By Ricardo Ascencio | [email protected]

The Iowa softball Hawkeyes had their plate full Tuesday when they faced No. 18 Missouri in a double-header at Pearl Field.

Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, they were not able to capitalize on home-field advantage and they dropped both games to Missouri, 7-1 and 11-4.

“I think the challenging takeaway is you can’t give a team like that opportunities, and we gave them a lot of opportunities,” Iowa head coach Marla Looper said. “We made better adjustments in the second game and got good hits off some quality pitching.”

The Hawkeyes started off the double-header slowly; they were only able to muster 1 run on 3 hits throughout the first game.

Missouri starting pitcher Tori Finucane pitched three innings, allowing only 2 hits and a single earned run. Cheyenne Baxter finished things off for the Tigers, pitching four scoreless innings.

“[Finucane] is their No. 2 pitcher, and she does a good job at mixing speeds, and that’s her best skill,” Looper said. “Until we get good at dealing with off-speed pitching, then we will continue to struggle a little bit.”

While Missouri’s pitching staff was able to hold down the fort, Iowa’s pitching was unable to carry the load. Starting pitcher Erin Riding gave up 5 earned runs in five innings, including a home run to Missouri second baseman Kolby Romaine.

The runs did not stop; Missouri was able to tack on 2 runs in the sixth inning to ring its tally up to 7.

“You play your first game as best as you can, and then you wipe that game, and then start with a new mentality to get the job done,” Hawkeye junior Kaitlyn Mullarkey said.

While the Hawkeyes were able to improve from their first game, they were unable to make the necessary adjustments to split the double-header.

In the second game, junior Elizabeth Wiegand got that start in the circle, but despite the change of pitching, the Tiger hit parade did not falter. Wiegand gave up 7 earned runs in just 5.1 innings of work.

Iowa was able to score 4 runs on hits thanks to a fourth inning that saw a standup double by catcher Holly Hoffman, a single by right fielder Angela Schmiederer, and a fielding error by Missouri first baseman Chloe Rathburn. The error helped score Hoffman and Schmiederer.

The improved offense, however, was not enough to overcome Missouri’s 11-run output.

“Their pitching was pretty decent today. I thought I swung a majority of time at good pitches, but it wasn’t the outcome that I wanted,” said junior Claire Fritsch. “There were some fundamental errors that happened today, and there were a lot of them today; that made things more difficult.”

With the two-game skid, the Hawkeyes fell to 12-30; they will try to rebound at Pearl Field on Friday to face Penn State in a three-game series.

The Hawkeyes were supposed to play Iowa State tonight in Ames, but the game has been postponed because of predicted to rain. It is rescheduled for April 27 with first-pitch yet to be determined.

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