Revenge is on the mind of the Illinois softball team (11-18, 1-5 Big Ten) as it heads to Evanston, Ill., to face Northwestern (16-14, 2-3) this weekend.

The Illini lost three games to the Wildcats to end the regular season last year and missed NCAA regionals for a second year in a row because of the sweep.

“We’ve got some revenge to take, that’s for sure,” junior outfielder Alex Booker said.

Senior pitcher Pepper Gay said the emotions felt last year will drive Illinois this weekend.

“We know they’re a really good team this year, and it’s still in our minds that we didn’t make postseason because we didn’t get a win last year,” Gay said. “That will carry over into this weekend and make us play really aggressive.”

The Illini will face Northwestern three times on the weekend: Friday at 4 p.m, Saturday at 1 p.m and Sunday at 12 p.m.

Northwestern touts an extremely potent lineup that is in the top four in the Big Ten in average and runs scored on the year.

The Wildcats have been reliant on the home-field advantage this season, as they have gone win-less on the road.

“They’re very tough at their home field,” head coach Terri Sullivan said. “We always have very big battles with them. Northwestern likes to put a lot of pressure on you, they’re very aggressive at the plate, and they don’t strike out a lot so they’re going to get their swings in.”

The Illini, who have been near the bottom of the conference in most offensive categories, have been working on in-game situations in practice to jump-start the offense.

“We need to get the core of our lineup hitting better,” Sullivan said. “In these first two series in Big Ten, we’ve been down offensively, and we just need to get everyone going. We’re doing a lot of situational things in practice. The girls are putting the time in and now it’s just getting those hits come live situations.”

Even with the offense struggling at times, Illinois has held a lead in a majority of its games this season. While this fact is reassuring, the team hopes to break open more games and increase leads.

“One-run leads wont cut it for a game,” Booker said. “We have to hit and do anything we can to get on base.”

Sullivan said the team’s offensive success has a lot to do with its confidence.

“We need to execute a little bit better and we just have to be confident at the plate,” Sullivan said. “Once the team gets a couple clutch hits, our confidence starts to fly and that’s where it starts inside the head.”

Despite the fact Illinois has surrendered the most walks in the Big Ten this season, Sullivan said she’s still confident in her pitchers.

“Our pitchers should feel good about their numbers, especially when they throw strikes. When they do that the opponents batting average is very low,” Sullivan said. “Even when we’ve had multiple walks, we’re going into the seventh inning with leads, and you can imagine if we really throw aggressive the success we could have. The girls just need to be aggressive, trust their pitches and their defense to make plays.”

At this point in the season, Illinois is still looking to improve overall.

“Every part of our game needs to be better,” Gay said. “Defense, offense, pitching. We have to play almost perfect ball.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and@IlliniSportsGuy.