February 12, 2025
When digging into the details of Big Ten softball these days, the experience is almost like watching a fireworks show, with highlights bursting forth thanks to longtime conference powerhouses and the recent importing of Pac-12 programs that regularly shine bright.
But be on the lookout for Indiana, because the Hoosiers have lit the fuse that could lead to a skyrocketing 2025 campaign.
As head coach Shonda Stanton enters her eighth year in charge, Indiana is riding the inspiration of back-to-back seasons with 40 or more victories, to go with two appearances in the NCAA postseason tournament. Opening weekend this year saw the team go 4-1 (outscoring opponents 39-11), with the Hoosiers determined to maintain momentum at Session 2 of the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, powered by Triple Crown Sports.
The roster is blessed with the return of its top five hitters from 2024, when IU led the Big Ten in a litany of categories including runs, hits, home runs and RBI. It marked an outstanding follow-up to a breakout run in 2023, when the squad reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011 and topped 40 wins, a level not seen since 1994.
“It’s the fruits of our labor, the recruiting, and we’ve got a heck of a ballclub. We wanted to build an identity on the offensive side, and we’ve scored a lot of runs,” said Stanton, who won 560 games in 18 seasons at Marshall before taking over at Indiana. “I see us having a two-pronged approach where we can bang the fences and then play small ball and runs the bases.
“That along with some talented players, it raises the level of everyone. We plugged some holes with some transfers, and this group is hungry. The belief factor is there, and belief precedes behavior all the time … there’s been a lot of success and we have lofty expectations. They are ready for the challenge.”
Sophomore Aly VanBrandt hit. 369 in her debut season, and the hits just kept coming thanks to senior Taylor Minnick (.357, 10 home runs and 54 RBI) and classmate Brianna Copeland (.325, 52 runs and 18 stolen bases). Two sophomores from 2024 were there to provide some serious punch in Avery Parker (.313, 13 home runs, 44 RBI) and Sarah Stone (.313, 10 home runs, 47 RBI).
Stanton believed her program was making early progress before the plan got a bit side-swiped by the COVID pandemic; the quirky schedule that resulted obscured the roster’s progress but Stanton continued to recruit aggressively and kept fortifying the foundation. That allowed this year’s big news – bringing in eight freshmen and two transfers – to get processed more easily.
“You’ll see VanBrandt hitting sixth; she was a slapper last year, now she’s hitting doubles in the gap,” Stanton said. “One thing is, we don’t have to have the younger kids do something spectacular. They can relax, look for better pitches, and six through nine in the batting order, there the freshmen aren’t feeling the pressure because you are loaded, 1 through 5. Nobody has to do it by themselves.
“As a coach and with my staff, we have to make sure we are teaching. There’s nothing we expect the young kids to automatically know, because things are going to look different, even something as simple as how we huddle up on the field. And we have to have patience for their decision-making to unfold … you put in a pinch-hitter who’s a freshman, they may not have been watching the 12 at-bats before, so the dugout coach walks her to the plate and reminds her, ‘this is a two-pitch pitcher, works the east and west with one speed, this is what you’re hunting.’ They’ll need the most information to keep them on mission. It’s tactical patience, and it’s huge.”
Of course, success in softball requires the pitching staff to be special week after week, and Indiana wades into 2025 feeling guardedly optimistic. The staff anchor and go-to for important assignments is Copeland, who went 20-12 last year with a 2.88 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 189.1 innings. There are about 200 more innings that need to be covered, and the Hoosiers will look to Kentucky transfer Taylor Hess and two freshmen, Jenae Berry and Jasmine Reyes.
“It’s an unknown, but kind of like on Christmas Eve … you can’t wait to wake up and open up the gifts,” Stanton added. “There’s hope, optimism and excitement, and not ‘oh crap, what are we going to get?’ We got wins from three different pitches (on opening weekend in 2025). The young kids got a moment out of the gate quickly, and were able to perform at a strong, confident level.”
ON THE PUERTO VALLARATA COLLEGE CHALLENGE – “Dave King is phenomenal, and he’s done so much for our sport. The opportunity to treat our group … this will be a special memory for them. You look back on your playing experience and I still have my teammates who show up for me; you remember the games for sure, but you really remember the other things around the game. We felt this was an opportunity to make moments and memories.”