IOWA CITY, Iowa – Rutgers softball was hoping to add a Big Ten Tournament victory to its list of notable accomplishments this season, but the Scarlet Knights were tripped up by Wisconsin, 7-3, in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Big Ten Tournament at Bob Pearl Field on Thursday night.

The Scarlet Knights entered the tournament as the number three seed, RU's highest since joining the league for the 2015 season. The loss dropped Rutgers to 33-22 overall. The Badgers, meanwhile, advance to play second-seeded Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals.

Wisconsin 7, Rutgers 3

• Jillian Anderson was 3-for-4 while Payton Lincavage was 2-for-4 with a run scored.
• Morgan Smith posted a double and run scored.
• Kayla Bock notched a triple and run scored.
• Megan Herka and Kobie Hura both collected RBIs.
• Mattie Boyd pitched her 20th complete game giving up three earned runs in falling to 19-10 inside the circle. She struck out five Badgers to give her 162 strikeouts on the season moving her into fifth on the RU single-season leaders list.

• Wisconsin took an early 1-0 lead in its first at-bat. Fiona Giradot led off with a walk and was replaced at first by pinch-runner Emily Bojan. Bojan stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Hilary Blomberg. 
• Rutgers appeared to tie the game in the bottom of the third, but a missed base stopped the tying run from scoring. Morgan Smith doubled to right-center with Kyleigh Sand aboard, but Sand missed touching third base to stop the run from being credited.
• The Scarlet Knights, however, did get the tying run in the fourth. Kayla Bock led off with a triple, her first since her freshman season, and knotted the score at 1-1 after she came home on a Megan Herka groundout.
• The Badgers took back the lead in the fifth. With two outs, Wisconsin capitalized on a pair of errors for a pair of runs and Ava Kuszak collected a two-run shot over the wall in left lifting Wisconsin to a 5-1 lead.
• RU got a run back in the bottom half. Smith reached on an error, advanced to second after Katie Wingert was hit by a pitch and scored on a Payton Lincavage single to left as the Scarlet Knights trailed 5-2.
  Wisconsin added two more in the seventh to extend its lead to 7-2. Skylar Sirdashney led off with a single to center and Giradot walked. With pinch runners Marytherese Nevin and Molly Schlosser taking over duties on the bases, both advanced on a sac bunt by Kuszak and scored on a Blomberg single up the middle.
• Rutgers had an opportunity to put runs on the board in the sixth loading the bases with one out with a Jillian Anderson single, Sand walk and LA Matthews reaching on an infielder error. The Badgers, however, retired the side without any Scarlet Knight runs coming across.
• Lincavage led off RU's final trip to the plate with a single to left and put herself into scoring position advancing a pair of bases on a wild pitch. She would score on a Kobie Hura sac fly to right field for RU to trail 7-3, but it would be the final run the Scarlet Knights would score.