Iowa State may be one of the hottest teams on the softball field in the Big 12 Conference at the moment. The reasoning comes after lowa State won their fifth straight game after a 6-5, 8-inning win over in-state rival Drake on Wednesday. The win was also No. 20 on the season for lowa State. The Cyclones became the ninth team in the 11-team Big 12 Conference to get their 20th win on the season. BYU and Houston are the only two Big 12 teams to now have 20 overall wins at this point of the season.
Iowa
State improved to 20-10 overall and are 3-3 in the Big 12 while Drake fell to 7-19 overall. Drake is 1-5 in six Missouri Valley Conference games. The Bulldogs faced their second Big 12 team of the season. Drake lost a pair of games to Arizona at the Bear Down Fiesta Tournament in Tucson, Arizona back in mid-February. The Bulldogs also lost to SEC school Missouri in Columbia. The two teams will play again on Wednesday, April 29 in Des Moines.
Iowa State led 2-1 after the first inning. Drake’s Pearson Hall gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning with a solo home run. Iowa State scored twice on a Karlee Ford RBI single scoring two runs.
The Bulldogs scored three runs in the top of the second inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Bulldogs capitalized with the bases loaded. Emily Veschak was hit by a pitch to score a run and get an RBI. The next batter, Frankie Rita, hit into a fielder’s choice, scoring a second run to give Drake a 3-2 lead. The final run of the inning came on a RBI single by Kiley Kindelspire to score Natalee Watts. That lead stood until the Cyclones scored twice in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the game at 4-4. That score would stay the same after seven innings sending the game to extra innings. In the top of the eighth, Drake scored what they thought was possibly the winning run to take a 5-4 lead.
Drake started the eighth inning in a big way as Tatum Aragon put the Bulldogs in a good spot with a leadoff double, but after she pinch ran for the Bulldogs lost the runner in scoring position when Husak reached on a fielder’s choice and the pinch runner was tagged out trying to advance to third. Husak, however, gave Drake another opportunity with a runner in scoring position as she was moved up to second following a base knock by Watts.
Following Watts’ single, Cassidy Gall was called in to pinch hit. With two outs, Gall worked the count to 2-2 and got just enough of the next pitch to hit a slow rolling grounder to second base making it a tough play for the ISU infielder. Gall raced down the base path and just beat out the throw to first and with some heads-up base running from Husak the freshman scored all the way from second with the focus on the play at first, which would have ended the inning.
Iowa State challenged the ruling on Gall’s play at first, but the call was upheld and the Bulldogs were back in front, 5-4. The inning then ended on the following at-bat with a force out at second base.
In the bottom of the eighth, Drake found itself in another tight spot with lowa State producing a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs following a walk, a single, and a wild pitch. Sheets did her best to bounce back with a strikeout, but another walk loaded the bases.
Iowa State then tied the game on a sacrifice fly in foul territory, which made way for Ford, who already drove in two runs earlier, to end the game with a base hit as the runners advanced to second and third on the sac fly. Two pitches later, the game was over as Ford smacked a hit off the wall in deep left center that Watts couldn’t quite catch up to despite her best efforts charging from her center field position.
Iowa State started Olivia Palumbo who went two innings before being lifted for a relief pitcher. Palumbo gave up four runs on three hits and struck out two Drake batters. She faced 10 batters and she needed 41 pitches. Jaiden Ralston pitched the next three innings and shut the Bulldog offense down, giving up one-hit and no runs. Like Palumbo, she faced 10 batters and she needed 41 pitches. Lauren Schurman would take the win after finishing the game with three innings of work where she gave up five hits and one earned run. She struck out two batters and faced 13 batters.
Each team had nine hits in the game. Iowa State was led by Karlee Ford and Reagan Bartholomew with two hits each. Ford drove in three runs while Sydney Malott had 2 RBI’s. Kadence Shepherd also had a hit and RBI. Other Cyclone hits were from Jessie Clemons, Tatum Johnson and McKenna Andrews.
Three Bulldogs had multi-hit games. Kiley Kindelspire, Tatum Aragon,I and Natalee Watts all had two hits for Drake. Five different Bulldogs had an RBI in the game. Drake starting pitcher Jayme Scheck only went two-thirds innings after giving up two runs on two hits as she used 32 pitches and walked three batters. Peyton Driscoll pitched four innings in relief and gave up the same two runs and walked three batters and used 73 pitches.
Ashlynn Sheets took the loss after failing to close out the game. Sheets pitched three innings, gave up a pair of runs and walked three. She used 50 pitches.
Drake has now lost three straight to lowa State.
