Indiana exacted its revenge on Minnesota in Saturday’s installment of the weekend series that opened conference play for both sides. After Sydney Schwartz pitched a complete game shutout for the Golden Gophers on Friday, sophomore Ella Troutt responded with a complete game shutout of her own to headline Indiana’s 5-0 win.
The game began two hours after the originally scheduled first pitch time due to a deluge of rain that engulfed Bloomington all throughout the morning. However, a motivated grounds crew created playable conditions and allowed the game to take place entirely in daylight.
Troutt allowed zero walks and just three hits on the day, comfortably dispatching Minnesota batters throughout all seven innings. As a result, similar to the experience of Indiana’s lineup the day prior, Minnesota couldn’t consistently initiate a strong sense of offense.
Troutt pitched well, and sustained the quality of her work by throwing with incredible efficiency. In seven innings, Troutt tossed under 75 pitches, placing strikeouts on the scoreboard early and often to keep control of the pitch count.
After the game, Troutt passed the praise to the rest of the defense.
“We have an elite defense,” Troutt said, “a veteran infield… I played very free today, I had two strikeouts in seven innings. It doesn’t take strikeouts to win games, our defense did a phenomenal job today.”
Troutt’s praise was well deserved. Indiana posted a .968 fielding percentage and only one error. Across the board, Indiana played complementary softball on the defensive side of each inning.
However, even if a game contains completely perfect pitching, earning a win in a softball game requires some level of offensive output. A day after Indiana recorded just two hits in a shutout loss, the Hoosiers scored their first runs on Andy Mohr Field this season in the second game of the series.
Senior Ellie Goins batted in the first two runs of the contest on a pair of sacrifice fly balls, with freshman Nevaeh Nash and junior Alex Cooper touching home plate for the Hoosiers. Later, in the fifth inning, sophomore Madalyn Strader scored on a second base fielding error. Even so, Indiana failed to score with runners in scoring position on multiple occasions, raising concerns about whether or not Minnesota could swoop in late and swing the result.
After the game, head coach Shonda Stanton spoke on the struggle for timely hitting.
“I think we could've probably broken the game open a little bit earlier,” Stanton said, “they gave us some things that we didn't capitalize on, but I'll take it. I’ll take a shutout.”
Stanton also explained her perspective on the offense’s shortcomings.
“We had pitching today,” Stanton said, “we had defense today, we had some timely hitting… our baserunning was awful… I felt like at times our focus lapsed, and we just weren’t true to principles.”
Although the scoring outburst came later than preferred, sophomore Josie Bird emerged in the sixth inning with what effectively served as the game-sealing hit. Her triple careened off the center field wall and drove junior Aly VanBrandt and senior Cassidy Kettleman in to extend the lead.
In the end, the Indiana batting order constantly threatened to score runs, and ultimately showed up when it mattered most. The insurance runs serve as the cherry on top of a dominant overall effort, shepherded by Troutt’s supreme performance in the circle.
With inclement weather likely exiting the equation, Indiana and Minnesota are set to compete for the weekend series win on Sunday at 1 p.m. After two complete game shutouts and a victory for each side, a decisive Sunday awaits for two teams that hope to prove their worth early in the Big Ten season.
Regardless of what transpires on Sunday, Indiana successfully transferred the success of its 16-4 start to the conference season with a sound shutout of a formidable conference foe on Saturday. Even so, with a quick turnaround, the Hoosiers strive to take hold of the series and begin Big Ten action headed in a positive direction.
