Iowa softball to Big Ten finals

Staff report | Sunday, May 11, 2008

EVANSTON, Ill. — The Iowa softball team slugged its way into today’s championship game at the Big Ten Tournament with a pair of lopsided wins Friday.

The Hawkeyes followed a 9-1 victory over Illinois with a 13-4 semifinal win over Michigan State to reach the 40-win plateau for the season and reach the noon final against top-seeded Northwestern.

“Our bats are really rolling right now,” Iowa coach Gayle Blevins said. “We are just going to let them play and get out of the way. The team is playing with great purpose and playing together.”

The Hawkeyes (40-17) clubbed 11 hits in their semifinal win over the Spartans, busting the game open with a seven-run second inning that opened with a double by Quinn Morelock and a single by Lindsey Digmann.

Iowa managed one other hit in the inning but scored four runs off a pair

of errors by the Spartans

(27-29).

The five-inning win followed a similar effort in a 9-1 win over the Illini on Friday morning.

After Illinois opened a 1-0 lead in the top half of the first inning, the Hawkeyes’ Colleen McGlaughlin belted a two-run homer and Katie Brown followed with a solo shot to give Iowa a

3-1 lead that went unchallenged.

A third inning grand slam by Morelock extended the Iowa lead to 8-1 over the Illini (30-32).