By Jacob Miller
Thanks to strong defense and pitching, the Iowa softball team won its final game in the Hawkeye Invitational. “It’s nice,” head coach Marla Looper said. “I think being at home has been a big help. We’ve been able to find a little bit of a rhythm, and a routine, and take care of the ball. When we do that, we have a good chance of success.”
The team wrapped up the Invitational with a 1-0 win against South Dakota. The defensive performance by the Hawkeyes was impressive and much of the credit can be given to redshirt senior Shayla Starkenburg.
Starkenburg and the Hawkeyes only allowed 3 hits and committed no errors on the day. In 7 innings, Starkenburg had seven strikeouts, topping her season-high mark. This is also the fourth time this season that she has had at least 5 strikeouts in a game.
“Shayla really buckled down towards the end of the game when we weren’t putting more runs up,” Looper said. “She allowed us to play easy defense and to take care of the ball ourselves. It’s nice to see that.”
Overall, batting was not strong for the Hawkeyes, but they did just enough to get the job done. Iowa was unable to get a hit until the third inning and only had 3 hits in the game.
Things got started off with junior Cheyenne Pratt laying down a beautiful bunt, and she later stole second. Pratt then scored thanks to an RBI single by freshman Lea Thompson to give the Hawkeyes a 1-0 lead. Thompson was 2-for-3 on the day, and her RBI ended up being the winning run. Scoring first continues to be the winning formula for the Hawkeyes.
“I knew I needed to get the ball in play and hopefully get it down, hit a line drive,” Thompson said. “I knew I just needed to put it in play especially for missing a sign for [Pratt] stealing second.”
Eight games this season have been decided by 1 run for the Hawkeyes, and it typically does not end in their favor, but South Dakota was unable to generate anything on offense all day.
Starkenburg was dominating in the circle and had her way with batters all game. Her variety of pitches caused trouble for batters, her most effective being her changeup. In the seventh inning alone, Starkenburg had 2 strikeouts and did not allow a hit.
The Hawkeyes went 4-1 on the weekend, and getting back into the win column will give them lots of momentum going into conference play next weekend.
“These last five games, even the one that we didn’t come out with a win, these games have built a lot of confidence for us going into conference,” Starkenburg said. “We knew that we had a great team all along even despite our preseason games, but I think even more now we feel really confident going into playing these Big Ten teams and we’re looking forward to it.”
