It’s all come down to this.
The Illinois softball team will need to leave Lincoln, Neb. with the Big Ten Tournament Championship this weekend in order to find its way into the NCAA Tournament.
Despite charging back up the Big Ten standings, winning 11 of their last 12 games, the Illini are ineligible for the NCAA post-season tournament unless they win the Big Ten Tournament this weekend.
A team must have a winning record in order to qualify for the NCAA Tournament without winning its conference tournament. Illinois’ 22-26 record this season will fall short of placing the team in the field of 68, even though the team finds itself ranked 63rd in the final week’s RPI rankings.
Illinois battled back after losing 13 of 14 games in the middle of the season with a 10 game winning-streak in which it won five games in come-from-behind fashion and two games in extra-innings, helping them capture the No. 6 seed in this weekend’s conference tournament.
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“We have a saying, ‘Winners win,’” Head coach Terri Sullivan said. “Sometimes you have to win in different ways and sometimes you have to win when you’re not at your complete best.”
The Illini will be matched up against No. 11-seed Penn State (15-33, 5-17 Big Ten) in the first round.
The teams haven’t played each other this season, but Illinois swept the Nittany Lions in a series last season and hold an 18-11 record against the program all-time.
But with nine new players on this season’s Illini roster, Penn State will be facing a very different team.
First baseman Remeny Perez has been the most outstanding freshman on the Illinois roster this year, posting a .305 batting average and a .514 slugging percentage, boosting an Illini offense that has been hot as of late, scoring 59 runs in the last ten games.
Penn State will be forced to fight fire with a fire, as the Nittany Lions’ success is fueled solely by its offense.
The pitching staff has posted a miserable 6.08 ERA this season, putting most of the work on freshman Macy Jones who has a 3.96, allowing 190 hits and 109 runs in just 166.1 innings pitched.
Senior Cassidy Bell leads the Penn State offense with a .454 batting average and 19 home runs this season, while the team has seven batters hitting above .250 – a tough match-up for the Illini pitching staff.
Senior pitcher Pepper Gay will most likely get the nod in Thursday’s game, after throwing 15 innings and over 300 pitches this past Sunday in a doubleheader against Ohio State in which she carried a no-hitter for 6 and 2/3 innings in Game One.
“She’s done unbelievable things for us and now we want her to do some more things for us at the conference tournament this weekend,” Sullivan said.
The winner of Thursday’s game will move on to face Minnesota, the third seed in the tournament and a team that swept Illinois earlier this season.
But riding a hot-streak into the tournament this weekend, Illinois looks to be bringing a different team down to Nebraska and according to freshman Katie Repole, the Illini plan on bringing their momentum with them.
“I don’t think there’s a better way to be playing right now,” Repole said. “We’ve been tested, had a lot of extra-inning games and I think we’re ready.”
Sean can be reached at [email protected].
