During spring break, the Iona College softball team competed in the Hawaii Spring Fling Tournament. The Gaels played a batch of games in Honolulu and came up big with a win against No. 20 Hawaii.

On the first day of action, the Gales dropped a pair of games. The Gaels were shutout by Brigham Young 8-0, as BYU was led by a strong offensive attack as pitcher Paige Affleck pitched a complete game, allowing four hits and striking out five batters.

Senior Alyssa Maiese picked up the loss for the Gaels as she surrendered five runs on six hits in five innings. In two innings of relief junior Deanne Algeo allowed three runs, one earned, in two innings.

With ace Sarah Jackson on the mound against No. 9 California, the Gaels fell into a 5-0 hole after the first three innings due to costly errors by the defense. Cal was able to put up their first two runs in the second inning, as both were unearned runs. After the second, the Golden Bears offense picked up the scoring with three in the third and then four in the fourth.

Maiese hit a home run in the fourth to prevent the Golden Bear shutout.

Closing out the scoring, Cal picked up another run in the fifth to make the final score 10-1. The game was the first loss of the season for Jackson as she gave up five earned runs in four innings.

Anchored by Jackson who had a rough outing the previous game, the Gaels came back and defeated No. 20 Hawaii in the next game. Jackson went the distance in nine innings, while only allowing four hits and walking three. During the complete game shutout, she fanned 13 batters.

In the top of the ninth deadlocked at zero, senior Erin Kyle advanced to third on a sacrifice by sophomore Eileen McCann. With sophomore Marisa Newman batting, Kyle scored the winning run on a passed ball. Jackson slammed the door shut on the Warriors chances as she picked up her fifth win of the year to close out the ninth.

“I went into the game thinking we had nothing to lose as long as we played our best.” Jackson said. “Going nine innings seemed easy especially when my defense behind me was awesome. Coming out with the win was definitely a confidence booster for the team. We played great and our energy was high for the entire game.”

The Gaels closed out the tournament with a pair of games against Cleveland State. In the first game, the Vikings scored four runs in the fourth and added another in the fifth.

The Gaels had two chances to come back. In the fifth, Algeo had a leadoff single and McCann responded with a single. However, the offense could not knock in the runners and left the two stranded.

In the seventh inning, sophomore Beth Kann began the inning with a single and Algeo came back with a hit to try and start a rally. Pinch runner Cari Anderson and Algeo moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, but the Gaels could not get a hit and lost 5-0.

Cleveland State was seeded fourth and Iona was seeded fifth after round robin play and faced each other in the elimination round with the winner playing Cal.

The Vikings scored two unearned runs in the first frame and held on the rest of the way with a 2-1 win. The Gaels had just three hits in the game and freshman Katie Jansson scored the only run when sophomore Courtney Duncan doubled down the left field line in the fifth. Jackson took the loss, giving up two unearned runs in six innings.

For her showing in Hawaii, Jackson was named MAAC pitcher of the week.