| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | Wisconsin
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5
| 7 | 1
| Rutgers
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8
| 1
| | Pitchers
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | | W | Stewart (9-17) | 6.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | | L | Landrith | 7.0 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 13 | | |
| |
May 1, 2015
PISCATAWAY, NJ --The Badger softball team snapped its seven-game losing streak with a dominant 5-1 win over Rutgers on Friday afternoon, marking the 20th win of the season.
Senior Marissa Mersch left her mark in the Wisconsin record books as she stole the team's 115th base on the year, breaking the school's single season stolen base record set in 2014. The previous mark of 114 was set in the 2014 season.
Freshman Kelsey Jenkins also set a new freshmen record for stolen bases in a single season with 18, passing senior Maria Van Abel's previous mark of 17.
An explosive fourth inning gave the Wisconsin (20-30 overall, 4-16 Big Ten) a lead over Rutgers (28-18, 10-11) that they would never relinquish.
After back-to-back singles from Van Abel and sophomore Chloe Miller in the top of the fourth frame, freshman Samantha Arents was hit by a pitch to juice up the bases. All it took was Mersch to be walked for the first run to score and get the Badgers on the board with the bases still loaded and no outs. Junior Ashley Van Zeeland chopped a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in Miller and give the Badgers a 2-0 advantage after the inning.
After two quiet innings, the Badgers ended on a high note, scoring three runs off of three hits and one error in the top of the seventh.
Junior Katie Christner led off with a single towards first base and used her speed to outrun a close tag. With one out and one runner on, Jenkins came up big by placing the ball directly on the left field line, just into play, for a single and advancing Christner to second. Van Abel struck out with the two runners on the base path to make it two away.
But UW's doubles queen stepped up to the dish as Miller blasted her 18th double of the season down the right field line, driving in two runs. Mersch reached base on an error that allowed Miller to score giving UW a 5-0 lead headed into the bottom half of the final inning.
With the bases loaded for Rutgers, a stellar double play by junior pitcher Taylor-Paige Stewart, senior Megan Tancill and freshman Samantha Arents held the Scarlet Knights to only one run and put up two outs on the board. Miller caught a foul pop up behind home plate to end the game and give Stewart her ninth win of the season.
"Any Big Ten win that you get is something for the program so you have to be happy with everything you can get," Stewart said.
Both teams racked up one error, while RU outhit UW 8-7.
"It was a fun game. After getting struck out twice, I came back with some redemption and I'm just working toward getting more doubles," Miller said.
Rutgers' Alyssa Landrith pitched a complete game and gave up five runs off of seven hits. She struck out 13 Badger bats.
Stewart allowed only one run off of seven hits. She walked four and retired one batter with a strikeout.
The Badgers are back in action at Rutgers tomorrow at 12 p.m. CT.
