With a 3-0 record at home and its first two Big Ten victories under its belt, the Wisconsin women's softball team (2-4 Big Ten, 19-11 overall) will be hosting North Dakota State (23-18, Division I Independent) Tuesday evening in a doubleheader at the Goodman Diamond in Madison. The first game will start at 4 p.m., followed by the second at approximately 6 p.m.
Badger senior center fielder Samantha Polito has just been named the Big Ten's Softball Player of the Week for April 1-8 for her strong offensive performances. Polito got on base nine of her 10 plate appearances and tallied an .875 batting average (7-for-8) in Wisconsin's three games this week. She also had three RBI and a 1.125 slugging percentage while also scoring six runs herself. Against Big Ten conference foe Iowa this weekend, Polito was able to slug a two-run triple in game one to lead the Badgers to a 5-0 victory. In the second game she went 2-for-2 as Wisconsin finished off its first sweep against Iowa in school history 4-1.
Junior outfielder Katie Hnatyk is leading Wisconsin with a .365 batting average and is currently ranked fourth in the Big Ten with a slugging percentage of .771. On the defensive end, pitcher Eden Brock is leading the Badgers with a 2.03 earned run average and is ranked fourth in the Big Ten with 30 strikeouts on the season.
North Dakota State played a doubleheader against the University of Northern Iowa on Monday, winning game one 4-2. In the second game, however, UNI came back in the bottom of the seventh inning, losing 4-0, and scored a miraculous 5 runs to split the series.
The Bison are led by junior pitcher Allison Bakke, who has a .375 batting average and a 100 percent fielding average. On Monday, Bakke threw a three-hitter in game one against UNI and had 11 strikeouts. Prior to Monday's game, two other North Dakota State players were above the .300 maark with sophomore catcher Kelly Cantrell batting a .357 and freshman infielder Melissa Chmielews batting .310, respectively. Senior center fielder Grete Peterson also entered the week with an impressive batting average at .299.
To get another two points in the win column, Wisconsin will have to continue finding ways to break down the defense and hit the ball through gaps in the North Dakota State defense. The Badgers will also have to back up their pitchers on the defensive side and keep Bison runners from scoring if they get on base. A sweep tonight would give Wisconsin more momentum going into this weekend's four Big Ten conference games against Indiana and Purdue. A-
—A-A-uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
