May 2, 2009
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- SoftBlog
ANN ARBOR, MI – The 25th-ranked University of Iowa softball team dropped a close game at No. 8 Michigan Saturday night, 2-1. Iowa took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, but a two-run Michigan effort in the inning gave the Wolverines the win. Iowa drops to 38-13 overall and 9-6 in the Big Ten, while Michigan improves to 37-9 overall and 13-2 in conference action.
“I thought we played very hard today,” Head Coach Gayle Blevins said. “We made a lot of great plays, defensively, but just had a tough fifth inning. We need to clean some things up and come out with the same effort and intensity tomorrow afternoon.”
Saturday’s contest between two of the best pitchers in the Big Ten lived up to the hype. Iowa senior Brittany Weil took the tough loss, allowing just two earned runs while scattering just five hits with five strikeouts. Weil retired eight of the nine batters between the second and fourth innings, and recorded four of her five K’s over the stretch.
Michigan’s Nikki Nemitz gave up one earned run on four Hawkeye hits with 11 strikeouts.
Sophomore Chelsey Carmody gave Iowa a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, blasting her first home run of the season. With two outs in the inning, Carmody drove a pitch that cleared the right field fence for her second-career round-tripper.
Michigan erased Iowa’s lead in the bottom of the fifth, taking a 2-1 advantage. Amanda Chidester started the inning with a single, followed by a double by Maggie Viefhaus, and a Nikki Nemitz walk loaded the bases. Dorian Shaw drove in the first two Michigan runs with a bloop single to left, just over the outstretched glove of senior Erin Riemersma at shortstop.
Iowa kept things close thanks to freshman catcher Liz Watkins, who threw out two runners on steal attempts. Watkins threw a bullet down to second in the first inning to get Iowa out of the frame, and did the same in the third.
Iowa and Michigan will wrap up the series Sunday, with the first pitch at noon (CT).