In front of more than 8,000 Iowa fans that made the trip across the Missouri River to TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, the magic finally ran out for the Hawkeyes in the ninth inning of the fifth day at the Big Ten Tournament.

Heading to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning down 3 runs, the Hawkeyes put together yet another late-game rally that included two walks, a hit-by-pitch, and 3 hits to knot the game at 7.

It was the usual suspects doing the damage for Iowa, with senior Tyler Peyton hitting a two-out, 2-RBI double down the left field line to pull his team within 1, and Joel Booker following with a single laced back up the middle to tie the game. But that was where the luck ran out.

“We needed to win it in the eighth,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said after the game. “We just didn’t get the extra two-out hit to put it away. Joel [Booker] hit the ball so darn hard at the center fielder we couldn’t score the go-ahead run. It was the only place on the field that we wouldn’t have scored another one on that.”

The Hawkeyes went to the ninth tied and looked as if they were going to get out of the inning unscathed when Josh Martsching got two quick outs. But the tournament’s most outstanding player, Ronnie Dawson, extended the inning with his 15th hit of the tournament, and Troy Kuhn followed with an RBI double down the left field line to score Dawson from first base.

Iowa went quietly in the bottom of the ninth.

With the loss, the Hawkeyes’ season came to an end. A win in the Big Ten Championship would have earned them an automatic bid in an NCAA r4egional, but the team’s résumé will not be good enough to get them an at-large bid.

For every senior on the roster, including Peyton and Booker, that means their careers as Hawkeyes have come to an end.

In the postgame press conference, they took time to reflect on their time.

“For me, this was a family atmosphere,” Booker said. “I didn’t want to go somewhere where my teammates were just going to be teammates. I wanted to go somewhere where my teammates at the end of the day were my family, and I feel like at Iowa, that’s what we are. At the end of the day, I feel as if I’m in a jam, I can call anybody on this team, and he’s going to come help me out.”

Peyton, a native of Grimes, Iowa, said it was a dream of his growing up to play for the Hawkeyes.

Peyton’s first year on campus was also Heller’s first, and Iowa’s head coach said his now-senior leader was the first person he called when he got the job. While every other Hawkeye commitment decided to play elsewhere with the coaching change, Peyton decided to put trust in Heller and his plan for the program.

“I grew up a Hawkeye, I always wanted to be a Hawkeye,” Peyton said. “I saw a new era when Coach Heller came here, and I jumped on board. It wasn’t much of a difficult decision to come here…I knew something was going to change with this baseball program and I think we’ve shown that in these past three years.”