TAMPA, Florida – The Marist softball team dropped both of its games on Friday at the South Florida Showdown. The Red Foxes took Iowa to 11 innings in their first game of the day, but fell by a score of 8-7. In game two, #11/9 Texas won by a score of 9-1 in five innings.
Haley Ahr led the Red Foxes by going 6-for-8 with two RBIs on the day.
- Hannah Brock singled to lead off the third and scored on Ahr's two-out single.
- Peyton Pusey's first collegiate homer, a three-run shot, gave Marist a 4-0 lead in the fourth.
- Iowa tied the score with a four-run fourth.
- The game remained 4-4 until extra innings, when the international tie-breaker was put into effect. The teams traded runs in the ninth and 10th. Marist scored once in the top of the 11th, but the Hawkeyes scored twice in the bottom half.
- Ahr went 4-for-6 with two RBIs. Pusey was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Alyssa Grupp was 3-for-5 with a run scored, and Shea Walsh was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
- Kiley Myers started and went five innings. Calista Phippen went 5.1 in relief.
- Nia Carter, Sammy Diaz, and Brylee Klosterman each had three hits for Iowa.
- Sam Freeland drew a one-out walk, and scored the game's first run on a wild pitch in the top of the first.
- Texas took the lead for good in with a three-run bottom of the second, which included an inside-the-park grand slam from Bella Dayton.
- Texas added one run in the third and four in the fourth.
- Ahr reached base safely in all three of her plate appearances, with two hits and a walk.
- Maddie Pleasants started and went three-plus innings, and Meghan Haff pitched a scoreless inning.
- Citaly Gutierrez pitched 3.2 scoreless innings of relief to earn the win for Texas.
- Marist will face Lehigh (9 a.m.) and South Florida (11:30 a.m.) on Saturday in the South Florida showdown.
- The South Florida game will be shown on ESPN+.
