By Jake Mosbach
After scoring only 6 runs the entire weekend against Kansas State from April 29 through Sunday, the offense finally returned for the Hawkeye baseball team against Western Illinois on Tuesday night.
The Hawks took down the Leathernecks, 10-4, in their final home midweek contest of the season, bringing their record to 21-21.
The offensive revival was a welcome sight for Hawkeye head coach Rick Heller.
“We were hoping that with the nice night tonight we would swing the bats better, and we did up and down the lineup,” he said. “The bottom of the order had hits and a couple RBIs, but we had a lot of guys that had hits … it was good to see.”
Senior Nick Roscetti led the 10-run performance. The Sherman, Illinois, native turned in a 2-for-4 showing with 3 RBIs. After an uncharacteristic slump earlier in the season, Roscetti has brought his average back up to .333 on the year.
“Everyone got good swings off today,” Roscetti said. “We just tried to stay within ourselves, and tried not to do too much. We tried to drive the ball the other way, and just keep to our approach.”
Freshman Robert Neustrom was another key contributor for the Black and Gold Tuesday night, bringing in 2 RBIs on a 3-for-5 performance.
Neustrom, who was named the Big Ten Freshman of the week a little more than a month ago, said that perhaps he and his teammates were overthinking their plate approaches against Kansas State over the weekend.
Against Western Illinois, the Hawks got back to basics.
“We just got back to our simple approach,” Neustrom said after raising his average to .303. “We just made sure every at-bat was the best we could do … that’s all it took I guess.”
The bulk of the Iowa runs came in the fifth, with three Hawks crossing the plate. A Mason McCoy double, Luke Farley single, and Jimmy Frankos groundout plated runners in the inning.
The other Hawkeye runs came in pairs, with 2 in the third inning, 2 in the fourth, and the final 2 in the sixth.
Despite Cole McDonald starting on the mound for Iowa, senior right-hander Luke Vandermaten earned the win (2-0) after relieving McDonald in the third inning. Vandermaten went three innings, allowing just 2 hits and striking out 3.
“Our pitchers did a great job of not giving up any free bases,” Heller said. “We only had three free bases on the entire game, and we were able to take advantage of quite a few free bases that they gave us.”
