Get out the brooms; Iowa baseball completed a sweep of the Cincinnati Bearcats on Sunday with a 5-0, 13-inning shutout.
The Hawkeyes used five different pitchers in the win, and junior Joel Booker who sparked Iowa’s offense.
Booker hit a solo home run off Cincinnati’s A.J. Olasz on the first pitch with two outs in the final frame, and the Hawkeyes added 4 more of insurance to take their seventh-consecutive win.
The true hero of the game may have been junior Luke Vandermaten, who pitched out of an 11th-inning jam to end the threat of a walk-off win for Cincinnati.
Vandermaten threw five-straight strikes to retire the side, and Cincinnati left the bases loaded.
“That was big, and the guts Luke showed was tremendous,” Hawk head coach Rick Heller said in a release.
Iowa also pitched out of trouble in the ninth, when Cincinnati left two runners on, and the 12th, when the Bearcats left two runners on.
Junior Calvin Matthews, redshirt sophomore Josh Martsching, junior Tyler Radtke, and senior Brandon Shulista all saw action on the pitcher’s mound. Radtke was credited with the win, while Shulista had his first appearance of the season on the mound.
Senior Jake Mangler had 3 RBIs on three hits to lead the Hawkeyes. All three came on a bases clearing double that broke the game open for the Hawkeyes. Junior Tyler Peyton singled Mangler home to seal the game.
Schulista then pitched a perfect frame in Iowa’s half of the inning, completing the weekend sweep in Iowa’s first extra-inning game of the season.
Iowa also topped Cincinnati, 6-2, on Feb. 27, 5-1 on Feb. 28.
The Hawkeyes will return to action with a three-game series with Middle Tennessee State on Friday, Saturday, and March 8.
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