The Iowa softball team struggled defensively Saturday as the Hawkeyes committed four errors against Nebraska in a 4-0 loss at Pearl Field.

Senior Lauren Shaw, the left-handed starting pitcher, threw for all seven innings and gave up all four runs. Yet only two of those were considered earned because of the errors the Hawkeyes made.

“We just weren’t aggressive,” head coach Renee Gillispie said. “We were sitting back, waiting on the ball, and the ball was playing us. We talked a lot about that, especially on our fielding. We got to stay aggressive on every ground ball.”

The Hawkeyes second error of the game was a big part of a three-run fourth inning for the Cornhuskers. After the Cornhuskers scored their first run of the game in that inning and with two outs, freshman third baseman Sammy Diaz mishandled a ground ball, allowing the batter to reach first base and the runner to advance to second.

Nebraska got a single that led to an RBI in its next at bat. In the following at bat, freshman shortstop Grace Banes committed an error that resulted in a run.

Iowa’s first error came in the third when Banes couldn’t correctly field a ground ball, but the Hawkeyes escaped that inning by leaving two runners on base.

After the Cornhuskers got a single to start the fifth, Gillispie decided to change her whole infield around. Freshman Denali Loecker, who was playing at first base, became the designated player as she switched positions with sophomore Kalena Burns. Amber DeSena, a freshman, came in as the second baseman for senior Aralee Bogar.

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Senior Avery Guy replaced Banes, while senior Ashley Hamilton filled in for Diaz.

DeSena committed an error in the fifth but that led to no runs.

“It’s just frustrating to watch that our defense can’t make basic plays, and so we’re going to make those changes we see them fit,” Gillispie said. “I thought [Hamilton] did a good job at third base, she was solid. Avery did a great job. Avery is one of our best defensive players out there, she just struggles at the plate, so that’s really why she’s not playing defense, but she did a great job at shortstop getting those outs for us.”

Gillispie said DeSena could’ve had a better day than what she had, but that she thought she had to make those defensive switches at that time.

The Hawkeyes had been committing less than an error per game before Saturday, but that number went over one after the game.

Shaw gave up nine hits in the loss, but only two of them were extra base hits, which were both doubles. She had zero walks and five strikeouts. Her ERA on the season rounds up to 2.02.

“I thought she did a good job,” Gillispie said. “A lot of that was they were setting on her screwball, and her screwball is a little bit slower than her other pitches, and I think they were capitalizing whenever she was throwing that. It should have been a little more off the plate than it was, but they did a great job of making adjustments and looking for that pitch.”

Iowa (21-17) will play against Nebraska (21-17) Sunday at noon in a doubleheader to close out the series. The doubleheader was originally scheduled for Saturday but was moved to Sunday because of the weather forecast. Each team has won a game in the series.