The Iowa softball team traveled across state lines on Tuesday to square off in a doubleheader against a fierce Nebraska Cornhusker squad.

Iowa lost the first game 1-0 in extra innings and then fell 7-6 in another close game to the Cornhuskers. In seven of Iowa’s last 11 losses, the game has been decided by two runs or less.

Nebraska is now 10-6 in Big Ten play this season, while Iowa is 4-13 in conference  and 16-23 overall. The Hawkeyes have a short turnaround with a three-game series against Minnesota starting on Friday at 5 p.m.

Game one vs. Nebraska

In game one, the Hawkeyes dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker in extra innings. Nebraska’s Bella Bacon performed in crunch time by hitting an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure the win for the Cornhuskers.

Jalen Adams got the start in the circle for Iowa and went 7.2 innings, recording one strikeout, allowing six hits, and walking three Cornhuskers. Adams moves to 9-11 on the season.

Iowa was average at the plate and recorded six hits. Tory Bennett and Rylie Moss both recorded multi-hit games with two singles.

Iowa struggled to bring in runners on base in game one, with nine Hawkeyes left on base.

Game two vs. Nebraska 

The second game resembled the closeness of the first game.

Game two was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when the Cornhuskers scored four runs.

Iowa responded in the fourth inning with a run of its own and followed up in the top of the fifth inning with an additional two runs. The Cornhuskers added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth inning to move the score to 5-3.

Sammy Diaz, Grace Banes, and Moss all recorded multi-hit games. Banes gave the Hawkeyes their first lead of the night by ripping a no doubt three-run home run across the left-field wall in the top of the seventh inning.

Adams returned to finish out the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs and one runner on base, Nebraska responded with another walk-off, this time a home run off the bat of Ava Bredwell to win 7-6.

The Cornhuskers recorded a total of nine team hits, five runs, and one error defensively. Nebraska now sits in fourth place in the Big Ten.

Much like the first game of the day, Iowa continued to struggle to bring runners in from scoring position. The Hawkeyes left eight total runners on base.

Iowa finished game two with 12 hits, three runs, and two errors defensively.