BYU softball dominates doubleheader vs. Iowa State, earns series win

BYU softball bounced back from a loss against Oregon on Monday and returned to dominance with a doubleheader win over Iowa State Friday in Provo.

It was BYU’s second doubleheader sweep in the last week, after sweeping Southern Utah on Saturday. The Cougars won the games against Iowa State by a combined score 16-3, winning the first game 11-3 and the second 5-0.

Game one

The first game was a back-and-forth contest, with both the Cougars and Cyclones trading runs in the early innings, but the Cougars finally unleashed the power of the bats in the fifth.

The sequence included a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded, back-to-back RBI singles, an RBI double, and finished with a home run and one more RBI single. The Cougars hit six-straight times in their nine-run fifth inning that sealed the victory in a mercy rule ending after five innings.

Taylei Williams was the offensive leader in the first game, going 3-for-4 with a single and a double in the impressive sequence in the fifth inning. Martha Epenesa’s three-run homer helped put the game out of reach, and Violet Zavodnik finished it off.

Game two

BYU picked up where it left off in game two after a 30-minute intermission. The Cougars found a way to keep Iowa State out of it, with a Zavodnik three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, an Alyssa Podhurcak home run in the fourth inning and an RBI groundout by Macy Simmons in the fifth inning.

Chloe Temples, the starting pitcher for the second game, showed her dominance by blanking the Cyclones. Temples completed the game, going the full seven innings while surrendering only four hits and striking out seven.

“It’s a great feeling honestly, this is like no other feeling in the world,” Temples said of the standout performance.

Head coach Gordon Eakin described Temples’ contribution to the team as a “driven, very competitive” athlete. He was also proud of everyone’s help in today’s doubleheader.

He said that the key to surviving game days like these is to take it “one pitch at a time.”

“One of our core values is to be resilient, and we work on that all the time,” Eakins said. “I thought we were very resilient in practice this week in preparing, and played a complete game tonight.”

BYU will look for the series sweep vs. future Big 12 foe Iowa State tomorrow afternoon at 12 p.m. MDT.