Feb. 25, 2012
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PALM SPRINGS, Calif. —The University of Iowa softball team dropped its second straight extra-inning game, finishing on the wrong end of a 1-0 decision to Cal State Northridge in eight innings on Saturday at the Cathedral City Classic.
“I am a little disappointed in our efforts this evening,” said UI head coach Marla Looper. “We had 12 runners left on base, missed signals, squeezed when it wasn’t called, ran when we didn’t call a squeeze. We had a lot of controllables that we didn’t take control of.”
The victory was the Matadors first of the season (1-12), while the Hawkeyes fall to 7-6 overall.
Sophomore Kayla Massey was solid in the defeat, scattering five hits in the complete game. She allowed one unearned run, while finishing the game with seven strikeouts to zero walks.
After battling to a scoreless tie through seven innings, the Matadors pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning. CSUN shortstop Leann Lopez was placed at second base to start the frame before advancing to third base on Samantha Sloniker’s sacrifice bunt. Designated player Madeline Sale then hit the first pitch she saw to centerfield for the sacrifice fly to take the 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, senior Liz Watkins was placed at second base for the Hawkeyes. After junior Bradi Wall failed to get down the sacrifice bunt, she fouled out to left field for the first out before Massey sacrificed Watkins to third with two outs.
Iowa, however, couldn’t push the game-tying run across the plate, as Brianna Luna strike out swinging to end the game.
The Hawkeyes missed golden opportunities offensively throughout the game. Iowa left runners on base in every inning from the second through the eighth inning, including the bases loaded in the fourth. The team left 12 runners stranded in the game.
Senior Katie Keim tallied two of Iowa’s five hits in the contest, finishing 2-for-4 on the night. Matador pitcher Mia Pagano posted the complete game shutout, striking out six Hawkeyes in eight innings of work for her first victory of the season.
Iowa (7-6) returns to action Sunday morning at 11 a.m. (CT) against LIU Brooklyn.
| CSUN 1, Iowa 0 (8 innings) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
| CSUN (1-12) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Iowa (7-6) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Game Decision | |||||||||||
| W: Mia Pagano (CSUN) 1-5 | |||||||||||
| L: Kayla Massey (IOWA) 4-3 | |||||||||||