Photo by: Jack McLaughlin
Badgers’ chance is now and team is ready
May 10, 2017 | Softball
Strong showing at tough Big Ten Tournament could earn UW an NCAA bid
BY KELLI GRASHEL
UW Athletic Communications
MADISON, Wis. — There is no bigger stage to prove that you deserve a bid to the NCAA tournament than at the Big Ten Tournament and that's exactly what the Wisconsin softball team intends to do.
"The Big Ten is so strong, it's such a tough conference. To be able to get 11 wins and be a .500 team in conference is a really big deal in a conference like ours," head coach Yvette Healy said. "We're proud of what the team did preseason, we're proud about our conference season, and now you head into the postseason. Then to make the Big Ten tournament is a big honor, we're really excited about that, and now it's all about winning one game at a time.
"It's happened very few times in the history of the program just to get to the tournament, and then to be a team that puts up a win in the tournament, so you take it one game at a time and put everything you can into that first game."
The Badgers are peaking at the right time, coming off of a three-game sweep at Maryland.
"To get three wins going into the postseason, I think we've got everything moving in the right direction at the right time," sophomore Kelly Welsh said. "We're peaking at the right time. We had a good preseason and then had some ups and downs, but for us to be making strides right now, it's really exciting to jump into the Big Ten Tournament and see who we play next."
UW drew the No. 6 seed and will have a rematch with No. 11-seed Iowa on Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT at Wilpon Complex in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The game will air live on Big Ten Network with Dean Linke and Jennie Ritter on the call.
If the regular-season series is indicative of what this game will be, it will be a crazy battle. The series with Iowa had everything you could ever want in a drama-packed Big Ten series, including extra innings, a walk-off victory and a lot of tension.
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Brooke Wyderski was the all-star of the weekend, putting in six hits including the game-winning RBI double that gave Wisconsin the walk-off win after 10 innings in the series finale. Freshman Jordan Little, who has been getting some crucial hits in the last few games, was close behind Wyderski with five hits and two runs.
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Hometown hero Gabby Scherle showed up big time against the school of her home state and secured her spot in the Badgers' lineup with one run on two hits that weekend.
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But she wasn't the only Iowa native to make some big plays against her home state. Freshman Kaitlyn Menz dominated from the circle, clinching both of the Badgers' wins with a stellar 2.33 ERA. She dealt out 14 strikeouts and just allowed six earned runs in two complete games.
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Players Mentioned
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