MADISON, Wis. – Despite losing its last series of the regular season, the Wisconsin softball team (19-30, 6-11) clinched a spot as the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Softball Tournament hosted in Iowa City, Iowa. The Badgers take on the No. 6 seed, Ohio State, who the Badgers previously beat in a series this year, two games to one. The winner of the game will go on to play No. 3 Rutgers the next day.
Here's what you need to know:
1. SENIOR SENDOFF – Last series against Maryland served as the Badger's senior celebration, honoring the seniors on the team for their tremendous impact. That impact was on the field throughout the entire Maryland series. In the series finale,
Tessa Magnanimo pitched a career-high 9.0 innings, allowing just four runs.
Skylar Sirdashney collected four hits and drove in two runs over the weekend.
Peyton Bannon collected two hits and stole a base in game two of the series.
Fiona Girardot did what she does best and got on-base in all three games. And
Gabi Salo exceeded the 120.0 innings pitched mark for her career.
2. RECORD BREAKERS – The Maryland series also bore witness to a few new records for the Badgers. In the regular season finale,
Hilary Blomberg hit her 13
th double of the season, the most ever by a Badger freshman. In the same game,
Ellie Hubbard laid down four sacrifice bunts in all four of her plate appearances. It beats the previous record of most successful bunts in a game when Gabby Scherle laid down three bunts in a 2018 game. Finally, in the first game of the series,
Alivia Bark went 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts. Bark is now 6-for-6 on the season in stolen base attempts and is now one of three freshmen in program history to have a perfect record on the basepaths with at least five attempts.
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3. BUCKEYE REMATCH – This is not the first time Wisconsin will take on Ohio State this season. Earlier in the season, Ohio State traveled to Madison for a three-game series. Wisconsin won two of the three games and scored 23 runs in the series. The Badgers took game one 8-4, won game two, 10-5, before falling in the final game 9-5. It was
Ava Kuszak who dealt the most damage to the Buckeyes, the sophomore went 6-for-11 over the three games, hitting two home runs. Catcher
Emmy Wells also had a few long balls, as she hit home runs in back-to-back games. Wisconsin is not unfamiliar to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament. The two teams faced each other four times in the tournament's history, the most recent of which coming in 2019. Wisconsin is 3-1 all-time against Ohio State in the tournament.
4. OHIO STATE SCOUTING – Since playing Wisconsin, Ohio State finished their season winning 10 of their last 12 games, good for a final record of 31-19. The Buckeyes finished the regular season as one of the premier offensive teams in the conference, leading the Big Ten in home runs, and accumulating the fourth highest batting average. Kami Kortokrax leads the team with 12 home runs, and three other players on the team have nine or more. Five players have a batting average above .300, led by Tegan Cortelletti's .397 average. Ohio State struggled earlier in the year with their pitching but threw well during their winning stretch. Ace Allison Smith has a 1.74 ERA in her last 48.1 innings pitched and is 6-0 in that stretch.
5. HOW TO WATCH – The game is set to begin May. 8 at 7 PM CT in Iowa City, Iowa. It will be aired on Big Ten Network. The winner of the game will go on to play No. 3 Rutgers at 7 PM CT the next day. Live stats for the game are available on the Badger softball schedule on uwbadgers.com, and live updates will be given on the @badgersoftball Facebook, X, and Instagram pages.
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