SOFTBALL / COLLEGE WORLD SERIES : Iowa’s Rally Leaves Titans on the Sidelines

Members of the Cal State Fullerton softball team were square dancing outside its dugout Saturday, celebrating a four-run lead against Iowa in the fifth inning of a losers’ bracket game of the Women’s College World Series.

But those same players were crying about an hour later after the Hawkeyes scored four runs to tie it in the bottom of the seventh and another run in the ninth to win, 6-5, in front of 3,193 at Hall of Fame Stadium.

It was the second comeback victory of the day for the Hawkeyes, a performance Fullerton Coach Judi Garman deemed “stunning.”

“If that isn’t one of the finest comebacks I’ve ever seen . . . “ Garman said. “That has got to go down as the best comeback in the history of the College World Series.”

Iowa (41-25-1) bunched five of its seven hits in the seventh to score four earned runs and tie it.

Then in the ninth with the bases loaded and one out, Iowa’s Melissa Wielandt scored the winning run on Tasha Reents’ infield single.

For their efforts, the Hawkeyes will face UCLA (48-6) at 12:30 p.m. (PDT) today. Iowa, which lost to UCLA, 2-1, in a first-round game, needs to beat the Bruins twice to advance to Monday’s championship game.

After giving up a solo home run by Iowa’s Kari Knopf in the first, Jennifer Mortensen retired the next 13 batters in order and did not give up another hit until the seventh, when she surrendered a single to Knopf to start the inning.

But it was the beginning of the end for the Titans.

Iowa 9, Michigan 7--Brandi Macias’ two-run double in the top of the 14th inning broke a 7-7 tie between the two Big 10 Conference teams and the Hawkeyes held on to win.

Trailing 7-5, Iowa scored two runs in the top of the seventh on two hits and an error to send it into extra innings.

The teams combined to set six single-game series records and tie four others. Among those set were total errors (11), total hits (31), total runs batted in (12), total runs (16), most hits by a team (17, by Iowa) and most hits by a player (five, by Iowa’s Macias and Michigan’s Kellyn Tate).

Nevada Las Vegas 5, Southwestern Louisiana 1--Kim Rondina’s three-run double highlighted a five-run third for the Rebels (49-13), who will face Arizona (65-5) at 10 a.m. (PDT) today. The Rebels have to beat Arizona twice to advance to Monday’s championship game.

UNLV 2, Princeton 1--Trailing 2-0, the Tigers (49-13) rallied in the bottom of the seventh to score Tara Christie on Stacy Thurber’s two-out single, but Amie Stewart (30-7) struck out Michelle Morale with runners at first and second.