The Iowa softball team claimed its fourth-straight Big Ten series win this weekend by taking two of three from Ohio State.

Iowa (25-25, 14-7 Big Ten) swept a double-header from the Buckeyes on May 5; pitcher Kayla Massey picked up the 2-0 win in the first game, and Chelsea Lyon earned the 15-3 victory in the nightcap.

The Hawkeyes have struggled to score consistently throughout the season and continued the trend by only scoring 2 runs during the sixth inning of the first game. But Iowa kept swinging in the second game. The team scored six runs in the second inning — a result of 6 hits — and the Hawkeyes continued to score in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings.

"It’s nice when we can get production from top to bottom," head coach Marla Looper said in a release. "What helps with that is our aggressive baserunning. We made things happen. When we force things to happen on the defense, we’re probably going to score some runs."

But the Hawkeyes slipped back into their habit of sparse scoring in the series’ third game on Sunday — and it cost them. Iowa didn’t score until the seventh inning, when designated player Michelle Zoeller hit a solo homer to tie the game, 1-1.

The Buckeyes responded in the bottom, though, and scored another run to win the game.

"It’s a little frustrating," Looper said in a release. "Coming out with the momentum we did, we didn’t take the momentum."

— by Molly Irene Olmstead