As the Illini softball team heads to the February Freezer tournament this weekend in Starkville, Mississippi, it looks to give the smaller names more attention.

Illinois played some of its best softball in two losses to No. 10 Georgia last weekend but played some of its worst softball against Murray St. (3-2) and Winthrop (3-2).

Head coach Terri Sullivan said the team is ready to turn it around this weekend.

“We are not focusing as much on the opponent and focusing more on ourselves,” Sullivan said. “I could tell we’re more apt to play the name schools but not the smaller schools.”  

The Illini (1-4) will get a shot at another SEC school in Mississippi St. (5-0) while also getting some chances of redemption against smaller schools like University of Tennesee-Martin (3-2), Louisiana Tech (3-3) and Lamar University (3-2).

It will be back-to-back trips down south for the Illini.

The team practiced twice this week before heading south, and it stuck to practicing fundamentals.

Improving their hitting with runners on base will be a primary focus of the Illini, along with their pitchers’ throwing strikes.

Senior Shelese Arnold has a 0-3 record with a 5.78 ERA after her first weekend. Arnold came out flat in her two starts against Murray State and Winthrop this weekend.

It took a while for her to settle in and find her groove.

“This weekend we really need to come into every game with the same intensity,” Arnold said. “We need to show the smaller schools that we are here to fight for the win.”

Sophomore transfer Breanna Wonderly accompanies Arnold in the pitching staff. Wonderly had a solid first weekend for the Illini, including  a one-hit shutout against Coppin State.

“It is a direct reflection of how (Wonderly) has been playing in practice,” Sullivan said. “We really want our pitchers to focus pitch by pitch, and she did a really good job with that. She had great control over the ball, and she threw strikes, which was huge.”

The Illini will need their offense to produce more runs this weekend. Junior outfielder Kylie Johnson said last weekend was a learning experience. It came as a sort of shock to the Illini, who were very excited to get their season going and play some games.

Losing the first four games of the weekend really made them reevaluate and focus on what they need to do to win games.

“We learned a lot about ourselves as a team,” Johnson said. “We realized that we have a really good offense. It’s just a matter of getting the energy up there and turning into a form of consistency for our offense.”

Cole can be reached at cehenke2

@dailyillini.com and on Twitter @cole_Henke.