By Jacob Miller
The Iowa softball team could do no wrong in its double-header sweep of the Huskers on Wednesday at Pearl Field.
“It’s nice to win in walk-off fashion, especially at home and then be able to carry that momentum into Game 2,” head coach Marla Looper said.
In the first game, Iowa jumped out to an early lead in the first thanks to a 2-run single by junior Angela Schmiederer. The Hawkeyes then built a 3-0 lead and maintained it until the top of the fourth.
The Huskers had scored 2 in the third and were looking to take the lead in the fourth, but luck was on Iowa’s side. Nebraska sophomore Bri Cassidy hit a home run over the left field fence that should have scored 2 runs, but because she did not touch home plate, she was called out on the play, and it ended the inning.
The teams stayed tied at 3 until the seventh. It was beginning to look like the Hawkeyes were going to go into extra innings again, as they did against Wisconsin, but senior Kaitlyn Mullarkey had other plans.
“I knew I hit it hard, but I thought that she was going to catch it,” Mullarkey said. “So, it was kind of dope that she didn’t.”
The senior had one runner in scoring position when she hit a walk-off RBI double that went right over the left fielder to seal the deal. The Hawkeyes won, 4-3.
“I think that is a true sign that they don’t have any quit in them,” Looper said. “We’ve shown that over and over, we haven’t always gotten the outcome when we haven’t quit, but today we were able to do that, and [Mullarkey] stayed calm, cool, and collected in the box and was able to drive in the winning run.”
The Hawkeyes continued to impress people in the second game as well. They had strong pitching from freshman Allison Doocy in the first game, and redshirt senior Shayla Starkenburg dominated the second game. She had 4 strikeouts and allowed 7 hits, and her defense did the rest.
Junior Katy Taylor made some fantastic plays in the infield, and the rest of the Hawkeyes’ defense made some spectacular plays all afternoon but did commit 1 error. Nebraska committed 3.
“You know defense wins ball games, that’s something we talk about,” Taylor said. “Definitely, I think all around everyone played well on defense in both games.”
In the second game, Nebraska scored first in the first inning before Starkenburg could get into her groove. The Hawkeyes scored 1 in the third and then began to rattle off runs in the fourth.
Thanks to 2 costly Nebraska errors, the Hawkeyes were able to score 3 runs, and the Huskers could not come back. Iowa won, 5-2.
This is the first time this season that the Hawkeyes have won more than two games in a row, and they will try to continue the streak against Rutgers this weekend.
“This was our first sweep of the conference this year, so it will give us some good confidence going into this weekend against Rutgers,” Mullarkey said. “Obviously, winning is always a good feeling. I think we played pretty well today, so it will give us good energy going into the weekend.”