My Two Cents: Can Softball Be Indiana's Next Big Thing?

Indiana's softball team won two games in the NCAA Tournament this weekend, something that hasn't happened since 1994 for this program on the rise. They are a very young team, too, with a very bright future. So the biggest question now is, how bright? Here they come.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Back in November, I made the short-ish drive over to Knoxville from my Tennessee home in Franklin to see Indiana's women's basketball team take on the mighty Lady Vols. 

The story line was simple, especially after the upstart Hoosiers upset Tennessee 79-67 and moved in the top-10 a week later. They never left. They had a 28-4 season, won the Big Ten, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and became media darlings and fan-base favorites. A few years back, you could count crowds in the hundreds when they played, and now they were selling out Assembly Hall.

Indiana women's basketball is now a very big thing.

On my ride home through the rolling hills of Tennessee, I couldn't help but the think about what Teri Moren was building at Indiana. The NCAA women's game has been all about Tennessee and Connecticut for decades, and now it was Indiana — our Indiana — that was becoming part of the best-in-country conversation. 

Flash forward to this weekend in mid-May. I was back on the road to Knoxville again, this time to chronicle what went on with Indiana's women's softball team, who were playing in their first NCAA Tournament in 12 years.

That's a long time. 

But then the Hoosiers won a game, beating Louisville on Friday for their first NCAA Tournament win in 17 years. They lost to Tennessee Saturday, but then beat Louisville again on Sunday for their first weekend in 29 years — all the way back to 1994 — since they won two NCAA games in the same year.

They lost 9-1 and 7-3 to host Tennessee, a serious Women's College World Series contender, and they saw first-hand what it is to be elite. Indiana isn't there yet, not by a long shot.

But they're coming. 

They won 44 games this year, set all sorts of offensive school records and has one of the stars in the sport — freshman second baseman Taryn Kern — on their roster. Their best players are mostly freshmen and sophomores and they'll all be back next year.

Maybe it's a bit of a reach to connect the dots with the trajectory the women's basketball team is on.

But maybe it's not.

And that's why I had to ask. Can the same thing happen with this young and exciting Indiana softball team down the road? Can they start to be a national contender, too?

Indiana freshman Taryn Kern (9) is all smiles after hitting a home run during the NCAA Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn. (USA TODAY Sports)

Not backing down from big dreams

We're in the postgame press conference on Sunday, and Indiana coach Shonda Stanton is there with Kern, the Big Ten Player of the Year who hit 23 home runs this season — including one bomb in Knoxville — and slick shortstop Brooke Benson, a junior from Fishers, Ind.

I had to ask about their fellow female classmates at Indiana, the basketball team. They watched all winter, saw the greatness, saw how the fan base totally embraced them, saw the love affair.

Why not us?

"You guys on your campus have some female classmates on who play at Assembly Hall who five or six years ago were just sort of re-establishing their program too,'' I asked. ''They built all that into a top Big Ten team, tops-in-country type thing and you see that transition and trend for them. Do you think that way for what you guys can do here? Can Indiana be that kind of softball team as well?''

Benson leaned forward in her chair and quickly answered with a long smile across her face. 

"Oh totally. Just seeing basketball and seeing how well they did in their women's basketball games, it just makes us excited for what we can do,'' Benson said. "And just showing how if you work together as a team, you can do anything really, just working together.''

Kern, a San Jose, Calif. native who came cross-country to play at Indiana, hit .404 this year with 23 home runs, 68 runs scored and 68 RBIs. Those are all school records.

All of them.

And it's just a start.

"Just to see all the records we broke as a team this season and individually, it's just super exciting and we're definitely trending up,'' said Kern. ''Coach is doing something great here, building a great problem, so we're really excited (about what the future holds).

"Keep your eye out for Indiana softball. We're coming next year, and we're coming to get it. Watch out.''

Indiana's Taylor Minnick had a big year at the plate, hitting .390 on the season with 12 home runs (USA TODAY Sports)

Getting an important postseason taste

Getting this NCAA Tournament experience was a wonderful thing for a program that hasn't seen the postseason in a while. Stanton, who's in her sixth year now, took over a program that lost 31 games the year before she got there. In Bloomington, we all know how much of a difference that makes with men's basketball, too. When they broke their six-year NCAA Tournament drought two years ago, that was a big deal.

So is this. Indiana finished second in the Big Ten this year — to Northwestern —and lost in the Big Ten Tournament championship game when the Wildcats scored twice in the seventh inning. That could be Indiana next year. Conference titles are very much within their grasp.

Indiana starters Kern, Cassidy Kettleman and Avery Parker are all freshman. Freshman pitcher Sophie Kleiman is a star in the making, too.

Top hitters Taylor Minnick and Sarah Stone are just sophomores, as are outfielder Kinsey Mitchell and pitchers Brianna Copeland and Heather Johnson. Benson is a junior and will be back, as will several others.

This is a program that plays in relative obscurity, often drawing only a few hundred fans to home games. That might be changing now. Say what you want about Fred Glass' time as athletic director at Indiana, but he made it a priority to upgrade facilities in Bloomington, and Andy Mohr Field, which opened in 2013, is beautiful. 

It's a great place to watch a game. Next spring, go check it out sometime. 

It's very hard for a team up north to compete at the highest levels of women's softball because of the unfair weather advantage that southern and western teams have. The regular season starts in late February, where Big Ten softball fields are often covered in snow. 

I've argued for years that the college baseball and softball seasons should start a month later to level the playing field, but that's a story for another day. Michigan won an NCAA championship in 2005, so it can be done. But, to be fair, they are the ONLY northern school to ever win a national title since 1982.

Can Indiana ever get there? Well, it's a big ask, but what we learned this spring that the Hoosiers are a program on the rise, with a ton of young talent and a team that laughs and smiles and has a ton of fun together.

They had a blast on their journey this year.

And they're just getting started.

Indiana shortstop Brooke Benson gets a lot of praise for her defensive work, but she also had four hits during the Knoxville Regional this weekend. (IU Athletics)

Related stories on Indiana softball

• TENNESSEE ELIMINATES INDIANA: Indiana let some early opportunities slip away, and powerful Tennessee got them best of them for the second straight day, winning 7-3 to clinch the Knoxville regional. The Hoosiers finished the season with 44 wins and a pair of NCAA Tournament wins for the first time since 1994, and it's a program on the rise. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA RALLIES, STAYS ALIVE: Down to their final few outs of the season, Indiana rallied for a run in the sixth inning and three more in the seventh to beat Louisville in an elimination game at the NCAA Tournament's Knoxville regional. The Hoosiers now take on Tennessee later on Sunday afternoon. CLICK HERE
• HOOSIERS FALL TO TENNESSEE: Indiana caught a bad break with two rain delays on Saturday, and nothing went their way in a 9-1 loss to Tennessee in the NCAA softball tournament in Knoxville. CLICK HERE

Indiana freshman Taryn Kern is all smiles after a big hit. (USA TODAY Sports)

• INDIANA BEATS LOUISVILLE IN NCAA OPENER: Even though it got a little scary at the end, Indiana beat Louisville 4-3 on Friday in the NCAA Tournament softball regional in Knoxville, Tenn. It was their first NCAA win in exactly 17 years, snapping a four-game tourney losing streak. CLICK HERE
• TARYN KERN LEADS HOOSIERS: Indiana softball second baseman Taryn Kern has left a huge mark on the Hoosiers' season, and it's not even over yet. The freshman leads the nation in home runs and her team in batting average as she looks for the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011. CLICK HERE