemp singled home a run to knot the game at one. For the rest of regulation, both teams threatened but failed to score until the eighth inning.
The game seemed to slip out of the Badgers' hands in the top of the eighth when Parks homered off of junior Eden Brock to put the Gophers up 2-1. Comebacks are a UW specialty though, and their bats came alive at exactly the right time. Wisconsin loaded the bases with one out before sophomore right fielder Katie Hnatyk singled to tie the score and keep the bases loaded. No other heroics were needed because sophomore catcher Joey Daniels was hit by a pitch the next at-bat to walk the winning run home to get the Badgers a 3-2 win.
The player of the game appeared to be Brock, who kept her pitches hidden from Gopher bats all game long. Besides Parks, who went 3-4 with two RBIs, Minnesota managed a mere three hits and only one player did not strike out at least once. Brock had 12 strikeouts en route to her 11th complete game of the season and an 11-7 record. Offensively the Badgers got the hits but could not score, stranding 15 players on base. Both senior infielder Kaitlin Reiss and redshirt freshman first baseman Alexis Garcia had two hits to lead the team.
Pitching ruled the second half of the doubleheader as well. Freshman Leah Vanevenhoven pitched four innings of no-hit ball and allowed only two earned runs in the game, but the two unearned runs in the fifth inning made the difference as the Badgers fell 4-2.
Once again, the inability of Wisconsin to get runners home was a major difference in the game. The Badgers ended four innings with the bases loaded and stranded 16 players on base. Hnatyk and junior center fielder Sam Polito combined for five of the six UW hits and scored both runs, but that was about all the Badgers could muster offensively.
Wisconsin plays another doubleheader today at 2 p.m. at home against North Dakota State.
