The Illinois softball team (18-18) will get an opportunity to get back on track against in-state rival DePaul (29-8) on Wednesday after the Illini’s recent struggles against Big Ten competition.

The Illini have had trouble securing wins in their own conference, getting swept in a three-game series against Wisconsin over the weekend. Head coach Terri Sullivan hopes a midweek victory over the Blue Demons will help boost the confidence of her squad, which is 2-10 in Big Ten action heading into a series at Purdue this weekend.

Despite DePaul not playing in a major Division I conference, Sullivan is not expecting the team to get an easy win on Wednesday. The Blue Demons are currently on an 11-game winning streak as they visit Champaign-Urbana.

“It’s always a great midweek game for us,” Sullivan said. “They believe that they are every bit as good as anyone out there in the Big Ten. There are not any more teams that we play left that are going to hand us the win on a silver platter. We have to go out there and earn it.”

Sullivan’s biggest concern has been the errors the defense has committed. The team recorded five errors over the first two games against Wisconsin. As a result, the players spent their time on Monday studying tape and looking for ways to correct their mistakes.

Second baseman Allie Bauch believes she and her teammates will be able to correct fielding mistakes — like bobbled balls — quickly; she doesn’t expect it to be a problem in the team’s upcoming games.

“We, infielders, got called out and it is something we need to clean up,” Bauch said. “We have to come back and just not over think it.”

Besides defensive mistakes, Sullivan also wants to see the team be more aggressive against its opponents. She is looking for the team to get more hits and give more effort into every play.

“You can lose in two different ways,” Sullivan said. “One way is because of physical mistakes and the other is because of mental mistakes. When you lose the latter way, because of not being aggressive or not making the right choices, those are hard to swallow.”

Bauch agreed with her coach about the mistakes that need to be addressed. She also feels that she can be the spark for the team to get hits since she bats lead off.

Sullivan expects to see a higher level of play from her team, especially now that it’s mid-April. With the level of competition remaining, the team doesn’t have much room for mistakes.

“Our team is really disappointed in how they have performed in conference play,” Sullivan said. “Others have performed better. We just have to get back at it the next chance we have.”

Daniel can be reached at [email protected] and @ddexter23.