NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State will have its final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday, as the Redbirds travel to Iowa City to take on Big Ten Conference foe Iowa in a midweek matchup at Bob Pearl Field. First pitch is scheduled for 4pm CT.

The game will be stream live on Big Ten+ ($) and live stats for Tuesday's game will be available via StatBroadcast, with links found on the softball schedule page on GoRedbirds.com. 

THE SERIES
The Hawkeyes lead the all-time series between the two squads, 32-20. The two teams have not met since 2012, when the Redbirds picked up a 7-3 win over the Hawkeyes at the Littlewood Classic in Arizona. In the circle, senior Jordan Birch had a career day against Iowa to improve to 4-0 on the year, with a career-high 14 strikeouts. 

This will be the fourth game for the Redbirds this season against a Big Ten Conference foe, with previous losses to Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.

SCOUTING THE HAWKEYES
•    The Hawkeyes (22-14, 4-6 Big Ten) head into the contest after dropping two out of three games against No. 20/21 Nebraska last weekend, winning the series finale by a score of 5-2. 
•    Overall, the Hawkeyes are hitting .282 as a team and the pitching staff has a 4.18 ERA. 
•    Sophomore Jena Young leads the team with a .387 batting average and 43 hits, and sophomore Soo-Jin Berry is the top run producer with 23 RBI and eight home runs.
•    In the circle, junior Jalen Adams has thrown 122.2 innings for the Hawkeyes and leads the team with a 2.40 ERA and 92 strikeouts.

REDBIRD NEWS & NOTES
•    Illinois State (12-25, 6-7 MVC) went 2-2 last week, with a midweek conference win at Bradley on Tuesday and a series finale win at Drake on Sunday. The Redbirds have won three out of their last five contests and six out of their last ten games overall.
•    After being held to just one run in each of the first two games of the series at Drake, the Redbird offense exploded for a season-high 15 runs on a season-best 18 hits to pick up a 15-5 run rule victory over the Bulldogs in the finale. Ella Boyer was perfect at the plate, going 4-for-4 with 4 RBI and Bella Atkinson also drove in four runs on three hits with two runs scored in the victory.
•    The Redbirds are one of the better defensive teams in the league, boasting a .963 fielding percentage which ranks second overall behind Belmont. The Redbirds have committed the second-fewest errors in the MVC (39) and lead the Valley in double plays turned (14). Illinois State pitching has also been solid, as the Redbirds rank third in the Valley in team ERA at 3.57.
•    Abby Knight leads Illinois State with a .299 batting average, while Addison Masching has recorded a team-leading 12 RBI this season. She and Boyer are the only two players on the roster with 4-hit games this season.
•    Hannah Meshnick, coming off a complete-game shutout of Bradley last Tuesday night, leads the Redbird pitching staff with a 3.07 ERA and six wins in the circle, totaling 49 strikeouts on the season.

For updates on Illinois State Softball, follow the Redbirds on Twitter (@RedbirdsSB), Instagram (@redbirdsoftball), and Facebook (Illinois State Redbird Softball).

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