Iowa State Softball Falls to No. 14 Nebraska, 3-1

AMES, Iowa - A four-hit, two-run seventh inning gave the 14th-ranked Nebraska Cornhusker softball team all the runs it needed to hold on to a 3-1 victory over Iowa State, Thursday afternoon at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

Nebraska, which improves to 40-10 overall and 10-1 in the Big 12, was shut down offensively by Cyclone hurler Jen Bice until the seventh inning. The Cyclone sophomore had only given up one run and one hit prior to the seventh. The Huskers' first score came in the fifth inning when Amber Burgess reached on a error from ISU's Rainey Eanes. After advancing to second from a Nicole Trimboli ground out, Burgess scored when a routine pop-up off the bat of NU's Danelle Arnold was not fielded because ISU first baseman Kimi Yoshizawa fell down on the play.

The Husker run tied the game at 1-1. ISU jumped on the board first when Erica Martinez pounded her sixth round-tripper of the season over the left field wall. The game was still knotted heading into the seventh inning until the Husker bats got rolling. Back-to-back singles from Jamie Fuente and Burgess moved runners to first and second and were the first real hits posted against Bice. After Bice fanned Trimboli, Amanda Bucholz doubled to score Fuente to make it a 2-1 ballgame. Amanda Went entered the game as a pinch runner for Burgess and scored the final run of the game from a Arnold single.

The Cyclones tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh when Yoshizawa tallied her second double of the game. However, NU hurler Leigh Ann Walker struck out pinch hitter Morgan LeCluyse to end the game and capture her 16th win of the season (16-5). Walker entered the game in the fifth inning after NU starter Peaches James gave up Yoshizawa's first double. Walker gave up only one hit and fanned four Cyclones in 2 2/3 innings. Bice registered the loss (7-12), giving up five hits, two earned runs and fanning six batters in the complete game.

ISU, which falls to 12-22 overall and 1-8 in Big 12 play, were led at the plate by Yoshizawa's two doubles. Julia Lindsay and Mindy Ogan also tallied hits for the Cyclones.

ISU is back in action this weekend with a two-game series vs. Kansas on Saturday and Sunday at the Southwest Athletic Complex. Both games begin at 1 p.m.

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