The start of Saturday's game between Indiana and Wisconsin felt like a repeat of Friday night. Wisconsin pulled away from Indiana and forced the Hoosiers to try to crawl back into the game. However, unlike Friday, Indiana's comeback bid fell short.
“I like how we answered, we got close, but it wasn’t enough,” Indiana coach Shonda Stanton said. “It was messy at the start, and then we weren’t able to overcome that.”
Sophomore Sophie Kleiman started for Indiana and she wasn’t up to her recent standard. In Kleiman’s previous 12 innings, she only allowed two runs and five walks.
In Saturday’s first inning, she walked two Badgers and Brooke Kuffel singled to score the game's first run.
IU responded with a run in the second and the score remained deadlocked until the fourth.
That’s when things got out of hand. The Badgers tallied five runs on three hits, including a two-run bomb from Hilary Blomberg. Cora Basset’s two-out error didn’t help the Hoosiers' cause.
Wisconsin increased its lead in the top of the sixth with a pair of doubles.
Then the Hoosiers’ bats came alive.
After Avery Parker flew out to start the inning, IU landed four straight baserunners. Brooke Benson hit a sacrifice fly to score the Hoosiers' second run of the inning. Then Brianna Copeland cleared the bases, cutting the deficit to two.
Wisconsin snuffed out the rally in the seventh as the Hoosiers went down one, two, three. They couldn’t pull out another miracle, dropping the second game of the series 8-6.
Stanton was realistic when she spoke to the team in the locker room after the tough loss.
“I told them that in there we’re lucky that we weren’t looking down 0-2,” Stanton said. “We did a great job having the magic and fighting and coming back yesterday to have a shot to win a series.”
Much like yesterday, freshmen Aly VanBrandt and Alex Cooper didn’t back down in big moments.
They combined for five of the team’s seven hits and Cooper had three RBI.
Stanton noted Cooper’s consistent improvement throughout her first year at IU.
“Early on you know maybe Alex would come at those situations and didn’t get the performance," Stanton said. “We stayed the course with her cause we knew she was elite. Now we’re reaping the benefits of her having that longevity as a freshman. Can’t wait to see that kid as a sophomore.”
The Hoosiers will host the series-deciding game tomorrow. The game also has huge implications for Indiana’s postseason outlook. IU hopes to maintain its status as a top-four team in the hotly contested Big Ten, which would give the Hoosiers a bye in the Big Ten tournament. The first pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. ET Sunday.
