Huskers Battle Badgers in Regular-Season Finale

LINCOLN – The Nebraska softball team (20-28, 8-12 Big Ten) concludes the 2019 regular season this weekend when it travels to Madison, Wis., to take on the Wisconsin Badgers (36-10, 13-7 Big Ten) May 3-5. The teams will play one game  each day for a total of three games. The first game is set for Friday at 5 p.m. On Saturday, the game is set for 1 p.m., while the series finale is Sunday at noon.

LAST TIME OUT
Nebraska went 5-1 last week after playing six games in six days. The Huskers beat South Dakota at home on Tuesday before traveling to Iowa City for a double header against Iowa on Wednesday. NU won the first game before dropping the second game. Over the weekend, Nebraska hosted Maryland at Bowlin Stadium in Lincoln and swept the Terps in a three-game series.

Scouting Wisconsin
Wisconsin enters the weekend with a 36-10 record which includes a 13-7 record in conference play. The Badgers are receiving votes in both the NFCA and USA Softball Polls. Wisconsin ranks fifth in the Big Ten, but is playing for a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament next weekend. In the conference standings, Wisconsin sits behind Northwestern (20-0), Michigan (19-1), Minnesota (18-1) and Ohio State (15-5).

The Badgers are coming off a three-game sweep over Purdue last weekend. Wisconsin was set to play a doubleheader against Green Bay on Tuesday, but the games were canceled. The Badgers are hitting .288 as a team and have 59 home runs on the season which leads the conference. Individually, Kayla Konwent is hitting .482 with 37 runs, 66 hits, 16 doubles, one triple 15 home runs, 49 RBIs and 34 walks. She’s also slugging .942. Konwent leads the team in every category aside from runs (ranks second). Taylor Johnson is adding a .366 average with a team-high 42 runs. In the circle, Kaitlyn Menz and Haley Hestekin have seen most of the action. Menz has a 17-6 record with a 1.90 ERA. She’s made 27 appearances including 19 starts and has pitched seven complete games. Menz has pitched a team-high 121.2 innings and has 85 strikeouts with 52 walks. Hestekin has a 15-4 record with a 2.37 ERA. She’s made a team-high 29 appearances and 24 starts and has also pitched eight complete games. Hestekin has pitched 121.1 innings and has 106 strikeouts with 37 walks. Wisconsin is fielding .950 this season which ranks fourth in the Big Ten. The Badgers have 41 errors through 46 games and have given up 24 unearned runs.

Follow the Huskers
A live radio broadcast will be available on Huskers.com and the official Huskers App for all of Nebraska’s games this season. Fans can also follow all the action on Twitter (@HuskerSoftball). All three games this weekend will be streamed on BTN Plus (subscription required).

Huskers Bring Momentum Into Final Week  Nebraska is coming off an impressive performance after its busiest week of the season. The Huskers played six games against three different opponents in two states over six days last week and finished with a record of 5-1, which included a 4-1 record in Big Ten play. Nebraska beat South Dakota on Tuesday before splitting a double header at Iowa on Wednesday.

Then Nebraska swept Maryland in a three-game series in Lincoln over the weekend. The Huskers topped the Terps in three run-rule victories. It marked Nebraska’s first three-game sweep in Big Ten play since 2017 (Northwestern) and marked the second time the Huskers had swept a Big Ten opponent and won each game in run-rule fashion (also swept Ohio State in three straight run-rule games in 2014). As a team, Nebraska hit .328 over the week and slugged .554. Individually, six Huskers batted over .300, including Tristen Edwards (10-for-19 (.526), Rylie Unzicker (4-for-8 (.500), Alyvia Simmons (7-for-16 (.438), Bri Cassidy (4-for-10 (.400), Peyton Glatter (5-for-13 (.385) and Madi Unzicker (4-for-12 (.333). Pitchers Coming Off Good Week Nebraska’s pitchers are coming off impressive performances last week through six games against South Dakota, Iowa (double header) and Maryland (three games). As a staff, the pitchers finished the week with a 0.97 ERA through six games and 36.0 innings pitched. The Huskers gave up just five earned runs and recorded 35 strikeouts and had 12 walks. The Huskers finished with an opponent batting average of .200 over the week. 

Freshman Lindsey Walljasper has pitched half of Nebraska’s innings this week and had an ERA of 1.17. She gave up three earned runs and had 17 strikeouts with five walks. Classmate Courtney Wallace pitched 13.0 innings and gave up two earned runs. She had an ERA of 1.08 and had 13 strikeouts and five walks. Regan Mergele pitched 5.0 innings of relief   through three appearances and had no earned runs, four hits and five strikeouts. However, the Huskers will also need to clean up their defense, as they’ve given up eight unearned runs over the six games, including all three in the only loss last week against Iowa. Glatter Has B1G Success Freshman outfielder Peyton Glatter has been impressive this season in Big Ten play. Glatter is hitting .341 (15-for-44) in conference-only games, which is an improvement from her .262 season average. The Omaha, Neb., native has made 15 starts and played in 16 of Nebraska’s 20 Big Ten games so far this season.

Most recently, Glatter went 4-for-10 (.400) last week against Iowa and Maryland. In game three against the Terps, Glatter went 2-for-4 and hit a walk-off three-run homer. She finished the day with a career-best four RBIs and had six RBIs in the final two games of the series. A few weeks ago against Purdue. She played in the final two games against the Boilermakers. She went 4-for-7 (.571) with three runs, one RBI and one double. In game three she had a career-best three runs and three hits. In the Illinois series, Glatter went 5-for-9 (.556) with an RBI and a double. She also hit a walk-off RBI single in game three to help the Huskers take the series, 2-1. Glatter also had two hits in the series against No. 18 Minnesota.