Following an encouraging weekend split against Michigan State, the Wisconsin softball team (3-5 Big Ten, 17-16 overall) looks to build on that confidence as they head into the home stretch of their season. Before two huge series against Indiana and Purdue this weekend, however, the Badgers take on Illinois-Chicago (8-3 Horizon League, 17-25 overall) Wednesday.
Certainly it's another Midwest school, so we want to perform well,\ UW head coach Chandelle Schulte said in her Monday press conference. ""But again, everything from here on out really is looking towards our Big Ten season and competing this coming week against Indiana and Purdue. We want to win, but we'll use [the game] as a tool to get ready for the coming weekend.""
Illinois-Chicago has been playing the best softball of its season, but last week was not kind to the Flames. A 9-0 drubbing by No. 15 Northwestern last Tuesday set them back and their 5-0 loss to Youngstown State Sunday snapped a seven game conference winning streak.
While the Flames do have a number of great players, they struggle with consistency. The offense is led by senior shortstop Joyce Cathey, who bats .355 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. Other threats include senior Nicole Shepard, a .299 hitter, and sophomore slugger Nicole Robinson who has a team-high 25 RBIs.
UIC's pitching is a far cry from the strength of Michigan State, but the young staff is not terrible. Freshman Sarah Clynes (who also leads the team with 10 doubles) is the team ace with a 2.87 earned run average and a 9-5 record. Freshman Kelly Cross owns a decent 3.22 ERA despite a 3-9 record. Coach Schulte knows that her team cannot take the Flames' pitching for granted.
""They're not a bad pitching team at all,"" she said. ""Good teams will hit pitching no matter what it is.""
The likely starter for UW Wednesday will be junior Eden Brock. Brock (13-7) stifled a potent Michigan State offense in a complete game win last Friday and has had great stuff lately. Among the offensive stars of last weekend was freshman second baseman Teresa Boruta, who was 3-5 with two runs scored and an RBI in the two games. Sophomore right fielder Katie Hnatyk added her seventh home run of the year while freshman left fielder Valyncia Raphael added three hits of her own.
""I'm very proud of the kids' effort in the last two weeks,"" Schulte said.
Wednesday's game takes place at 6 p.m. at UIC's Flames Field.
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