The Hoosiers were back on the road again after coming off a 3-2 series at the Littlewood Invitational in Tempe, Arizona. This time a little further south at the USF tournament in Tampa, Florida.
Indiana earned the first win of their double header against Boston College on Sunday, 12-9, but fell short in their second game to South Florida, 5-3. Indiana has a tournament record of 3-1 for the weekend and 10-4 record for the current season.
At first, Boston College came out of the batters box ready to play. Abby Patek hit a triple that put Kae DePerio on the scoreboard for the first run of the game. The Hoosiers responded with strong defense but an even stronger offense.
Senior Avery Parker cranked a pitch out to left field, sending her teammate junior Aly VanBrandt home. The Hoosiers didn’t stop after one run though, scoring six more in the bottom of the first inning alone.
Boston College battled back to tie the game up in the second through fourth innings. At the top of the fourth inning, Boston had the lead at their fingertips, 7-7.
The intensity from Indiana in the first few innings was just the beginning. They had no problem answering by increasing the pressure in the bottom of the fourth. They took over the lead 10-7. A sac fly from freshman Hannah Haberstroh took senior Ellie Goins to home plate; the Hoosiers added two more RBIs from sophomore Peyton Drummond and senior Cassidy Kettleman.
The Eagles struggled in the top of the sixth to come back from the Hoosiers' magnified momentum. Despite scoring two more runs, the defensive plays from Indiana would hold off Boston College, winning 12-9. With two games left of the tournament to go, Indiana held a record of 3-0 for the weekend.
However, the second game wasn’t smooth sailing for Indiana’s softball team. The South Florida (USF) Bulls would hand the Hoosiers their only loss in an otherwise perfect weekend.
Only scoring three runs all game, Indiana had a slow start from the beginning, coming out of the first inning with zero runs on the board. Freshman Ella Troutt attempted to strengthen the Hoosiers by securing two strikeouts on the mound.
USF defended its home turf immediately by earning an RBI double and a sac fly in the bottom of the second inning. These plays put the Bulls on the board, as the Hoosiers had high hopes to catch up to the Bulls’ early 2-0 lead.
The flashy start from USF seeped into the fourth inning as the Bulls topped it off with two more runs by Jamia Nelson and Kiley Strott, upping the lead 4-0.
The top of the fifth was a turning point for Indiana as they exited the scoring drought. Kettleman and VanBrandt put the Hoosiers back in the game with a triple by VanBrandt and an RBI by junior Alex Cooper. It was VanBrandt’s sixth triple of the season, going 3-for-4 at the plate during the USF game.
Fielding errors and inconsistency in the offense throughout the entirety of the game would largely contribute to IU’s first loss of the weekend.
Those same high hopes would carry the crimson and cream to the very end of the game. With bases loaded, Indiana had a chance at both tying the game up and taking over the lead in the top of the seventh inning. However, they failed to accomplish either as they only got one run in.
Indiana got its revenge against USF with an 11-1 win in the final game of the USF Tournament this Monday. IU will travel to Elon, North Carolina in a weekend-long series starting off with Charleston Southern this Friday at 12:30 p.m. EST. The Hoosiers will play at home for the first time this season the following weekend.
