MORAGA, Calif. — The Saint Mary's Gaels (13-9) continued to play solid softball, defeating the defending NISC Champion Iowa Hawkeyes (8-10) 5-2 to move to 3-0 at home on the season. The Gaels broke out of their mini slump from a week ago to plate five runs against a run-stingy Iowa squad, plating 5+ runs for the 13th time this season. 

The Gaels took advantage of an Iowa defensive miscue to build an early 2-0 lead in the second. Taylor Lane roped a single to left center to bring Victoria Castillo to the plate. Castillo hit a hard one hopper to third that was bobbled and then fired wide of first base. As the ball kicked down the right field line, Lane opportunistically motored all the way around to score, while Castillo moved up to third. That brought Alex Cutonilli to the plate. Cutonilli dropped down a perfect bunt up the third baseline. With no chance to get Cutonilli at first, the Hawkeyes opted to fire the ball home. Castillo slid in to score on the fielder's choice, with the official call being that the Iowa catcher never gave Castillo a path to the plate. Just like that, the Gaels led 2-0. 

Looking to make up for their fielding blunder, the Hawkeyes came out ready to hit in the top of the third, and strung together three hits to draw the score back level at two apiece. The early scoring was a wake up call for both Iowa's Jalen Adams and Saint Mary's Mia Nishikawa in the circle, as the two both settled in nicely and traded strong inning after strong inning. Between the third and fifth, Adams surrendered just two hits and no runs, while Nishikawa surrendered just a walk and a hit from the fourth through seventh inning. 

The Gaels' big inning came in the sixth and featured a hefty shuffle of the deck from Head Coach Sonja Garnett. Sam Buckley and Tori Cervantes were each plunked to lead off the inning, and were advanced to second and third on a Taylor Lane groundout. Iris Bejarano pinch hit for Victoria Castillo and reached on a fielder's choice bunt that loaded the bases. Castillo re-entered the game to run. With the bases juiced, Coach Garnett next went to Avrey Wolverton to pinch hit for Alex Cutonilli. Wolverton hit a grounder to second, and the Hawkeyes tried to catch Buckley at the plate, but she slid in before the throw got there to give the Gaels the lead. Wolverton was then run for by Marissa Nishihara. With two out and the bases still loaded, leadoff hitter Hannah Ferguson stepped up and promptly banged her second hit of the day through the left side, scoring Castillo. The Hawkeyes left fielder would miss play the ball as it rolled towards allowing Nishihara to come around as well, bringing the tally to 5-2, where it would stay until the end of the game. 

The Gaels needed just four hits to score their five runs, with Hannah Ferguson owning half of those. Ferguson now leads the Gaels with 26 hits on the year. Victoria Castillo scored a pair of the Gaels runs. Mia Nishikawa worked her sixth complete game of the season, and picked up win number five, surrendering just two runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Nishikawa now leads the Gaels in wins (5), innings pitched (56), ERA (1.88) and WHIP (0.98).

The Gaels will next take on Marist and North Dakota State in a home round robin series on both Friday and Saturday at 12:30 PM and 3 PM respectively. 

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