DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake softball team was on the diamond at Ron Buel Field for the I-80 rivalry with the Creighton Bluejays on Wednesday evening and was defeated by a score of 9-0 in five innings.
 
The Bulldogs faced a deficit from the first inning of the contest and Creighton never let up from there as it scored in all five innings to take a win back home to Omaha. The Bluejays started their scoring output with an RBI base knock from Kaelan Schultz after Zoey Greenwood led off the game with a single of her own and then proceeded to steal second and third base.
 
Creighton's second run came from the bat Keegan Mayhue, who led off the second inning with a solo home run.
 
The third inning is when the Bluejays put up the crooked number of four runs to take control of the game. Creighton quickly put the Bulldogs in a jam after tallying three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs and brought in the first run of the frame with a sacrifice fly. A pair of doubles proceeded to score the following runs for Creighton and put the Bulldogs in a 6-0 deficit.
 
Schultz did more damage for the Bluejays in the top of the fourth hitting a solo shot to add to Creighton's lead. Then in the fifth the Bluejays tallied the final touches scoring two runs off a couple of fielder's choice bunt squeeze plays at the plate.
 
The Drake offense struggled to get any momentum going against Bluejays starting pitcher Brooklyn Patchen as it managed just three hits in the game and struck out six times. Tatum Aragon, Lili Gonzalez, and Emily Veschak were the three Bulldogs to record a hit on the night with trio each recording a single.
 
Drake will next host Southern Illinois for a Missouri Valley Conference series this weekend. The Bulldogs and Salukis will matchup for a doubleheader on Friday with game ones first pitch slated for 2:30 p.m. The series finale will take place on Saturday with first pitch at 2:00 p.m.