The Indiana softball team won its 14th game in a row on Sunday against Big Ten opponent Iowa (26-21, 8-8 Big Ten), beating the Hawkeyes 5-0. They have not seen a win streak this long since 1994 when the Hoosiers tallied their streak up to 16. In conference play, Indiana has an 11-game win streak which is the longest in school history.
Indiana stands at first in the Big Ten with a 14-2 record and 34-15 overall.
Morgan Melloh led the Hoosiers in their victory on Sunday allowing only one earned hit and added 14 more strikeouts to the record books to make 441 for this season (more than any Indiana pitcher in the school’s history).
After being named USA softball player of the week (April 11-17), Melloh commented, “My teammates made some outstanding plays in the field behind me so it was a total team effort. We had a lot of confidence coming into the week and came up with the hits when we needed them to keep that confidence going in Big Ten play.â€
Melloh won this honor three weeks in a row and is only the fifth pitcher in Big Ten history to do so.
The top hitter during the streak is Jenna Abraham, who has a .424 batting average over the last 14 games. Abraham had an RBI on Sunday and has also contributed a triple and a pair of home runs to the team this season.
Amanda Wagner has been a major part of the Hoosier’s recent success with her slugging percentage at .818. Wagner hit a clutch grand slam earlier last month that hoisted the Hoosiers over Wisconsin 6-3 when the win streak was at seven.
Wagner has improved a lot since the first 37 games of the season when her batting average was .121 with 23 strikeouts in 59 at-bats. Before this weekend’s series, she brought her average up to .184, but .310 in the 14-game win streak.
Sarah Olsen hit a homerun in the fifth inning on Sunday with two RBI. During the win streak, she is hitting .500 and her on-base percentage is .696. Olsen has hit three homeruns during the streak and has 14 Big Ten RBIs. She now has 94 RBI for her career, tying for sixth place all-time at Indiana.
Olsen led the team with a .355 batting average coming into this weekend’s series. She is a big threat batting at the plate and has been hit 10 times and walked 12 times in the last 14 Big Ten games. Olsen also pitches, but has only been to the circle three times this season (pulling off a win each time). She can usually be found playing first base when Melloh is pitching.
Olsen was also named Big Ten player of the week on April 4.
The Hoosiers haven’t had it easy coming to the top of the Big Ten this season. They have played tough and even when behind, have often found ways to pull ahead for the win in the end.
Indiana has had 10 comeback wins this season to help put them where they are at today. Their most recent comeback was against Michigan State when they were behind by one run but finished the game on top 7-2.
When the Hoosiers play at home, odds are heavily stacked for them to win. This season Indiana has gone 15-1 playing at the IU softball field. The other 14 losses were played away earlier in the season. This is another record set this year since the 1994 team went 16-4 at home.
Morgan Melloh
Indiana has only four regular season games left. They will travel to Northwestern for two games on May 7 and 8. Their last two games will be played at home versus Purdue on May 13 and 14.
