By Jess Westendorf
The Iowa softball (16-27) team used a midweek nonconference matchup against Western Illinois (19-27) to bounce back after being swept by No. 5 Minnesota this past weekend.
The Hawkeyes took care of the Leathernecks, 3-1, to extend its midweek winning streak to five in a row and gain some confidence in front of more than 500 fans at Pearl Field.
The game had been slated for tonight, but with the chance of rain, the teams decided to move the game to Tuesday.
The chance of bad weather didn’t slow down the Hawkeyes, it lit a fire in them.
Senior Shayla Starkenburg took the mound for the Hawkeyes and she took care of business, too.
She allowed only 2 hits and had a no-hitter going into the top of the fifth inning. Holly Hoelting broke that up with a single.
“The defense behind me was doing a great job,” Starkenburg said. “That made it really easy on the mound, just pitching some nice pitches for them to get easy ground balls.”
The Leatherneck batters couldn’t figure out Starkenburg’s changeup or her fastball, and she psyched out batters left and right.
Iowa didn’t just destroy Western Illinois on the mound but also at the plate, at least in the first inning.
In the bottom of the first, Iowa scored 3 runs after going through the first eight batters.
Junior Cheyenne Pratt started the night off with a single up the middle to get Iowa on base with no outs.
Then catcher Taylor Messer was called for interference at the plate, which allowed Pratt to go to second and senior Kaitlyn Mullarkey to head to first.
Freshman Devin Cantu opened up the game for Iowa, hitting a double to left that scoring Pratt and Mullarkey. Cantu ended the night 1-for-3 and 2 RBIs.
“I had two strikes, and you’re thinking close swinging,” Cantu said. “I had two strikes, and if it was close, swing hard. That’s my motto.”
Junior Angela Schmiederer and senior Claire Fritsch also reached base but couldn’t do much after junior Katy Taylor chopped the ball straight to third base for an easy out.
“It’s nice when we can get on the board early,” head coach Marla Looper said. “We attacked early and got the runs up. Devin had a long at-bat and finally squared one up, and they had a miscue out in the outfield, so we were able to score 2 runs. I wish we could have continued to build on that a little bit longer, but we got the 3 runs early. That was the difference in the ball game.”
After the first inning, Iowa did a good job of keeping Western Illinois quiet until the top of the fifth.
Hoelting and sophomore Hailey Duwa got on base, giving the Leathernecks a chnace to score.
Sophomore Ally Compton then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center allowing Hoelting to score and Duwa to go to third.
But the umpire called Duwa out, saying that she left second base too early. The crucial call ended Western Illinois’ only productive inning on offense.
The rest of the game was history — Starkenburg went back to retiring batters three at a time to secure the win for Iowa.
Now that the Hawkeyes got a much-needed win, they can focus on Ohio State.
“These midweek games are challenging,” Looper said. “They’re not easy. Our instate rivals are challenging, our border rivals are challenging, and these teams are not games that we take lightly on the schedule. They held in there, and it allows us to gain a little confidence to see what we really need to work on before we head into Ohio State.”