The Wisconsin softball team (5-5 Big Ten, 24-13 overall) will be facing conference foe No. 7 Northwestern (8-3, 33-10) in a two-day, two-game series at the Goodman Diamond. These will be the last games played on the Badgers' home field for the remainder of the regular season. The first game will be played Friday night at 6 p.m. The first pitch of game two will be on Saturday at noon.
After a long weekend of two doubleheaders on Sunday and Monday, plus a big win over the University of Illinois-Chicago Tuesday, the Badgers were in need of a few days of rest. With only one loss this week, coming from Purdue in game one on Sunday, Wisconsin will be entering this weekend with an abundance of confidence.
Wisconsin head coach Chandelle Schulte said she believes her players will carry a lot of emotion with them as well. ""It's senior weekend for us, so I'm sure they'll be motivated and ready to go for our last few games here in Madison,"" Schulte said.
Defensively, Wisconsin is playing very well right now, but it cannot stumble against the quick bat speed of the Wildcats. With consistent pitching by freshman Letty Olivarez (8-6) and senior Eden Brock (13-7), as well as a solid field of teammates to back them up, the Badgers' defense has offered recent opponents very few gaps to aim at.
However, sophomore Tammy Williams of Northwestern is leading the conference with a batting average of .456 and a slugging percentage of .769. Seniors Garland Cooper and Katie Logan are also among the top ten hitters in the Big Ten, with batting averages of .392 and .385 respectively. All three of these Wildcats have been swinging their bats with precision over the course of the season and will be major offensive threats to the Badgers.
Wildcat pitching has also been tough for batters to hit. Freshman Lauren Delaney (15-2) is ranked third in the Big Ten with an ERA of 1.49. Senior Eileen Canney (18-8) has also been pitching well with a 2.05 ERA.
Northwestern is currently on a two-game losing streak, having just dropped a close game on Tuesday to Loyola (Chicago) and game two of a doubleheader Sunday to Penn State. Both of these losses were by only one run. Northwestern also dropped a game to Ohio State last week. Wisconsin anticipates the Wildcats will come into this weekend with vengeance.
""Last week, Ohio State showed that Northwestern is definitely beatable this year. We let [Northwestern] take two from us last year and we are definitely aiming for them this year,"" said senior centerfielder Sam Polito.
Polito has been hitting extremely well for the Badgers so far this season in the two slot behind junior catcher Joey Daniels. She has a team-high .360 batting average and is on a team season-high 12-game hitting streak.
""We're playing some pretty good ball right now, and we are ready to come out and take one from them, at least one,"" Polito said.
Sophomore Ricci Robben, who has the second highest batting average on the Wisconsin squad with .351, showed offensive strength earlier this week when she hit a game-winning, walk-off double with a runner on second base in the seventh inning of Tuesday night's game against UIC.
""Every team is beatable on any given day. We just got to go out there and play our game,"" Robben said. ""I think it will be in our advantage to play them [Northwestern] at home.""
The Badgers have only lost two games at home this season, and if they are able to either split with the Wildcats or pull off a sweep, that may be just enough of a momentum boost to finish off the season successfully on the road.
