BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana softball freshman Taryn Kern was unanimously named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in addition to the league’s Player of the Year award amidst five Hoosiers who earned All-Big Ten honors in the annual postseason awards, the league announced on Wednesday morning.
Kern leads the Hoosiers with two unanimous selections to the All-Freshman Team and as Freshman of the Year and the All-Freshman Team in addition to being awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year and the First Team All-Big Ten.
Indiana’s Taylor Minnick was also named to the First Team All-Big Ten alongside Kern while redshirt-junior Cora Bassett, freshman Avery Parker, and Sarah Stone earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors. Parker and freshman Cassidy Kettleman were also selected to the league’s All-Freshman Team with classmate Kern.
Sophomore utility player Brianna Copeland rounds out the honors with the Sportsmanship Award for her leadership and dedication to her teammates on and off the field.
Kern has consistently led the Hoosiers on She leads the Big Ten in eight offensive categories: slugging percentage (1.022), OBS (.605), OPS (1.627), RBI (67), home runs (22), runs scored (65), walks (41), and hit by pitch (20). She is also ranked third in batting average (.438).
Not only is she an offensive force in the conference, but she is putting up big numbers at the national level, highlighted by her 22 home runs on the season where she is tied for the most homers in the nation. Kern is also on track to set a new Big Ten record for home runs by a freshman (23) as well as set a new single-season record (24).
The San Jose, Calif., native has set single-season program records in home runs, RBI, and runs scored and is the only Hoosier to win two individual postseason awards in program history.
She has tallied six Big Ten weekly awards including three Player of the Week, and six Freshman of the Week honors. She began the season with three consecutive weekly honors and finished the regular season with three straight league awards.
Minnick earned back-to-back All-Big Ten honors after she was named to the Second and Alll-Freshman Team in her first season with the Hoosiers. She is currently ranked second in the Big Ten in three categories: slugging percentage (.768), OBS (.549), and OPS (1.317). In addition, Minnick ranks in the top five in RBI (52) and batting average (.413).
The Bloomington, Ind., native holds a .413 batting average on the season for the second-highest on the team. She has tallied 57 hits with 14 doubles, one triple, and 11 home runs. In addition, Minnick has earned 34 walks with 10 hit-by-pitches as she has totaled 106 bases on the season.
Bassett earned back-to-back All-Big Ten honors after being named to the First Team in 2022 with the Hoosiers. She has started in all 55 games and has helped lead the Hoosiers to a 23-game program-record win streak as a leadoff hitter in the lineup.
The Newburgh, Ind., native holds a .331 batting average on the season on 55 hits. She has hit three leadoff homers out of her five on the season holding a .455 on-base percentage and a .524 slugging percentage. This season she has recorded 13 doubles, two triples, and five home runs for 25 RBI. She also leads the team in stolen bases with 18 out of 19 attempts.
Last season, Bassett set the Indiana single-season records for doubles (19) and tied the single-season record for runs scored (57). This season she has now scored 62 runs and has hit 13 doubles.
Parker holds a .326 batting average on the season starting in all 55 games played for the Hoosiers. She has recorded 46 hits with 36 runs scored. The Westfield, Ind., native has tallied nine doubles, one triple, and nine home runs for 36 RBI in her rookie season.
The freshman utility player has also had stellar performances from behind the plate this season recording a .962 fielding percentage with three doubles.
She earned her first weekly award after a stellar performance where she hit .500 on the week in the Hoosier’s wins over Butler and conference sweeps against Purdue and Ohio State to extend the win streak to 21 straight games. The freshman held a 1.636 OPS on eight hits with two doubles and two home runs. Parker totaled seven RBI and scored eight runs on the week and was perfect from the field and behind the plate with a 1.000 fielding percentage.
Stone is an RBI machine. She has totaled 59 RBI on the season ranking second in the league and first in sacrifice flies (8). She has recorded 44 hits including 12 doubles, two triples, and seven home runs. The Bedford, Ind., native has scored 20 runs and is 5-for-5 on stolen bases this season.
The first baseman has recorded 332 putouts with five assists while holding a .983 fielding percentage.
Stone tallied eight RBI in IU’s sweep over Rutgers and earned Big Ten Co-Player of the Week after batting in 10 runners, with five hits, one double, and three home runs in Indiana’s conference opener against No. 22 Maryland. Stone had a team-high 1.364 slugging percentage with a 1.781 OPS on the weekend.
Kettleman has made her way into the starting lineup this season, making 25 starts for the Hoosiers. She has recorded 14 hits with 19 runs scored. The Amherst, Ohio, native hit her first career home run in Indiana’s series sweep at Rutgers.
The rookie utility player has had an incredible performance in the outfield recording 48 putouts and four assists with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. She has been applauded for her all-effort diving plays and full layouts in left field.