With only six games remaining, the MSU softball team is on the outside looking in.
“We have to win,” sophomore outfielder Tiffany Wallace said. “It’s either we win or we’re not in the Big Ten Tournament.”
The Spartans (20-34 overall, 4-10 Big Ten) are currently 10th in the conference, and only the top six teams get invites to the tournament.
MSU takes a three-game winning streak into its final six games, and the Spartans hope the momentum carries over in today’s doubleheader against No. 15 Iowa (35-10, 11-3). After the second-place Hawkeyes, the Spartans have a weekend series with sixth-place Northwestern (18-19, 8-8).
The Spartans wrap up the season with a home-away series against first-place Michigan (30-12-1, 13-1) next weekend.
“Everybody’s pretty much counting us out, so I think we could blow everybody away,” Wallace said. “I think it’s possible we could squeak in with four or five wins. I know we definitely need to sweep one of the teams and at least split the other two.”
MSU head coach Jacquie Joseph said the winning streak can’t hurt the Spartans, but added Big Ten action will demand a better performance.
She said before anyone can start talking about the tournament, the Spartans have to win the first game against Iowa.
“The first game is critical,” she said. “It’s unfortunate because we play Iowa first. We’ll have to play a lot better if we’re going to be successful.
“I’d just like to put ourselves in a position to have to worry about it. I’d like people to have to figure out scenarios because we won.”
Junior pitcher Becky Gray said the season didn’t turn out the way the Spartans thought it could, but added a strong finish would change everything.
“I felt we had a better team than what we showed this season,” she said. “I don’t want the seniors to go out with losses. That’s no fun. We’ve got six games left and we’ve got to play hard those six games.”
Senior outfielder Shealee Dunavan said the key to finishing strong is the hitting. She said the pitching is looking good after getting two complete games at Oakland on Wednesday.
“Our pitching has been doing well this season,” she said. “It’s our batting that needs to step up now.”
That may be true, but Dunavan has done her part this season. She leads MSU with a .316 batting average and 24 RBIs in the season. Dunavan is currently 19 hits shy of tying the career hits total at MSU.
With just six games remaining in her MSU career, she said this final stretch is very important. She said she hopes to see a lot of fans at Old College Field this weekend.
“It’s important to me,” she said. “This is the last time I’ll ever play softball again.”
Wallace said MSU missed the tournament by just one game last season, adding she doesn’t want that to happen again.
“I think we’re going to go out there with the mental attitude that this could be it,” she said. “We’re just going to go out there and go for broke.”
