By Jacob Miller
After going up against the most dominant team in the Big Ten in Minnesota, the Iowa softball team will face another top Big Ten team in Ohio State this weekend.Iowa is coming off a midweek 3-1 win against Western Illinois and will try to carry that momentum into the weekend series.
“I think coming off of the Minnesota weekend, it is really good to get a win for our team,” senior Shayla Starkenburg said. “It just gets us upbeat again and get some good practices in before we head over to Ohio State, but I think it is definitely a positive thing.”
Iowa was unsuccessful against the best team in the Big Ten last weekend, but it will have a chance to redeem itself against another tough Big Ten opponent. Ohio State has been one of the more dominant teams in the conference, but recently, it has struggled. The Buckeyes were once ranked in the Top 25 in the nation but have since fallen out of the ranking.
If the Hawkeyes go back on the road and bring a lot of energy into the weekend matchup, they could make some noise in Columbus.
“I think it pumps us up because getting a dub here at home and then being able to take all of that energy and everything to the next game, so I think it is a good thing,” freshman Devin Cantu said.
In the Buckeyes’ last seven games, they have a record of 4-3. After a strong start to the season, Ohio State has begun to struggle at an inopportune time. Its most recent problems were at the hands of Michigan State.
The Buckeyes, on the road, lost two out of the three games in its series against the Spartans, who at that point had done nothing to prove themselves and have had little success in conference play.
Iowa will need to take advantage of Ohio State’s lack of momentum and use its own.
“It was nice to get the outcome, the ‘W,’ but there are still some things that we got to get better at to be able to face the Buckeyes,” Iowa head coach Marla Looper said.
The area in which the Hawkeyes could still improve in is hitting. It has been that way all season, but it is most apparent against top opponents. In its matchup against Minnesota, Iowa scored no runs and had only 9 hits in the series. The Gophers had more than double that number.
This was also apparent in the Hawkeyes’ recent victory over the Leathernecks. Iowa had 6 hits in the game, which for most of the season has worked for the team, but 4 of those hits came in the first inning; the rest of the game they were nearly silent.
The Hawkeyes must have a better weekend in the batter’s box if they are going to be able to contend against Ohio State.
