IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa softball team defeated Northwestern, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at Bob Pearl Field.
Senior Allison Doocy got the start for the Hawkeyes and picked up her sixth win of the season. Senior Lauren Shaw pitched three scoreless innings in relief to get her first career save.
“We took a lot of little things that we did right, and that we could do better from the last two games and finetuned them,” said Shaw. “Today I really worked on attacking the umpire’s zone. Adjusting and attacking the batters and staying on the attack. We did that today, so we got the win.”
Freshman Denali Loecker went 2-for-3 on the day to improve her batting average to .346 on the year.
Freshman Lindy Milkowski hit a grand slam in the first inning to give the Hawkeyes a lead they would never relinquish.
“I think that we just came back, and we were thinking we are going to ‘see the ball and hit the ball’,” said Milkowski. “I think we were trying too hard, making it too hard on ourselves. A lot of the times I feel like we were getting ourselves out. Today we were seeing good pitches, we were seeing the ball really well and we were just timing it up.”
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hawkeyes got things rolling with a big first inning. Riley Sheehy singled up the middle and Loecker moved her over with a single of her own. Marissa Peek walked to set the table for Milkowksi who homered to bring them all home. Northwestern responded in the second with a solo shot to center. In the third inning the Hawkeyes got a run after Nia Carter singled and Sammy Diaz hit her home with a single.
Northwestern scored a run after a hit batter, an error and a sacrifice fly. Northwestern had the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh, but Shaw got a strikeout to nail the save.
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH RENEE GILLISPIE
“Our number one thing today was momentum, keeping the momentum on our side. If we saw that momentum or energy was shifting, we wanted to make sure we brought it back on our side. The bench just kept it in, any time we saw a lull in the momentum the bench stepped up and did a great job.”
NOTABLES
- All nine Hawkeye batters reached base safely in today’s contest.
- The Hawkeyes are now 11-4 when scoring three of more runs in a game.
- Denali Loecker was 7-for-13 on the weekend and had a batting average of .538.
- Lindy Milkowski hit her first career grand slam, and second home run of the season.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes travel to Minneapolis for a four-game series against the Gophers on April 23-25.
