The Iowa baseball team fell behind early, struggled to string hits together, and fell, 7-3, to Nebraska on Tuesday night in Lincoln.

The Hawkeyes (15-23) gave up a pair of runs in the first, fourth, and seventh innings, and the Cornhuskers (26-16) scored once more in the eighth.

Iowa starter Jeff Pacha fell to 0-3 on the year after giving up two runs (one earned) in 2 1/3 innings of work. All three Hawkeye relievers to see action gave up at least one run, although Tim Fangman’s was unearned.

The majority of Iowa’s offensive production came from three players. Catcher Tyson Blaser led the team with three hits and a pair of RBIs, first baseman Bryan Niedbalski had two hits and an RBI, and left fielder Zach McCool went 2-for-4 in the eighth spot in the lineup.

"We let a couple opportunities get away from us," Iowa head coach Jack Dahm said. We had a couple guys in scoring position and just couldn’t come up with the big hit."

The Hawkeyes, who have lost three in a row, have now had losing streaks of at least three games on five separate occasions. The team also committed a pair of errors, the 16th time this year that the Black and Gold have made numerous mistakes.

"We’ve got to dig down a little deeper," Dahm said. "We’re just kind of waiting to see what will happen instead of making something happen — giving that little bit of energy, believing in each other.

"We’re really close, but we have to change something right now."

— by Seth Roberts