Indiana University Softball Opens Big Ten Tournament Play this afternoon No. 10 seed Indiana will begin the 2025 Big Ten Tournament against No. 7 seed Washington this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. This will be the first time this season that the Hoosiers and Huskies face each other. Last year the two teams met in the NCAA Columbia Regional. Should Indiana advance, it will face No. 2 seed UCLA in the quarterfinal on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The semifinals will take place on Friday, May 9 and the final will be on Saturday, May 10. The entire 2025 Big Ten Tournament will be hosted by Purdue at Bittinger Stadium. The tournament features the top 12 finishing teams in the conference and is in single-elimination format. The Hoosiers have reached the Big Ten Tournament Final the past two seasons.
Going into the final weekend of the regular season, Indiana led the nation in three statistical categories: batting average (.380), doubles per game (2.15) and on base percentage (.470). Taylor Minnick was named a Top 25 finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year honor. Five Hoosiers have a .390 or better batting average. Taylor Minnick (.476), Madalyn Strader (.439), Avery Parker (.409), Kinsey Mitchell (.392) and Aly VanBrandt (.390) all are hitting the mark. Minnick leads the Big Ten in batting average (.476). The next closest is Jasmyn Burns from Ohio State, who is hitting .473. Minnick and Brianna Copeland are tied for the most home runs in program history, each sporting 43. Minnick tied the record in Indiana’s win at Purdue last Friday.
Indiana took two of three games at Purdue last weekend (May 2-3). The Hoosiers won a thriller, 5-3, in nine innings on Friday and then split the doubleheader on Saturday. In the first Saturday game, Purdue won, 2-0. In the second, Indiana won 10-2 by run rule in five innings. Both wins were complete game efforts from Brianna Copeland. She only allowed four earned runs in 14 innings in the circle. Melina Wilkison made Hoosier history in the third game, hitting two triples. She is only the eighth Hoosier in program history to do so and is the first since 2009. Josie Bird had a terrific game in the final game of the series for the Hoosiers. The freshman hit a home run and a double that helped propel the team to the run rule.
Washington owns a 34-16 record entering the Big Ten Tournament with a 12-9 mark in conference play. The Huskies ended the regular season with a series win at Penn State (May 2-4), taking two of three games. The Huskies have earned a handful of ranked wins, defeating No. 16 Arizona (Feb. 7), No. 8 Oregon (March 16) and No. 18 Nebraska (April 26). They won five Big Ten series, taking them over Rutgers (March 22), Illinois (March 28) Wisconsin (April 4-6), Michigan State (April 18-20) and Penn State (May 2-4). Alexis DeBoer leads the team at the plate, hitting .372 with 55 hits, nine doubles, 20 home runs and 54 RBI. DeBoer is the daughter of former Indiana Football offensive coordinator and current Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. Sophia Ramuno (2.20 ERA) and Stevie Hansen (2.75 ERA) are their most consistent arms in the circle. The meeting between Indiana and Washington will the first time the two teams will have played against each other as conference opponents. Washington leads the all-time series, 3-1. Last year, the two programs met in the NCAA Columbia Regional where Washington won, 8-7.
Teri Moren Named Head Coach of the United States Under 19 National Team Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren will reprise her head coaching duties for USA Basketball as she will lead the 2025 U19 Women’s National team in action this July. Moren will assume her second head coaching position with USA Basketball after capturing gold as head coach last summer and as assistant coach at the 2023 FIBA Women’s U19 World Cup and 2022 FIBA U18 Women’s Americas Championship. Joining Moren will be on the U19 staff will be Niele Ivey (University of Notre Dame) and Jose Fernandez (University of South Florida) and will lead the USA at the 2025 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup in Brno, Czech Republic, from July 12-20, 2025.
“It is an honor to be leading the 2025 USA Basketball Women’s U19 National Team along with Coach Ivey and Coach Fernandez,” Moren said. “I am grateful to represent our country on the international stage and look forward to the opportunity to once again pursue a gold medal for our nation.” Moren recently concluded her 11th season as the head coach of the Hoosiers. The Indiana native is the program’s all-time winningest coach while leading them to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16’s and an Elite Eight appearance along with 10-consecutive 20-win seasons. Moren is a two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year (2016, 2023) and was named the 2023 Associated Press National Coach of the Year.
