Iowa softball head coach Marla Looper showed that the team team can challenge any team in the nation. But a challenge isn’t a win.

Behind strong pitching performances, Iowa softball won three but dropped two games this past weekend in College Station, Texas.

The weekend started with slow offense. The Hawkeyes piled on all of 2 runs against Tulsa in the opener on Feb. 16 to win, 2-1. Sophomore ace Allison Doocy pitched a 2-hitter against the Golden Hurricanes while punching out 10 batters.

“Doocy went out there and had a really nice game against Tulsa,” Looper said in a release. “She found her groove and moved the ball well. She had good command of the zone and of the plate. When you do that, you give yourself a good opportunity to win a ball game. The team as a whole played good, solid defense in the first game.”

Iowa’s bats did not light up behind the pitching performance. Iowa notched 7 hits but could only string together the 2 runs.

That afternoon, Iowa dropped a game with Butler. The Bulldogs scored 4 runs in the first inning and blanked the Hawkeye offense to secure the win. Iowa was held to 3 hits in the shutout.

Iowa came back against Butler on Feb. 17 and pounded the Bulldogs for 8 runs. The slow offense turned around and put up 3 runs in the first inning, 3 more in the second, and 2 in the fifth behind 8 hits.

Junior Erin Riding held the Bulldogs to 3 hits and didn’t allow a walk to fuel Iowa’s win. The Hawkeye defense performed well and did not commit an error.

But Iowa’s most promising performance could have been its second loss of the weekend. Against Texas A&M, the sixth-ranked softball program in the nation, Iowa suffered a 3-2 loss.

Iowa took the lead in the top of the third behind a Devin Cantu single to score [FIRST NAME] Pratt, but Texas A&M responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning. Iowa added another in the fifth to go up, 2-1, but the Aggies plated a runner in the sixth inning and homered in the seventh to seal the victory.

Doocy scattered 8 hits and 2 walks to hold the Aggies to 2 earned runs. A passed ball in the third was the difference between extra innings and an Aggie win.

“Texas A&M is a great ball club,” Looper said in a release. “We can step on the field with anyone in the country. I’m a firm believer in that, and our players are firm believers in that. Today, we needed to lay off of pitches. We started swinging at balls outside of the zone, and that hurt us. Doocy was confident on the mound. She knew she was facing a powerful offense, and she did a nice job hitting spots, mixing locations, and commanding the zone. Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of offensive opportunities like we should have. People might say this was a moral victory for us, but I don’t believe in those. I believe in taking care of what we need to take care of.”

Iowa punctuated its weekend trip to Texas with an 11-3 victory over Tulsa. The Hawkeye bats heated up to notch 12 hits, and pitcher Lauren Shaw held Tulsa to 3. Four Iowa errors, on the other hand, brought in 3 runs, only one of which earned.