IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa Hawkeyes rallied to defeat the Drake University softball team by a score of 8-7 in eight innings Tuesday night in Iowa City, Iowa.

Drake (23-14) couldn't hold three different leads in the road game as Iowa (11-26) rallied from 2-0, 4-2 and 7-4 deficits to claim the comeback win.
 
The Bulldogs wasted little time scoring as sophomore Kelsey Wright (Olathe, Kan.) led off the game with a double and moved to the third base on a groundout by freshman Kennedy Frank (Chesterfield, Mo.). The next batter, junior Megan Sowa (Gurnee, Ill.), drove in Wright for the first run with a RBI single through the right side as Drake led 1-0. Freshman Taryn Pena (Columbia, Ill.) added to the lead with a run-scoring single that scored Frank to put Drake up 2-0 in the third inning.
 
Iowa tied the game for the first time in the bottom of the third with back-to-back run-scoring doubles off Drake starter Nicole Newman (Madison, Wis.). However, Frank quickly gave the Bulldogs the lead back at 4-2 the next inning with a two-run double.
 
Drake maintained the lead as Newman settled in and allowed just one base runner to reach base between the fourth and the start of the seventh inning. Newman retired the first two Hawkeyes in the frame, but poor defense caught up to the Bulldogs again, a day after they committed four costly errors in a 4-0 loss to Creighton. Wright committed an error on the next at-bat that put one on for Iowa's next batter, Kaitlyn Mullarkey, who promptly hit a game-tying two-run home run. Newman retired the next batter to send the game to extra innings.
 
The Bulldogs seemed to grab control of the game again in the top of the eighth inning as junior Kaitlyn Finneran (Morrison, Ill.) drove in one run with a single and two batters later, sophomore Tasha Alexander (Eddyville, Iowa) plated a pair of runs with a triple as Drake led 7-4 heading to the bottom of the eighth.
 
Newman battled control issues in the bottom of the eighth as she started the inning with a hit by pitch then allowed a single and a walk to load the bases with no outs. Newman coaxed a groundout to get one out, but then threw a wild pitch to bring in one Hawkeye run. Following the wild pitch, Pena committed an error that scored another run. Newman then issued consecutive walks, the last that brought in another run to tie the game and load the bases. Mullarkey came up again and delivered the game-winner on a groundout to Wright that scored the winning run.
 
Newman pitched 7.2 innings and allowed eight runs (four earned) on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts. Her record dropped to 16-7 with the loss.
 
Alexander, Finneran, Frank and Pena led the offense with two hits each. Alexander and Frank each drove in two runs.
 
Drake hosts Missouri State at Ron Buel Field for a three-game MVC series this weekend. A doubleheader is set for Saturday with first pitch of game one scheduled for noon. The series finale will be Sunday at noon.