The Iowa softball team opened the exhibition season with a 10-6, 10-inning victory over Kirkwood on Sept. 14.

The game got off to a scary start for the Hawkeyes when starting pitcher — and 2017 ace — Allison Doocy was hit by a line drive to end the first inning.

Luckily for Doocy, the offense gave her plenty of time to recover for the second inning.

Sophomore left fielder Aralee Bogar led off the bottom of the first with a single, then collected her first stolen base of the fall. With two on and one out, 2017 offensive weapon first baseman Mallory Kilian capitalized with a double off the left-center wall.

The scoring didn’t stop there. Kilian scored on a throwing error, pushing the score to 3-0 heading into the top of the second.

The Hawkeyes upped the ante in the bottom of the third, ringing up 6 runs on 7 hits and a walk, all coming with two outs.

Doocy ended the first part of her day giving up 0 runs in two innings.

Kirkwood put together some offense in the top of the fifth with Hawkey Erin in the pitching circle. The Eagles’ first run scored on a Hawkeye error, with another following on a hit up the middle, and the offense didn’t stop there.

Going into the bottom of the fifth, the Iowa lead was cut to 9-6.

The Hawkeye’s started to look like their old selves in the bottom of the fifth, losing a scoring opportunity with two outs.

The scoring lapsed for both teams until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Iowa plated another to make the score 10-6. The teams played 10 innings in the matchup.

The Hawkeyes collected 18 hits in the contest but committed 2 errors.