By Jess Westendorf
The Iowa softball team has fans hoping that it can extend its three-game winning streak when Rutgers comes to Pearl Field this weekend.
Iowa will continue its home stand tonight with a Blackout for the first game against Rutgers at 6 p.m. The second and third games will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday and noon April 16.
“I think it is keeping the momentum and where we are at, while sticking with the process and cleaning a few things up in the field,” junior Angela Schmiederer said. “Same thing with our at bats — just plugging away and getting ready for our next opponent, Rutgers.”Looking at the series on paper, Iowa should feel good about where it’s heading, especially after two huge wins over Nebraska on Wednesday.
Rutgers comes into the series with a record of 10-27, 1-8 in the Big Ten, which ties them for worst in the conference with Maryland.
The Scarlet Knights have struggled all season and were recently swept by Nebraska on April 8 and Sunday.
On the flip side, Iowa was able to sweep the Huskers, which has to give the Hawkeyes quite a bit of confidence heading into this weekend.
“Conference wins are always big confidence boosters for us,” senior Shayla Starkenburg said after the Nebraska sweep. “Taking these two wins, I think we have a lot of confidence going into the Rutgers series this weekend.”
The Hawkeyes showed that they have plenty of fight in them, and with determination, they pulled off two of the most important wins of the season thus far.
Wednesday afternoon at Pearl Field, Iowa took the first game when senior Kaitlyn Mullarkey hit a walk-off RBI double into left field. The second game consisted great pitching and hot bats for the Hawkeyes.
“Everyone up and down the lineup did really well at bat,” Schmiederer said. “We just have been plugging away, trying to get our quality at-bats, and Coach has done a great job preparing us for every game. We just stuck to our game plan, and it worked out to our advantage.”
While the Hawkeyes seemed to be doing everything right on the diamond, the team does have one major aspect that needs brushing up.
Iowa needs to work on its base running — the Hawkeyes left numerous people on base as well as had some problems about sliding in safely.
“We had a few base-running errors; we didn’t slide at home in the first inning, which would have tied the game I believe, and those are some elementary things,” head coach Marla Looper said.
This is essential for the Hawkeyes going into the weekend, especially if they want to make a statement by adding more conference wins to their record.
“A challenge is not to get complacent,” Looper said. “It is nice taking some momentum and a nice little streak into the weekend, but starting [today], it’s a new day, and it’s a new game. We have to do a good job of attacking practice so we can attack Rutgers on Friday night.”