BGSU softball (5-15) rode all-around team performances to achieve victories over the UIC Flames (4-19) and the IU Indy Jaguars (6-15) in a chilly weekend at the Hoosier Classic in Bloomington, Indiana.
Winning the games that they needed to win, the squad managed to leave the tournament with a 2-2 record despite two blowout losses to the Indiana Hoosiers (17-5) sandwiched between the two victories.
The conclusion of the Hoosier Classic also brings the conclusion of regular season tournament play, as the Falcons will head north to battle the Buffalo Bulls (3-16) in the opening Mid-American Conference series of the season for three games on March 14 and 15.
The Good
Redshirt freshman third baseman Addie Martin ended the tournament on a five-game win streak after smashing home runs in three of the four games and earning eight RBIs on five total hits in 13 at-bats.
Martin’s three-run home run in the second inning of Friday’s game against UIC scored the final three runs for the Falcons that would ultimately allow them to hold on to a 7-6 victory despite not scoring after the second inning.
The slugger’s seven home runs on the season tie her for second place in the MAC alongside Central Michigan catcher Carly Sleeman, and her .721 slugging percentage is good enough for fourth in the conference as well.
Martin has paired nicely with fellow infielder Hannah Hunt, who crushed eight hits in four games in Bloomington, ending the tournament off with her second three-hit game of the season.
Hunt earned clutch hits in both of BG’s victories, earning her five RBIs on the weekend and a tie for the team lead in the category with Martin at 15 on the season.
Hunt’s .387 batting average places her seventh in the MAC as she will look to keep an impressive eight game hitting streak alive against the Bulls this coming weekend.
Senior pitcher Scarlet Anderson emerged as the Falcon ace ahead of the Hoosier Classic, entering the tournament with an earned run average of 4.43 that dropped nearly a point by the end of Saturday’s loss to the Hoosiers.
Anderson threw 12.2 innings of work throughout the four games while allowing three runs and throwing three scoreless outings, including closing out the victory over the Jaguars with five innings of scoreless relief and the victory over the Flames with 3.2 innings of the same.
The Virginia native sports the ninth best earned-run average in the MAC while allowing only two home runs in 42.2 total innings of work.
Junior Katie Hutter has been impressive in the leadoff spot for the Falcons, most notably this past weekend where she earned five hits and four walks across all four games, reaching base nine out of her 14 total plate appearances.
Hutter ranks 10th in the MAC in on-base percentage and total walks and is one rank behind Martin at seventh on the leaderboard with a 1.038 OPS. The Falcons are the only squad in the conference to feature three hitters in the top 10 of the rankings of both OPS and slugging percentage.
The Bad
The Falcons suffered two blowouts against the Indiana Hoosiers over the weekend, losing 11-3 in six innings on Friday and 12-3 in five innings on Saturday.
This comes as no surprise with the pairing of Indiana’s offense that is ranked with the best batting average and OBP with the second to worst pitching staff in the MAC that holds a team ERA of 7.14.
In game one, freshman pitcher Morgan Beckham was jumped on by a thirsty Hoosier offense that put up eight runs in the first three innings and even scored three runs on Anderson in her only outing of the tournament that was not a shutout.
The story was much the same in Saturday’s game, where the Hoosiers once again put up eight runs early on, this time in only two innings, flattening the Falcons and putting the game out of reach from the start.
Indiana, currently ranked 48th in the NCAA Women’s Softball RPI, is statistically the toughest opponent the Falcons will face for the rest of the season by a wide margin, with the best remaining team being the 84th ranked Ohio Bobcats (16-6).
Catch BGSU softball next when they take on Buffalo with game one at Nan Harvey Field in Buffalo, New York on Friday at 3 p.m. and games two and three coming in the form of a Saturday doubleheader with the first game starting at 1:00 p.m.
