Hawkeye softball wins three in South Florida Series
Allison Doocy came through with more impressive performances on the mound to boost Iowa in another successful weekend.
Iowa’s Allison Doocy delivers a pitch during Iowa’s Big Ten tournament game against Ohio State at the Goodman Softball complex in Madison, WI. The Hawkeyes defeated the Buckeyes, 5-1. (Nick Rohlman/The Daily Iowan)
March 3, 2019
Iowa softball (11-8) was riding high on a six-game winning streak after winning all five games at the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic on Feb. 15-17.
The Hawkeyes followed that stellar weekend up with yet another winning stretch, picking up three more victories in the five-game South Florida Series.
Iowa’s first game of the weekend was on March 1 against Western Michigan, in which pitcher Allison Doocy set the tone early, forcing the first six batters to either strike out or ground out.
She finished the game for the Hawkeyes, holding the Broncos to just 1 run on 2 hits while fanning 5 and leading her team to a 6-1 victory.
The second game of the weekend held most of the excitement — Iowa faced Binghamton with Erin Riding in the circle for the Hawkeyes.
Everything clicked early, and Iowa took a 3-1 advantage heading to the bottom of the fifth. But the Bobcats put up 4 to go ahead by 2.
In the top of the seventh, seven-consecutive Hawkeye batters reached base, and Iowa took the lead, scoring 5 runs for an 8-5 edge.
“That seventh inning was fantastic,” head coach Renee Gillispie said in a release. “To see the girls rally with their rally caps on was big for us. We saw 1 through 9 hit for us in that inning, and we did the little things right. Everybody came up and was ready to play in that inning. It was a fantastic moment to see them come together and get that win for us.”
Day 2 for the Hawkeyes wasn’t so sweet as the first — they dropped back-to-back games, to Middle Tennessee and South Florida.
Iowa’s first game was against Middle Tennessee, and things looked good for the Black and Gold as DoniRae Mayhew got through two scoreless innings. But disaster struck for Iowa when the Blue Raiders tacked on 6 runs in the third.
Middle Tennessee rode that to an 8-6 victory.
The second game on March 2 had the same result with a different formula.
In this one against South Florida, Allison Doocy continued her early season dominance with a six-inning performance in which she gave up 1 run on 4 hits.
But Iowa struggled most at the plate. It only managed to put up 2 hits with no runs, while striking out seven times.
On March 3, the Hawkeyes put offense and pitching together against Ball State to explode in a 10-3 win.
Doocy was once again the catalyst for the Hawkeyes’ stellar pitching. She went all seven innings, allowing 8 hits with 10 strikeouts and 3 unearned runs.
It marked Doocy’s third win of the weekend and her ninth of the season to move her record to 9-3 and also helped bring her ERA down to a sizzling 1.19.
Senior Mallory Kilian was a killer on offense, going 7-for-16 on the weekend with 4 doubles, a homer, and 6 RBIs.
Her best performance came in the Hawkeyes’ final game, in which she went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles, 2 RBIs, and 3 runs.
