Cougars Fall in Series Finale Against Iowa State

Sunday, March 22

Ames, Iowa

12 PM

University of Houston

17-17, 1-8

Iowa State

19-10, 3-3

Houston

Iowa State

Photo by: Christian Cory/Iowa State Athletics

3/22/2026 2:54:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Lehman tosses 100th career strikeout; Mitchell matches career-high three hits in loss to Cyclones

AMES, Iowa – The University of Houston Softball team fell in a tightly-contested series finale, 8-7, against Iowa State at the Cyclone Sports Complex on Sunday.

The Cougars (17-17, 1-8 Big 12) and Cyclones (19-10, 3-3 Big 12) went back-and-forth in an offensive battle, exchanging leads four times before an error in the seventh supplied the walk-off run for Iowa State.

PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS

Makenna Mitchell: 3-4, HR, 3 RBI, R, 2B, SB
Maddie Hartley: 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 R
Madox Mitchael: 2-4, 2 R
RyLee Gardner: 2-4

NOTABLES

Junior Makenna Mitchell matched her career-best three hits on the day, doing so for the third time in her career.
Redshirt-senior Paris Lehman reached a milestone 100 career strikeouts after spinning a pair of Ks in 2.0 relief innings.
Mitchell and sophomore Maddie Hartley each homered on the day, both smashing their 14^th home runs of the season, respectively, to remain tied for the team lead this year.
Sophomore Madox Mitchael continued her dominant stretch at the plate, notching two hits on the day to now tally 16 hits in her last 10 games as well as her fourth multi-hit outing in the last five games.
Senior Mandy Esman tallied a double for a third-consecutive game, marking her sixth of the season and fourth over the weekend series against Iowa State.

KEY INNINGS
1^st | With runners on first and second coming off back-to-back singles, Mitchell cracked a liner to short, forcing a fielding error to reach first and plating Mitchael for the Cougars' first run of the game. Two batters later, an Iowa State wild pitch left home plate uncovered as Hartley scored to double Houston's lead at 2-0.

2^nd | Trailing 3-2 with runners on second and third, Mitchell delivered once again at the plate with a single to shallow left, scoring sophomore Leilani Garcia and Mitchael to put Houston back in front at 4-3.

6^th | Down 7-6 late in the sixth, Hartley delivered her second hit of the day with a solo shot to right field to knot the game up at 7-7.

UP NEXT
Houston remains on the road for a midweek matchup at Lamar at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, before returning home to host a Big 12 weekend series against UCF on March 27-29. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.

SUPPORT YOUR COOGS
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