Wisconsin Badgers
Illinois
This Week in Badger Softball: April 21-24
April 21, 2016 | Softball
Badgers host Illinois for weekend series and Annual Get to Goodman
HOME STRETCH
The Wisconsin softball team begins an eight-game homestand with a weekend series against Illinois. The team has planned its annual Get to Goodman game for Sunday, April 24, when the Badgers host Illinois at 1 p.m. at Goodman Diamond. As part of Fan Appreciation Day, tickets for the general public will be available at the gate for $1. Gates will open one hour prior to the game at 12 p.m. All seating is general admission, which will also include special outfield seating for the game.
The Get to Goodman festivities will begin when gates open at 12 p.m. and will continue throughout the duration of the event. As part of Fan Appreciation Day, face painters, inflatable games, prizes and exciting in-game elements are all planned as part of the fun. Following the game, all children ages 12 and under will have the opportunity to go out onto the field and run the bases. Free parking for the game on Sunday is available in UW Lots 60 and 76. Access to UW Lot 76 ramp will be via the south entrance.
| Games 42/43/44 | Wisconsin vs. Illinois | |
| Date | Friday, April 22 | 4 p.m. (CT) Saturday, April 23 | 1 p.m. (CT) Sunday, April 24 | 1 p.m. (CT) |
| Location | Madison, Wis. | Goodman Diamond |
| Watch | BTN2GO | Friday, Saturday. Sunday |
| Follow | Live Stats | Twitter |
| Notes | Wisconsin | Illinois |
DETAILS FROM THE DUGOUT
1 WALK THIS WAY: Kelsey Jenkins ranks first in the Big Ten with 39 walks and second for her .570 on base percentage.
Jenkins ranks sixth in the nation for her 39 walks and eighth in the nation with a .570 on base percentage.
2 STARCROSSED: Freshman Melanie Cross was named the NBC 15 Athlete of the Week after a star-studded performance against No. 24 Ohio State. Cross registered a home run in each game of the series against OSU and now leads the Badgers with six home runs on the season.
3 HISTORIC WEEK: The Badgers hadn't won back-to-back Big Ten series in one week since defeating Northwestern and Indiana in the same week (April 24-April 27) in 2013. But that streak ended as Wisconsin took down the Minnesota Gophers in a doubleheader and Iowa in a 2-1 series.
4 SENIOR STUDS: The seniors played a crucial role in leading Wisconsin to a 4-1 week with a sweep of No. 21-ranked Minnesota and a 2-1 series win over Iowa on the road. UW now has five wins against ranked opponents on the season with the midweek sweep of Minnesota. It was Katie Christner's three-run home run that led to a 6-3 upset over the Golden Gophers in Game 1. Ashley Van Zeeland's single in the second game brought in the tying run and her triple late in the sixth inning that ran the score up en route to a 7-1 win against the Gophers. Macy Oswald had the game-winning RBI for the series-opening win against Iowa and drove in the tying run in Sunday's 3-1 victory. Taylor-Paige Stewart appeared in all five games, going 3-0 and recording a save while posting a 1.33 ERA for the week. Stewart held Minnesota hitless over 3 1/3 innings in Game 2 on Tuesday and then recorded a season-high nine strikeouts against Iowa on Sunday.
5 HOT HITS: Kelsey Jenkins also leads UW in multiple hit games with 10 two-hit games, two three-hit games and one four-hit game for 13 total multiple hit games.
6 SHE'S ACES: Senior ace Taylor-Paige Stewart is took sole possession of fifth in program history with 42 career wins under her belt. The veteran returns to the circle in 2015-16 after recording a team season-high 124 strikeouts last season.
7 TPS: Senior Taylor-Paige Stewart had a season-high nine strikeouts in Sunday's game against Iowa. With 105 strikeouts on the season, she has now had three 100-plus strikeout seasons in her UW career.
8 KJ ALL DAY: Sophomore Kelsey Jenkins leads the Badgers with a .407 batting average and ranks fifth in the Big Ten.
9 KILLER MILLER: Junior Chloe Miller leads the Badgers in four seperate categories. Miller leads the team and ranks fifth in the conference with 43 RBI in 41 games. She also ranks second and leads the team in sacrifice flies with three on the season. Additionally, Miller leads the Badgers in total bases (74) and triples (3).
10 STREAKS SET: Sophomore Kelsey Jenkins, junior Chloe Miller, senior Ashley Van Zeeland, junior Sara Novak, sophomore Samantha Arents and freshman Melanie Cross lead Wisconsin with the highest current hitting streaks. Miller's streak of 10 was the highest of any Badger this season until Arents' streak of 11 passed her last week. Jenkins' and Cross' streaks of eight follows close behind. Novak has had seven-hit streaks this season and Van Zeeland had a six-hit streak.
WISCONSIN vs. ILLINOIS
-The all-time series between the two teams is led by Illiniois 20-14 with Wisconsin leading 8-7 in games in Champaign.
- The last time the two teams saw each other was on April 18, 2015 and UW lost 8-12 in Urbana, Illinois.
- Sophomore Kelsey Jenkins registered a career-high five at-bats and career-high two stolen bases the last time UW saw Illinois on April 17, 2015.
- Junior Chloe Miller logged a career-best three runs against Illinois on April 17, 2015.
SCOUTING THE ILLINI
- Head coach Tyra Perry is leading the charge in her first season with Illinois along with her associate head coach Kassie Stanfill and assistant coach Laura Trout who are also in their first year.
- Illinois was 53rd in the NCAA RPI rankings on April 11.
- Junior Nicole Evans ties for fith in the Big Ten having hit a total of 10 home runs this season. She also ranks eighth in RBI (42) and has the 10th best slugging percentage of .682.
- Carly Thomas ties at 10th in the Big Ten for her number of hits (48) and ranks sixth with 11 doubles. She also leads the Big Ten with a 167 total plate appearances.
- With the game tied 6-6 in the sixth inning, junior Nicole Evans launched her 10th home run of the season, a three-run bomb to the left field, to lift the Fighting Illini to a 10-6 win over Purdue in the series rubber match in the Boilermaker Stadium.
- With the win, the Illini (25-18, 5-9 Big Ten) earned their second conference series win of the season.
- For the third-straight contest, junior pitcher Breanna Wonderly (10-8) threw every inning for the Illini and earned her 10th win of the season allowing six runs, five earned runs, on eight hits and struck out two in a complete game effort.
ALL ABOUT THE BADGERS
- The 2015-16 Badgers return 11 letterwinners and eight starters, including the team's leaders in slugging percentage, on base percentage, RBI, doubles, home runs, total bases and walks.
- Wisconsin returns 53.1 percent of its runs scor, 49.9 percent of its hitting and 61.0 percent of its RBI production from last season.
- The Badgers welcome a new pitching coach in Kirsten Verdun, who played professionally for one year with the Chicago Bandits and was a two-time All-American at DePaul University.
- The Badgers went 3-1 in the fall exhibition season with doubleheader wins over Green Bay and a split with Northern Illinois.
- Eight members of the 2014-15 Wisconsin softball team earned NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete honors for the 2014-15 academic year.
- UW will face four teams ranked in the Preseason ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll. Wisconsin also faces six teams that received votes in the preseason rankings.
