Hawkeyes Fall To Marshall

Tallahassee, Fla. - The University of Iowa softball fell to Marshall, 6-3, in the final contest of the JoAnne Graf Classic on Sunday. The Hawkeyes finished their opening weekend with a 3-2 record and 28 total runs scored over the five games.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hawkeyes struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Tory Bennett led off the inning with a double and was brought in by Devin Simon with a double of her own. The score remained 1-0 until the top of the fourth when The Herd tied the contest with a solo home run.

Iowa answered in the bottom frame when Mckenzie Leitgen recorded a pinch-hit RBI double on the first pitch to left field. Leitgen later crossed home plate on a pinch-hit RBI single from Anna Streff. 

Marshall took the lead with a four-run fifth inning. The Herd had a double and a home-run in back-to-back at-bats to even the contest. Marshall added three more extra-base hits to make the score 5-3. 

The Herd collected an insurance run in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly. The Hawkeyes threatened in the bottom of the seventh getting the tying runner to the plate, but Marshall got the final out. 

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH STACY MAY-JOHNSON
“We had opportunities to score runs, we just left a lot of runners in scoring position. We got outside of ourselves in the big moments. Going forward we need to be better defensively and, collectively, we need to be better prepared for those tough moments in the game and give ourselves a shot to win games.”

NOTABLES:

- Streff, Leitgen and Simon each recorded an RBI. 

- Sereyah Neiss dealt for 4.0 innings, the longest Hawkeye outing of the weekend.

- Leah McAnally finished the weekend with seven RBIs.

- Avery Sapp finished the weekend with seven strikeouts in 10 innings pitched.

- Iowa batted .322 on the weekend.

UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes travel to Macon, Georgia, for the MUSB Invitational I. They will play Army at 11:30 am (CT) and Mercer at 4:30 pm (CT) on Friday.