Indiana Softball Beats Louisville For First NCAA Tournament Win in 17 Years
Updated 10:10 p.m. ET
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It's been 17 years to the day since the last time Indiana won an NCAA Tournament softball game. Call that ancient history now.
The Hoosiers added a new piece of program legacy on Friday afternoon, beating Louisville 4-3 in the first round of the Knoxville Regional at the University of Tennessee. The No. 2 seed did it just they way they've done it all year, by smacking the ball around the park and getting enough pitching to seal the deal against the No. 3-seed Cardinals.
"It's just what we do,'' Indiana coach Shonda Stanton said. "Belief precedes behavior, and so if you believe you're a great hitting team, if you believe you're one of the best hitting teams in the country, that's exactly what you're going to see. Other teams are going to throw punches, but it's what we've done all year long.
"It's just that belief factor. What's our identity? When you stay true to that identity and hit the long ball, you saw that today.''
This was Indiana's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2011 and the first time they've won a game since 2006. They snapped an NCAA Tournament four-game losing streak that dates back 17 years, and they scored only three runs in those four games.
Indiana (43-16) also only scored one run last Sunday in the Big Ten championship game, so breaking out on Friday was a big deal, especially since Louisville had jumped ahead on a lead-off homer in the first.
That was actually the first of three lead-off homers the Cardinals (35-19) hit off of Indiana starter Brianna Copeland. She gave up two more to lead off the sixth and seventh innings, but shut down the Cardinals after those homers, not allowing anything else.
It was all about staying in the moment, Copeland said, and not worrying about what just happened.
"I was just trusting my stuff and knowing that all the work in the bullpen has pays off,'' said Copeland. ''If I just let one pitch get away from me and they hit it out of the park, I still have my defense and my offense to come back me up whenever I make a mistake.
"I don't think that way (about getting caught up in a tense moment). I just pitch the ball and get outs, one batter and one pitch at a time.''
In the bottom of the first inning, Indiana freshman Tayrn Kern — the Big Ten's Player of the Year — was hit on the elbow with the first pitch she saw. She went to second on a hard-hit single by Taylor Minnick and then scored when first baseman Sarah Stone hit a bloop single to left-center that tied the game at 1-1.
Indiana threatened again in the second. Left fielder Cassidy Kettleman walked with one out and went to second on a single by center fielder Kinsey Mitchell. Shortstop Brooke Benson followed that up with a single, giving the Hoosiers a 2-1 lead. Kern walked to load the bases, but they were left stranded when Minnick grounded out to the pitcher to end the threat.
The Hoosiers picked it right back up in the third inning, though, scoring twice to pull ahead 4-1. They did it with back-to-back home runs by Sarah Stone and Copeland. Stone's ball barely cleared the center-field fence, but Copeland's shot was a blast, seemingly still on the way up when it cleared the fence.
The second homer chased Louisville starter Alyssa Zabala, and Taylor Roby pitched the rest of the way for the Cardinals, going four scoreless innings and allowing four hits. Indiana left eight men on base, and kept the door open a crack for the Cardinals.
They made it 4-2 on a solo homer by Roby in the sixth, and Vanessa Miller homered to lead off the seventh, making it 4-3. With one out, Maddi Grant walked on a nine-pitch at-bat, and Stanton chose to go to the bullpen, ending Copeland's day with 97 pitches.
Macy Montgomery came in and got two quick groundouts to end the game.
''I'm proud of Team 50, one game down,'' Stanton said. "Our mission is to get to championship Sunday and see what we can do from there. This is a fun team. For us, being is our clubhouse is the best part of our day. If joy is our habit, love is our reflex. These young women love to play ball and love to get after it.''
Kern went 0-for-9 in three games during the Big Ten Tournament, and that was the first time all year that the Big Ten Player of the Year had gone three straight without a hit. But Friday, she was hit by a pitch, walked and doubled. Stone and Benson had two hits each, and Minnick, Copeland, Cora Bassett, Avery Parker and Kinsey Mitchell also had hits.
Indiana moves on to play Tennessee on Saturday. The No. 1-seeded Volunteers — and No. 4 national overall seed — beat Northern Kentucky 12-0 in five innings. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET, but rain is forecasted for much of the afternoon in Knoxville. The elimination. game between Louisville and Northern Kentucky will be played afterward. Indiana's game will now be streamed on ESPN-Plus.
It was great for Indiana to get that first win out of the way, and the Hoosiers will take it from there.
"It's always been a goal to get to the postseason with this team,'' Benson said. "Now that we're finally here, we're making it our biggest opportunity. It's the ultimate fun zone with this team, and whenever we can have fun, we do. It's hard not to have fun with this coaching staff, and these players.''