By Jacob Miller
The Iowa softball team opened conference play against Illinois and was unable to keep up with the visitors’ high-octane offense, losing all three games in the series.
The most exciting game in the series by far was the third game. It was the first time in the series that Iowa was able to score first, and it was the only game that Iowa was able to keep up with the explosive Illinois offense. Junior Allie Wood gave Iowa a 1-0 lead in the third inning with an RBI single, but Illinois answered with 2 runs in the top of the fifth.
“I made some adjustments, thought about what I was doing mechanically, and then when I went up I told myself not to think so much so I could just freely swing and hit the ball,” Wood said.
The Hawkeyes followed with 3 runs in the bottom of the fifth. It started off with a deep shot to right field by freshman Brooke Rozier with two on base. The Illinois outfielder made a costly error as the ball bounced out of her glove, allowing Devin Cantu to score. The next two batters, juniors Angela Schmiederer and Cheyenne Pratt, both hit RBI singles to give the Hawkeyes a 4-2 lead heading into the sixth.
That is when Iowa ran out of gas and allowed the Illini to score 5 unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh. The Hawkeyes lost, 7-4.
The Hawkeyes simply could not keep up with Illinois’ constant attack on offense. The Illini scored 20 runs in the three games.
“We obviously didn’t square the ball up pretty much at all our first game against them, and we had that day off to get ourselves together,” senior Kaitlyn Mullarkey said. “We came out ready to go today, but we just didn’t score enough, but we hit the ball better today than [March 24].”
In the first game, the Hawkeyes were defeated, 8-0 in five innings, because Illinois scored 7 runs in the first three innings and added another 1 in the fifth. Illinois senior Nicole Evans was a nuisance for Hawkeye pitchers all weekend. In the first game, she went 2-for-3 and had 2 RBIs, and the Hawkeyes were not able to tally a hit in the first game. Evans finished the weekend with 6 hits, 6 RBIs, and 1 home run.
The Hawkeye hitters did not improve much in their first double-header game on Sunday. Iowa did not tally a hit until the fifth inning and only had 4 total in the game. Illinois was the first to score thanks to an Evans’ two-run homer. The Hawkeyes fought back in the sixth with Rozier hitting an RBI double, but it wasn’t enough for a comeback. The Illini scored 3 in the seventh, and Iowa was only able to score 1 after that with a Mullarkey RBI double. The Hawkeyes lost, 5-2.
“We have to continue to fight and plug away,” head coach Marla Looper said. “We will keep making adjustments. There is an opponent on the other side of the field, and they’re not going to lie down and die. We have to keep scrapping. It’s like a boxing match, and we can’t give up partway through.”