The Minnesota Gophers softball team had a successful road trip traveling to Iowa City this weekend, winning their last two out of three games to win the series against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Game One: Iowa 9, Gophers 8
Iowa scored the first runs of the game courtesy of a Kalena Burns two-run blast in the bottom of the first. Minnesota quadrupled Iowa’s score in the top of the second, bringing home a whopping eight runs on eight hits. Sara Kinch most notably hit a grand slam to put the Gophers up 4-2. RBI doubles by Chloe Evans and Sydney Strelow extended the Minnesota lead to 8-2. Iowa in the bottom half of the second added two more runs to make the game 8-4.
After a scoreless third inning, Emily Leavitt entered the game in the fourth, relieving Autumn Pease. Leavitt fanned the Hawkeyes in order but soon lost the Gophers’ 4-run lead as Iowa managed to score a couple more runs before Burns hit her second bomb in the bottom of the sixth, sending home three runs. Minnesota would attempt to come back in the top of the seventh with a walk taken by Strelow, followed by a MacKenzie Denson pinch-running for a stolen base at second. Yet, the Gophers could not bring Denson home and the Hawkeyes would take game one, winning 9-8. Leavitt would take the loss, falling to 7-7 on the season.
Game Two: Gophers 5, Iowa 2 (8 innings)
Minnesota was the first team to break the scoreless tie in the bottom of the second with two RBIs from a Megan Dray single and a Kinch double. This gave the Gophers a 2-0 lead. Iowa would come back and tie the game with runs scored in the third and the fifth. The game would go to extra innings off of a 2-2 draw at the conclusion of the seventh inning.
Dray and Kinch would continue to be a dynamic duo in extra innings, hitting back-to-back home runs for the Gophers to take a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning. Pease, relieving for Leavitt, would stand strong in the circle during the bottom of the eighth to even the series at one game apiece. Pease would earn the win, advancing to 10-8 on the season. Leavitt pitched 4.1 innings to start the game.
Game Three: Gophers 10, Iowa 2 (6 innings)
Evans had a dazzling day at the plate, hitting home 4 RBIs including a two-run home run in the top of the first inning. Leavitt also had a memorable performance on the circle, pitching 3 no-hit innings, sending back eight of Iowa’s nine hitters in the process. In the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Gophers leading 7-0, Iowa broke the no-hitter and loaded the bases on Leavitt. The Hawkeyes would score on a sacrifice-fly but that would be all as the Gophers would make a double play to escape the inning only giving up a single run.
The Gophers would continue to hammer the Iowa pitching staff as Dray and Kinch both doubled in the fifth inning, followed by Evans bringing home two runs in the sixth inning to end the ballgame in the sixth inning due to the NCAA’s run rule. Pease would relieve Leavitt of her duties in the fifth inning and gave up one earned run. Leavitt would take the win, as she would move on the 8-7 on the season.
The Minnesota Gophers will continue their road trip next weekend in Lincoln, Neb. against the league-leading Cornhuskers who have won 12 straight games. The first game of the three-game series will start at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, April 15.