The Indiana Fever Waive Jillian Alleyne and Bree Hall The Indiana Fever waived two of its players. In an announcement made on Monday the team said it has waived forward Jillian Alleyne and guard Bree Hall. The team thanked both of the players on social media. Alleyne and Hall sat out during Saturday’s overtime win, but both played in Sunday’s 64-point win in Iowa. The Fever announced they signed Alleyne to a training camp contract on March 24. Alleyne most recently played the 2024-25 season with Turkey’s Tarsus Belediyesi Mersin where she averaged 18.6 points, 13.8 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. According to the WNBA, Alleyne was drafted No. 20 overall in the 2016 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, later playing for the Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics during the 2019 and 2021 seasons. She also played three seasons in Israel.
Hall played at the University of South Carolina where she helped guide the team to four-straight Final Four appearances, winning national championships in both the 2022 and 2024 seasons, with SEC tournament titles in three of her four collegiate seasons. The 21-year-old played in 147 games, which was the most of any four-year player in the program’s history. The Fever picked Hall 20th overall in the second round of the 2025 Draft. Hall made a post on Instagram saying, “thankful for the opportunity. looking forward to what’s next.”
Indianapolis Indians Bubba Chandler Named International League April Pitcher of the Month
Minor League Baseball announced that right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler has been named the International League April Pitcher of the Month after he led all minor league pitchers with at least 20.0 innings in fewest hits allowed (seven) and batting average against (.106, 7-for-66). He is
the first Indianapolis Indians pitcher to win a league monthly award since Zach Duke in May 2005. Chandler, 22, went 1-0 with a 1.33 ERA (3er/20.1ip), 27 strikeouts and a 0.64 WHIP across five starts in the month. In addition to his minor league leading marks, he led IL pitchers with at least 20.0 innings in WHIP and finished third in ERA.
In just 13 career starts with Indianapolis, Chandler is 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA (12er/64.2ip) and 90 strikeouts. Among all Indianapolis pitchers since 2005 with at least 40.0 career innings, he ranks first in WHIP (0.90), batting average against (.161, 36-for-224) and opponent OPS (.480). He also ranks second in ERA (1.67, 12er/64.2ip) and strikeouts per 9.0 innings (12.53). Chandler has thrown 13 pitches at 100.0 MPH or higher this season, with his fastball topping out at 101.5 on April 13 at Louisville. He is one of just seven starting pitchers in MiLB to hit triple-digits this season, with his eight pitches thrown at least 100.3 MPH marking the fastest pitches thrown by a starting pitcher in High-A or above. The Lawrenceville, Ga. native was selected by Pittsburgh in the third round (72nd overall) of the 2021 First-Year Player Draft out of North Oconee (Ga.) High School. Chandler is the fifth overall Indians player to win IL monthly honors since Indianapolis rejoined the league in 1998, following the southpaw Duke, utilityman Alen Hanson (May 2015), infielder José Osuna (April 2018) and outfielder Canaan Smith Njigba (September 2023)
Taylor University Softball picks up Eight NAIA Scholar-Athlete Awards The NAIA announced its NAIA Scholar-Athletes earlier this week and Taylor Softball collected eight honors. Emri Agre, Emily Guthrie, Livie Lehmann, Delaynee McCreary, Mackenzie Noah, Madison Raley, Brooke Sanchez, and Maddie Schultz, excelled in the classroom throughout the year to garner the honor. To be eligible for NAIA Scholar-Athlete recognition, a student-athlete must maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 or above on a 4.0 scale, while having attended at least one full year at their current institution. Softball’s season concluded this past week at the Crossroads League Tournament.
Taylor University Men’s Golf in 2nd Place after Day 1 of the Crossroads League Championship The Taylor men’s golf team opened the 2025 Crossroads League Championships with a pair of strong rounds and finished Monday’s 36 holes in second place. The Trojans shot a 296 and 293 for the two-best non-Marian team scores of the day, placing the Trojans in second at 589 and 11 strokes off the pace of No. 14 Marian for the top spot in the team standings. TU’s second-round score of 293 was the program’s best single-round tally of the spring season and put the Trojans nine shots ahead of No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan in the standings with 18 holes to play. Tanner Conklin opened with an even-par round and then shot one-under over the second 18 holes to finish in fourth place at one-under par through 36 holes. Conklin will open Tuesday’s final round four shots off the lead. Will Schuitema shot two-under in the second round to end in sixth at two-over par for the tournament, while Ben Oakley and Porter Dick finished the first two rounds in 12th and 17th.