By Ricardo Ascencio
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The Iowa baseball team pulled off some late-game dramatics in a win against Bradley, 7-6, on a walk-off single.
Iowa refused to walk out of Banks Field without a victory, using a late-inning comeback and walk-off single by senior Nick Roscetti to cap the evening.
Iowa began its ninth-inning comeback with a leadoff triple by pinch-hitter senior Eric Schenck-Joblinske. After a controversial strikeout by senior Joel Booker and a short pop out by freshman Zach Daniels, Roscetti smacked a single up the middle of the infield to end the game.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “Even though we started off slow, we rallied and never quit, and we put ourselves in position to win.”
Things did not start as expected for the Hawkeyes; early miscues and errors put Iowa in a quick 5-1 deficit after just the third inning.
“[We] started out pretty ugly from a defensive standpoint,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said.
Despite the disappointing start, he was proud of the players for refusing to quit.
“That’s the Hawks I have been looking for right there,” he said. “They don’t quit, they don’t scoreboard-watch, they don’t let negative things that happen throughout the game affect their next pitch or at-bat … it would have been easy to say, ‘We aren’t going to win,’ so to see them fight is something to feel good about.”
After scoring just 1 run on four hits in the first four innings, the Hawkeyes picked up the intensity, scoring an impressive 6 runs on 6 hits to finish the outing.
Roscetti had the best offensive performance for the Hawkeyes; he not only knocked in the winning run but also went 3-for-4 with a standup double and an astounding 4 RBIs.
Booker also enjoyed a career day; the senior outfielder went 3-for-5 with a triple and 2 runs.
“Up and down the lineup, I felt that the quality of our at-bats have been getting better the past couple weeks,” Heller said. “We did thistonight against weekend arms; we had to face their best guys in short spurts toward the end, so that was a quality rally against some good arms.”
As Iowa improved offensively throughout the game, the Hawkeyes pitching and defensive play also saw marked improvement.
Freshman Cole McDonald started the game but did not enjoy his greatest outing of the season. He gave up 2 earned runs in just 1.1 innings.
Iowa relievers Nick Allgeyer and Shane Ritter could not weather the storm; they gave up a combined 3 runs, 2 earned.
Luckily for the Hawkeyes, the bullpen pitchers eventually found their stride. Junior Jared Mandel shut down the eighth inning by striking out the side.
Zach Daniels, whose hitless inning in the ninth was good enough to earn him the win, followed Mandel.
The victory improved Iowa’s record to 7-11. The Hawkeyes hope to keep their momentum going as they start Big Ten play against Maryland at home in a three-game series starting Friday at Banks Field.
