IU loses tough weekend series to Iowa on the road

The Indiana Hoosiers (24-25, 8-10) opened a Big Ten series against Iowa Hawkeyes (23-24, 12-6) on Saturday with a thrilling nine-inning, 1-0 win.

However, the Hoosiers were not able to keep up the pace later in the day.

The rest of the weekend ended with the Hoosiers being shut out through 12 innings of play, 4-0 in the second game and 10-0 in the third.

In game one, the Hoosiers jumped out early, hitting the ball well. Indiana managed to out-hit Iowa 9-7 in the game. Yet this would be the last game in which Iowa pitching would allow that to happen.

Iowa pitcher Kayla Massey went the distance in Saturday’s first game, allowing nine hits and gaining six strikeouts. She returned for the tiebreaker Sunday and improved to allowing just two Hoosier hits.

Hoosier hitting struggled following the win Saturday. Junior Amanda Wagner, the Hoosier power-hitter this season, did not record a hit until the finale Sunday. She was walked twice the entire weekend.

Other players stepped up in the opening game of the weekend. Junior walk-on Kelsey Brannon continued to come in when needed. She went 4-for-4 in the win and grabbed the game-winning RBI in the ninth.

Senior Cassie Gogreve found her groove again. The catcher went 2-for-3 with three assists. Gogreve stepped up on the defensive end when the Hoosiers needed her, grabbing six putouts to hold the Hawkeyes to a shutout.

In game two, the outcome went the same direction as the first-game nail-biter  but the Hawkeyes broke away in the bottom of the fifth with a four-run burst against freshman pitcher Lora Olson. Freshman Miranda Tamayo came in to relieve Olson and kept the Hawkeyes to four runs.

Freshman Shannon Cawley and Gogreve led the Hoosiers with two singles in the second but could not reach the plate.

In the tiebreaker Sunday, the Hoosiers were able to grab only two runs.

The Hawkeyes came out swinging against Murphy in the circle. After giving up three runs in the first, Wagner and freshman Bri Meyer reached base on singles in the second. Gogreve advanced them both to scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but the Hoosiers were not able to drive in their teammates in the inning.

The Hawkeyes went on the offensive again in the third, adding four more runs. The fourth inning was no different while the Hawkeyes broke away powerfully with three more runs to finish the game 10-0.

The Hoosiers will get their first midweek rest in three weeks. The Hoosiers return to action Saturday at IU Softball Field against a Nebraska team that is second in the Big Ten at 12-5.