Weil Pushes Iowa Past Wisconsin, 2-0

April 19, 2008

Box Score

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IOWA CITY – Junior Brittany Weil struck out a season-high 12 batters as the No. 25 University of Iowa softball team defeated Wisconsin, 2-0, in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader. Iowa moves to 30-13 overall and 8-3 in Big Ten play.

Weil tossed a complete game, one-hit shutout and walked only one batter. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing the lone hit of the contest. The Garden Grove, CA, native struck out at least one batter in six of the seven innings. She walked her only batter of the game in the second, but struck out all three batters in the frame. Weil struck out two batters in the first, third, fourth and seventh innings.

Iowa broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth inning. Senior Summer Downs drew a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Katie Brown. Senior Emily Nichols then roped an RBI double that rolled to the fence in left-center field, allowing Downs to score easily from second place.

The Hawkeyes escaped a jam in the top of the sixth with two outstanding defensive plays. Weil had a no-hitter broken up after Katie Soderberg started the inning with a triple to the right field fence. Next up was Jennifer Krueger, who fouled a pitch to the backstop and Nichols slid on her knees to make a tough catch behind the plate for the first out of the inning. After Weil hit Joey Daniels to put runners on first and third, Theresa Boruta hit a lazy pop fly in the five-six hole and junior Erin Riemersma shuffled over to make the catch. She then fired off her back foot to Brown at first to catch Daniels off the bag for the inning-ending double play.

Junior Colleen McGlaughlin gave the Hawkeyes an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run over the right field fence.

Game two of Saturday’s twin-bill will begin at approximately 2 p.m.