Hawkeyes Fall to No. 19 Kentucky

LEESBURG, Florida– The University of Iowa softball team was defeated by No. 19 Kentucky, 11-3, in five innings, on Saturday morning at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Complex.

The Hawkeyes were able to get runners on the basepath but left eight stranded while plating three runs.

Sophomore Grace Banes notched two RBIs for the Hawkeyes while junior Kalena Burns was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Freshman Tristin Doster was 2-for-3 with a double for Iowa.

Freshman Devyn Greer made her debut in the circle for the Hawkeyes throwing 3.1 innings.

Sophomore Denali Loecker and senior Breanna Vasquez pitched 1.2 combined innings in relief.

HOW IT HAPPENED   

Kentucky got on the board in the first inning after a walk and a sacrifice bunt set up an RBI single. The Wildcats added to their lead with a four-run second inning. A two-run three-hit fourth inning pushed the Kentucky lead to seven.

The Hawkeyes pushed across three runs in bottom of the fourth inning. Senior Riley Sheehy drew a walk and sophomore Brylee Klosterman moved her to third on a double. Banes singled to right field scoring both runners. Burns doubled to centerfield to plate Banes for the Hawkeyes.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH RENEE GILLISPIE  

“Leaving eight runners on the bases with an opportunity to score, that is a big piece of our puzzle. We saw that yesterday; we just didn’t get that clutch hitting today. Pitching we know we have to improve. We can’t give them freebies on the bases and the walks hurt us today.”

With everybody we need to be a little hungrier, go after the team. Really thinking about how we can attack them. Today we didn’t have so much of that attack mode. Some of the things we did were good. We had some good hits, and good opportunities walking when we needed to. We had some good at-bats, and some at-bats where we need to get better. Tomorrow is again really focusing on what we can do to improve. A piece of that is being hungry, getting out there and going after these teams. It will be early so how do we get up, and how do we get focused, be ready to go at first pitch.”

NOTABLES    

  • Doster moved to 5-for-11 on the weekend hitting .455 and slugging .818 with five RBIs
  • The Hawkeyes are 1-1 in matchups against ranked opponents this season
  • Six freshmen have now seen the field for Iowa

UP NEXT     

The Hawkeyes take on Pittsburgh at 8 a.m. (CT) on Sunday at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Complex in Leesburg, Florida.