No. 21 Badgers open home slate with Nebraska

The Wisconsin softball team (23-3 overall, 2-1 B1G) open play at Goodman Diamond March 31-April 2, hosting Nebraska (8-20, 0-3) for the first home series of the season.

Live statistics for the weekend's games will be available on UWBadgers.com and a full recap will be available after the day's games. In addition, live updates can be found on Twitter (@BadgerSoftball).

The Badgers return to Goodman Diamond after putting together an impressive 26-game road stint that lifted Wisconsin 10 spots to No. 23 in the RPI.

For the first time in 16 years, Wisconsin took the series in Evanston with a pair of big wins over Northwestern. The Badgers put up a 14-5 victory on Friday, then rebounded from a 5-4 extra-innings defeat to take the series on Sunday with a 7-1 closer.

Games 27-29 \| vs. Nebraska
Dates	Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday, 12 p.m. Sunday, 12 p.m.
Location	Goodman Diamond \| Madison, Wis.
Mobile App	Badger Gameday
Live Stats	U WBadgers.com
Watch Live	Friday Saturday Sunday
Social Media	@BadgerSoftball \| Facebook
Game Notes	Wisconsin \| Nebraska
Tickets	Buy Tickets

AROUND THE HORN

Wisconsin is 12-9 in home openers but have dropped the last four, snapping a three-game win streak from 2010-2012.
The Badgers are 7-9-5 in home opening Big Ten series. UW has never opened their home slate with Nebraska. In its last Big Ten home opener, the Badgers tied the series with Ohio State after having to end the final game in a tie and splitting the first two games.
Through the first half of the season senior Chloe Miller has racked up the highest batting average in the nation at .518, as well as leading the conference in slugging percentage (.916) and on base percentage (.596). Miller has scored 33 runs and tallied 43 hits, both ranking second in the conference, as well as 32 RBI, 11 doubles and six home runs.
Junior Kelsey Jenkins had a spectacular spring break, recording two runs in each game against Northwestern. She also had six hits in the four games on the week with an RBI in each game. She had one home run against Northwestern and held a .556 batting average and .889 slugging percentage in the first conference series. She also drew a team-leading four walks.
Freshman Kaitlyn Menz and senior Kirsten Stevens continue to be a dynamic duo at the mound, pitching a combined 155.3 innings and allowing just 29 earned runs, giving the UW pitching staff the best ERA (1.80) in the Big Ten.

SCOUTING REPORT
Nebraska:

The Badgers open their home season with the Nebraska Cornhuskers on March 31-April 2. The Huskers have been tasked with a difficult schedule up to this point, tallying an 8-20 record but playing 15 games against ranked opponents, including seven against top-10 foes. They have the second-most difficult schedule in the nation with an opponent winning percentage of .668. They are 76th in the most recent RPI ranking.
The Huskers return Big Ten standout MJ Knighten who is batting .444 on the season. They also have Cassie McClure back in the circle, who has earned three all-region accolades in her career.
Last season, Wisconsin played its second-longest game in school history with a 14-inning game against Nebraska on May 7. Chloe Miller recorded three hits in the 14-inning game against the Huskers.
Wisconsin's last grand slam was when Sam Arents went yard against the Huskers on May 6, 2016.
In 2015, UW recorded its second-largest home attendance in its game against Nebraska. The Badgers drew out 1,612 fans on April 26, 2015.

University of Wisconsin Athletics

No. 21 Badgers open home slate with Nebraska

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Players Mentioned

Kelsey Jenkins

Kaitlyn Menz

Chloe Miller

Kirsten Stevens

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