STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – It was an unfortunate ending to a great season for the Wisconsin softball team as the Badgers team fell to Indiana, 4-0, in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament at Beard Field.

"It was a really good season but it's always hard when it ends," head coach Yvette Healy said. "As a coach, you always want more, but going into it we said we wanted to make the Big Ten tournament and we did that. Winning a game against every Big Ten opponent we faced in the regular season was such a highlight, I have so much respect for this conference and it's fun and tough to compete in."

The Badgers finished their season with a 28-24-1 overall and 11-11-1 conference record. The 11 Big Ten victories marked the eighth time in school history that Wisconsin had 10 or more league wins in a season.

"We talk a lot about pride at the end of the year, you're proud if your team plays and they overachieve. This group overachieved" Healy said. "Starting with the senior class, they all had the best seasons of their career and I don't think I've ever seen a senior class where all four kids did that so we're proud as a coaching staff to see that they bought in.

"They played hard, they led, they got us those ranked wins and those are the stories they'll tell their kids for the rest of their lives."

Indiana started scoring early in the top of the second off of three hits. Michelle Huber led off the inning with a single and stole second to get the wheels turning for the Hoosiers. After that, IU fired off back-to-back singles forcing Wisconsin to make a pitching change from junior Kirsten Stevens to Taylor-Paige Stewart as Indiana took a 1-0 lead. A fielder's choice by senior Macy Oswald caught the lead runner at home for the second out of the inning. But Stewart got out of the inning leaving the bases full of Hoosiers as Erin Lehman flied out to shortstop.

With two runners on base and one out in the top of the third, the Badgers showed off on defense when the Hoosiers' Shannon Cawley thought she was moving up on a passed ball opportunity but freshman Melanie Cross recovered the ball and sent it to Oswald and sophomore Kelsey Jenkins who caught her in a jam and eventually tagged Cawley out.

Taylor Uden led off the top of the fourth with a single up the middle and was moved up to third as Rebecca Blitz reached second on a throwing error but UW was able to keep the Hoosiers contained one more inning as IU left two on base.

Wisconsin couldn't respond to Indiana in the bottom of the fourth despite junior Sara Novak's double that broke up Tara Trainer's streak of nine retired Wisconsin batters in a row.

UW had a big opportunity in the bottom of the fifth as sophomore Samantha Arents used a leadoff walk to give the Badgers a chance to score. Sophomore Brianna Flugaur pinch ran for Arents and was moved into scoring position off of a sacrifice bunt from Cross. However, Flugar was caught stealing but senior Katie Christner kept the hope alive when she blasted a shot through the middle for a single. Oswald followed up with a 3-1 pitch walk but Wisconsin was still unable to capitalize and left two runners on base.

Indiana pulled ahead 2-0 when Uden started the top of the sixth frame with a homer over the left field wall.

Indiana doubled the lead in the top of the seventh with a two-run home run that capped off the scoring.  

Stewart, a senior from Calabasas, California, finished her Wisconsin career striking out Uden for her fourth strikeout of the day. She closed a phenomenal run at UW with 436 career strikeouts, which ranks sixth in the all-time record list. Stewart also finished her collegiate career as the all-time career saves leader (7) and fifth in career winning percentage (.554).

Stewart is in good company as she and her fellow seniors, Christner, Oswald and Ashley Van Zeeland, go down in the
Wisconsin record books as the third-winningest class in school history with 129 wins.

UW had four players, Jenkins, Miller, Novak and Christner, each notch one hit in the game. Indiana outhit Wisconsin 12-4.
During the season, the Badgers' .381 on-base percentage ranked third in school history.

Wisconsin had one first-team All-Big Ten member in Jenkins and one second-team All-Big Ten honoree in Stewart.

"Anybody that makes first team in this conference is a big deal but for Kelsey Jenkins to be a sophomore and make it twice, she just has such a bright future," Healy added. "She gives a lot to us and I think the sky is the limit and I think she will just be a terror in the years to come. For Taylor-Paige to be all-conference as a pitcher, just look at the pitching in this conference and for our pitchers to have an under 3.00 ERA in conference games is huge."

Jenkins, who led the Badgers in seven categories including batting average (.409), on base percentage (.568), runs (49), hits (61), walks (49), stolen bases (15) and home runs (7), returns next season with Miller who shared the home run lead with Jenkins and led the team in total bases (91), RBI (51) and slugging percentage (.603), in addition to UW's doubles leader in Samantha Arents (13).