MADISON, Wis. -- After being on the road all season thus far, the Wisconsin softball team is back in the Midwest to start conference play with a series against the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend playing Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday and noon.
Fans can watch the game live on B1G+.
1. RECAPPING DIXIE STATE: In St. George, Utah at the Dixie State Invitational, the Badgers went 4-1 beating Maine, hosts Dixie State and New Mexico State twice, while falling to Southern Utah in their only loss of the trip out west. Overall on the tournament, senior
Kayla Konwent served as UW's top producer hitting a .571 (8-14) batting average going with four RBI's, two doubles and a homerun while drawing five walks and two HBPs for a weekend OBP of .714.
Fiona Girardot and
Molly Schlosser were other key contributors offensively. Girardot hit .462 starting all five games for Wisconsin while Schlosser, who was named B1G Freshman of the Week after the tournament hit .438 including hitting a triple for her first career hit. Pitchers
Maddie Schwartz,
Ava Justman and
Tessa Magnanimo combined for a 2.88 combined ERA on the weekend.
2. PAC-12 SWEEP: Staying in Utah, Wisconsin went on to complete a series sweep of Utah. This was Wisconsin's first ever sweep of PAC-12 team, beating the Utes all three games, spoiling their home opener. Outfielders
Peyton Bannon and
Ally Miklesh both hit .556 (5-9) in the series with Bannon notching 6 RBIs. Schwartz pitched all 12 innings of the Tuesday double header ending with a 1.75 ERA while Justman look the win in Wednesday's game going all seven innings allowing only one run with three strikeouts.
3. NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: Overall, Wisconsin finished 15-7 in non-conference play this season, seeing seven ranked teams and plenty of tough opponents. Wisconsin re-entered non-conference play after only playing Big Ten schools in last year's adjusted season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Top wins for the Badgers include wins over ranked No. 24 UCF and No. 12 Clemson while only losing one game in the last three weekends of play.
4. SCOUTING IOWA: The 16-10 Hawkeyes host the Badgers in their home opener this weekend after playing in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame Classic last weekend in Oklahoma, City. Wisconsin will see Nia Carter, the Hawkeye's highest producer at the plate who boasts a .457 batting average, as well as Tristin Doster adn Denali Loecker, Iowa's two power hitters so far this season. Loecker will act as Iowa's two-way threat as the right-handed sophomore is also the go-to pitcher for the Hawkeyes with a team leading 77.1 innings of work.
5. HOW TO WATCH: Fans can watch Wisconsin's Big Ten opener and all three games from Iowa City on Big Ten Network+ as well as live stats found at uwbadgers.com. Also tune into live updates and photos by following @BadgersSoftball on social media.
