It was a cold night for the Iowa baseball team when it met with Western Illinois on Tuesday for the second time this season. The Hawkeyes improved to 2-0 against interim pitching coach Jim Brownlee’s former team, defeating the Leathernecks, 10-6.

Iowa scored a season high 10 runs on 12 hits and 7 RBIs. Three Hawkeyes earned double runs in the two innings — sophomores Eric Toole, Kris Goodman, and junior Trevor Kenyon.

Kenyon demonstrated his power, hitting a double and a triple.

“I was happy with the way we came out and jumped on it early and scored 5 runs,” Iowa baseball coach Jack Dahm said. “… I wish we could have put together more innings of manufacturing some runs, but we had two big innings.”

The win pushed Iowa’s record to 10-13. The Hawkeyes beat Western Illinois the first time around, 7-3.

“I think we knew a little bit more of their tendencies and what they were going to do with us at a hitting and pitching standpoint,” Goodman said. “We just kind of focused on ourselves and what we needed to do to win.”

The Black and Gold’s offense began the contest by building an early lead with 5 runs in the first inning. The final 5 runs came in the fourth inning. Iowa stranded five runners in their seven scoreless innings.

The Hawkeyes only had two innings in which a batter didn’t get on base.

Calvin Mathews started on the mound for the Hawkeyes and allowed only 4 hits and 2 runs. The freshman, who entered the game with a 5.51 ERA, struck out 4 in five innings.

“Mathews was really a key for us by going out and giving us five solid innings,” Dahm said. “…His velocity is back up there. He was throwing pretty hard the first couple innings. He’s a power pitcher for us.”

Mathews allowed no more than five batters to bat during those innings.

“He’s coming along. I know he had a rough outing down in Arkansas, but he’s been working his butt off,” Kenyon said. “I hope to see him in more games.”

Dahm cycled through four pitchers during the game. Seniors Ricky Sandquist and Ben Bergman each pitched an inning, and freshman Josh Martsching closed out the game.

Iowa gave up an 8-run lead in the top of the seventh inning, when Western Illinois added 4 runs.

“I put that one on me. I need to work a lot more on my picks,” Kenyon said. “Bergman went out there and threw his tail off. We’ll get that fixed this coming week.”