March 23, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. –The Illinois State softball team will return to the softball field for the first time in a week when it travels to Iowa City, Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes at the Bob Pearl Softball Field Wednesday afternoon. The match-up will mark the second time Iowa and Illinois State have met this season.
The Hawkeyes defeated the Redbirds, 7-1, earlier this season at the Littlewood Classic in Tempe, Ariz. (Feb 20). In the game, Iowa tallied 12 hits and limited Illinois State to four. Lindsey Digmann and Taylor Leichsenring each had three hits for the Hawkeyes. For Illinois State, Elizabeth Kay recorded two hits and drove in Kara Nelson, which was ISU’s only run.
ISU is batting .275 as a team and is led by Abby Olson, who is batting a team-high .414 average in 20 games, with eight home runs. The junior third baseman leads the Redbirds with 26 RBI and a slugging percentage of .897. Olson has also tallied 52 total bases and four doubles.
Iowa is hitting .263 as a team with a .379 team slugging percentage and a .330 team on-base percentage. The Hawkeyes boast four batters hitting over .330 on the season, including Chelsey Carmody, who leads the team with a .372 batting average with 17 runs scored, 32 hits, 16 RBI and a.605 slugging percentage.
Illinois State and Iowa have shared three common opponents during the 2010 season. Illinois State and Iowa defeated Rutgers and North Carolina State earlier this season. ISU defeated nationally-ranked Arizona State, 10-9, in nine innings, while Iowa fell to ASU, 7-4.
A live radio broadcast of the game will be available on GoRedbirds.com. The game will be streamed live on the Big Ten Network.com and will be aired on the Big Ten Network March 25 at 9 p.m. (CST).
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics, tickets, TRC gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
