NASHVILLE, Tenn. – IUPUI heads to Nashville, Tenn., for its third straight road trip of the season on Feb. 23-24 for the Tennessee State Tiger Invitational.
The tournament will include a double-header on Saturday and another on Sunday. The Jaguars begin the tournament on Saturday against Butler at 10:30 a.m. followed by Bradley at 2:30 p.m. On Sunday the tournament will conclude with games against Morgan State at 12:30 p.m. and tournament host Tennessee State at 4:30 p.m. All game times are Eastern Time.
The Jags will attempt to bounce back after four losses last weekend at the Kennesaw State Classic. The Jags fell to an offensively stacked Ball State team, 15-5, and dropped three close games to Kennesaw State (1-0), UAB (3-0) and Liberty (5-2) to bring its record to 3-6 overall.
“There’s a lot we did well last weekend that you can’t see in the wins column,” head coach
Amanda Rivera said. “We have to keep fighting and pushing through and in the future it will show there.”
Junior outfielder
Kelsey Rupert headed the Jags offense at the KSU Classic. Rupert and
Nikki Thomas were the only Jags to bat over .300. Rupert went 4-for-13 on the weekend and Thomas singled once in her three at bats against Liberty.
Seven different Jags head into the TSU Invitational batting over .300. Junior
Jessica Lam leads the offense in batting average (.393), runs scored (9), homeruns (4), RBIs (10) and slugging percentage (.857).
Jocelyn Oppenhuis (1-2) continues to be successful in the circle. She leads the pitching staff in ERA (2.84) and is second in strikeouts (15) to Thomas who has recorded 18.
Butler opened its season at the KSU Invitational last weekend. The Bulldogs head into the weekend with an 0-5 record after collecting losses to Kennesaw State, Georgia Tech, Missouri State and two to Eastern Michigan. The Bulldogs have a team batting average of .244, headed by Carrie Tveita who is batting .667.
Bradley enters the weekend 4-6 and collected a win against No. 13 Arizona on Feb. 8. The Braves have five hitters in its starting lineup hitting over .300, including Alyson Clemente (.429), who is tied for the team high in doubles (3) and homeruns (1) and leads in RBIs (7). The Jags will likely face Braves’ pitcher Madeline Lynch-Crumrine, who has pitched 51.1 of 62 innings for Bradley. Lynch-Crumrine boasts a 4-3 record with a 2.45 ERA, 35 strikeouts and a .224 opponent batting average.
Tournament host Tennessee State, 0-7, looks to pick up its first win of the season this weekend. Kiarra Freeman (.333) is the lone Tiger hitting over .300. The Tigers dropped two tight games at Auburn’s Tournament last weekend against Auburn (3-2) and Indiana State (9-6).
Morgan State, 0-6, also looks to pick up its first win of the season this weekend. The Bears recorded losses to Savannah State, Thomas, South Carolina- Beaufort and Winston-Salem State. Christina Shareday (.333) is the only player hitting over .300.
Errors have haunted IUPUI thus far this season. The Jags hold a .948 fielding percentage, but Rivera says the team has worked hard in practice to perfect areas it didn’t do well in last weekend. She feels the TSU Invitational will be another good weekend in preparation for Summit League play.
“With their bats, we can be in any game,” Rivera said. “We just need to work on getting back to the little details and fundamentals. We have to find ways in big moments to stop errors.”
