INDIANAPOLIS—With its conference tournament fate on the line, the IUPUI softball team will travel to Fort Wayne for its final series of the season on Friday (May 3) and Saturday (May 4).
 
IUPUI (18-28, 7-13 Summit) comes into the weekend off a split with Valparaiso on Wednesday. The Jags are currently seventh in Summit League standings, but with Omaha ineligible for the tournament, it sits two slots out of qualifying for the tournament behind Kansas City and Western Illinois.
 
With a series sweep at Fort Wayne (28-13, 9-4 Summit) – who swept a doubleheader from Detroit on Wednesday – the Jags may be able to position itself in the fourth place slot.
 
"We want to finish on a high note here," head coach Amanda Rivera said. "We want to finish better than we started, and I think from one through 19 on our team we've gotten better all the way around."
 
Freshman Ali Mosier improved her average to .321 after going 4-for-6 in IUPUI's doubleheader against Valparaiso. Mosier hit a three-run homerun in the Jag's 5-4 loss and doubled twice in the 3-1 win. She continues to lead the team in doubles (11), RBI (30), slugging percentage (.500), on-base percentage (.396) and stolen bases (20-24).
 
Three other starters are hitting at or above the team's .248 average: Eryn Dillon (.273), Kelsey Rupert (.252) and Jessica Lam (.248). Lam also homered in the Jag's 5-4 loss to Valparaiso on Wednesday.
 
The IUPUI pitching staff has a 3.78 ERA on the season with opposing hitters batting .276. Nikki Thomas heads the pitching staff with a 3.19 ERA and a 2-6 record. Thomas has pitched five complete games and struck out 55 in her 72.1 innings pitched. Batters are hitting a staff low .237 off of Thomas.
 
Jocelyn Oppenhuis holds a 3.28 ERA and fell to 4-11 on the season on Wednesday. Oppenhuis continues to lead the staff with strikeouts (89). Nicole Natter picked up her second win on the season in Wednesday's 3-1 victory, while Cassie Vodde tallied her first save.
 
The Mastodons are hitting a solid .294 as a team on the season with junior Ashleigh Bousquet leading the pack at .392. Bousquet leads the team in almost every offensive category including doubles (12), homeruns (7), slugging percentage (.688), walks (25) and on-base percentage (.506). Larissa Franklin is second behind Bousquet and both players lead the team in runs scored with 32.
 
Dani Pugh (.323) and Bousquet's twin sister Alex (.310), round up the Mastodon's lineup hitting over .300.
 
The Mastodons also pose a threat on the bases with four different players in double-digits for stolen bases. Franklin leads with 25-28 stolen base attempts.
 
Fort Wayne's pitching staff holds a 2.37 ERA on the season with sophomore Miranda Kramer heading the staff with a 1.78 ERA and 19-7 record. Kramer has tallied 216 strikeouts in her 28 appearances, averaging almost one and one-half strikeouts per inning.
 
Junior Megan Flenniken is second behind Kramer with a 2.70 ERA and an 8-6 record in her 23 appearances. Flenniken has struck out 107 in her 114 innings pitched.
 
IUPUI and Fort Wayne will play a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 3 p.m. ET with the second game following approximately 30 minutes after, and the final game of the series will be played on Saturday at noon ET.