Badgers softball face Maryland in Big Ten tournament

(UW ATHLETICS) – After a 30-win regular season, the Wisconsin softball team is set to compete in the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 7 seed, as they will take on No. 10 Purdue in the First Round on Wednesday, May 6, from College Park, Maryland, at 3:30 p.m. CT. 

The Badgers (30-18, 14-10 B1G) and the Boilermakers (34-19, 11-13) battle will be televised on Big Ten Network. The winner of the game is set to face No. 2 Oregon in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals on Thursday, May 7, at 3:30 p.m. CT. The tournament semifinals will take place on Friday, and will wrap up on Saturday with the championship game. 

UW will face the Boilermakers for the fourth time this season, as the Badgers snagged a series win on the road at Bittinger Stadium back in early April. Redshirt freshman Jaclyn Showalter provided the highlight of the weekend versus Purdue, launching a go-ahead grand slam to seal a six-run comeback in game two of the series, where Wisconsin notched a 10-9 victory. Showalter enters Maryland as one of the hottest hitters in the lineup, turning in 11 RBI and four extra base hits over her last four games—going 8-for-13 (.615 BA) in that span. The day before, senior Shelby Jacobson tallied her first Big Ten shutout of the season, blanking the Boilermakers in a 3-0 win. 

The Badgers set a school record this past weekend against Rutgers, recording six Big Ten series victories—surpassing the previous record of five. UW is currently 8-2 over its last 10 games—recording 30 or more wins for the second consecutive season and the ninth under head coach Yvette Healy. 

The offense was a strong suit for the first two games of the weekend against the Scarlet Knights, as the unit provided a combined 30 hits over 14 innings of action. Senior Emily Bojan played a key role as the table-setter, turning in her first-ever four-hit performance in a game—guiding UW past Rutgers with an 11-10 win. 

In game two, sophomore Kendra Lewis provided a quality two-way showing in a 10-5 victory, going 3-for-3 with a pair of home runs and four RBI, in addition to tossing 3.1 innings of relief in the circle to secure her fifth win of the year. Saturday’s performance marked Lewis’ first multi-HR game at the plate, joining junior Hilary Blomberg as the only other Badger to hit two home runs in a single game this season. 

Wisconsin has also received quality contributions from the bottom of the lineup, as senior Rylie Crane recorded a hit in every game versus the Scarlet Knights, while sophomore Hannah Conger put together her eighth multi-hit showing in the series opener—earning a double during the weekend, too. 

After capping off the conference slate with the third-most wins in program history at 14, the Badgers broke program records in runs scored (136) and RBI (124) over the course of Big Ten play. 

UW enters the week with a rank of No. 35 in the RPI—seeking its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since the 2022 season.