In her last ever Friday start at Bob Pearl Field, Iowa pitcher Allison Doocy had another one of her great performances in Iowa’s 3-1 win over Illinois.

The Ankeny, Iowa, native threw all seven innings and gave up her one run on three hits. She walked two batters, and she relied heavily on her defense as she only threw one strikeout in her 11th win of the season.

“Defense was ready to go,” Doocy said. “They were making the plays. Any ball that was hit, I was confident that the defense was going to take care of it and get the out. Some awesome plays out there.”

The Hawkeyes had zero errors in the game, and Doocy gave up no hits in her first 3.1 innings of work.

Head coach Renee Gillispie said after the Doocy’s start against Wisconsin on April 9, in which she pitched two innings and gave up five runs, they talked about what she wanted from her senior year. Doocy said she wanted to be that strikeout pitcher again.

Since then, there’s only been one start when she gave up more than two runs, and she had a five-inning no-hitter at Rutgers on May 2.

“So she just worked hard and has that focus,” Gillispie said. “A lot of determination on her part to go out there and just take of business, and you’re seeing that. I mean she has so much confidence on the mound right now. That’s the only turnaround she’s really had in the past couple weeks.”

On the offensive side, the Hawkeyes scored their first run of the game in the first inning after center fielder Brylee Klosterman was caught in a run down between second and third base and was hit on the helmet by a throw. With the ball going out of play, she was awarded home plate.

In the third inning with one out and second baseman Aralee Bogar on third, left fielder Riley Sheehy hit a triple to center field to score Bogar.

“It felt good off my bat,” Sheehy said. “I saw that it didn’t go out, but it was still good to put the ball in play and got an RBI from it, which was all I was trying to do. I was really trying to just put the ball in play in that situation.”

Runner in scoring position and Sheehy plays pepper with the centerfield wall. pic.twitter.com/ZZUUPltkGD

— Iowa Softball (@iowasoftball) May 15, 2021

The ball almost left the park, which caused her teammates to make some funny comments.

“We do jumps during our lifts and there was a lot of jump higher or do one more squat or pushup after that,” Sheehy said. “Just your normal heckling.”

Designated player Denali Loecker hit a sacrifice fly on the next at bat to score Sheehy.

The Hawkeyes (24-17) have three more games left in their final regular season series, with a doubleheader Saturday starting at 1 p.m. Though they were not listed by D1Softball on May 12 as one of the 64 teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament, the Hawkeyes are still trying to finish the season on a high note to make the selection committee consider them. The field will be announced Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

“I love what we’re doing here,” Doocy said. “We’re trying to make history and make it back to the regional tournament and we want to put in the hands of the committee to make the decision of whether or not we’re going, but we want to make it an easier decision for them. We’d like to be in a more comfortable position, but I also think we have the motivation, and it’s fun being head-to-head with another team we’re sitting right at in the rankings with.

“So it’s been awesome, and we’ve got a lot on the line, and we’re ready to fight every day.”