Junior third baseman Audrey Bickel crushed a single past Iowa’s first baseman, sending junior first baseman Taylor Rager home to score the seventh and final point needed for a Ball State (13-10) victory.
“Whenever they scored runs, we answered right away,” coach Craig Nicholson said.
The teams stayed toe-to-toe for the majority of the game as Iowa took advantage of Ball State errors made in the field.
Despite falling 1-3 in the top of the third, Ball State answered with three runs to take back the lead in the bottom of the frame.
The Cardinals maintained the lead and avoided errors to hold the Hawkeyes to five points in the final inning.
“We are having much better at bats than we were having a couple weeks ago,” Nicholson said. “We are a little bit more relaxed in situations.”
The Cardinals recorded seven RBI throughout the contest.
They also chipped in a double, raising the team total on the season to 45.
“We trust what our offense is capable of doing,” Nicholson said.
His team has learned to be patient and relaxed at the plate and remember that there are good hitters throughout the lineup if other players are not hitting well.
The team was unable to make plays and score runs at crucial times against Wisconsin on Saturday, though the team corrected those errors during Monday’s game.
“They understand that if they make a mistake, we are likely going to make them pay for it,” Nicholson said.
Freshman pitcher Kelsey Schifferdecker improved her personal record to 6-1 on the season and brought home the win in the circle. She held the Hawkeyes to five hits and four runs with two strikeouts before coming off the field in the fifth inning.
Freshman Nicole Steinbach finished the game and earned her second save of the season. She finished out the game giving up just one hit and one run with two strikeouts in the last three innings.
The freshmen pitchers have had an accelerated learning experience thanks to the amount of innings they have been throwing, Nicholson said.
“We just need to continue to do what we are doing,” he said. “Continue to have quality at bats, continue to put pressure on people, continue to grow as a team.”
