By Pete Ruden
Baseball season is finally here for the Hawkeyes, but their season didn’t exactly start how they wanted it to.
With a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning in the season-opener against South Florida, the Bulls came up with a 9-run inning to spoil Iowa’s first game of the new season.
In what was a gem from new Friday starter Nick Gallagher, the bullpen couldn’t get the job done.
In seven innings, Gallagher allowed just 1 run on 5 hits while striking out four.
“Nick gave us a great start,” head coach Rick Heller said in a release. “He pitched tremendous in his first outing of the year against a good team. We only had one free base heading into the eighth and felt like we were in great shape.”
Sophomore Zach Daniels took the loss after allowing 4 earned runs on 3 hits in just two-thirds of an inning.
The offense wasn’t much of a problem for Iowa, though, as shortstop Mason McCoy led the team, going 3-for-4 with a run scored, and four teammates notched RBIs.
“There were a lot of positives, but unfortunately, it was a tough ending and a tough way to lose on opening day,” Heller said in a release.
But things got better for Iowa.
Home runs from McCoy, Jake Adams, and Kyle Crowl propelled the Hawkeyes to a 4-2 victory for their first win of the season in Game 2 of the series.
The future projects to be bright for Adams, whose power was praised by Heller before the season started.
After hitting 25 home runs at DMACC last year, Adams is now on the board at the Division-1 level.
Saturday starter C.J. Eldred had himself a game, surrendering 1 run on 3 hits in six innings pitched.
When Eldred was done for the day, sophomore reliever Cole McDonald finished the job, earning the win on a 1-run, 2-hit outing in three innings.
Coming off a tough loss, Heller was pleased with the all-around team effort that was displayed.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Heller said in a release. “After a tough loss yesterday, we bounced back with good energy, focus, and played hard.”
There wasn’t much going for the Hawkeyes in Sunday’s series deciding game, though. Iowa tallied just 4 hits in the game, with two of them coming from sophomore right fielder Robert Neustrom.
The Bulls came out hot in the first inning, as they scored three runs, while adding another in the second. From that point, they never looked back.
While the starting pitching was good for South Florida — starter Peter Strzelecki allowed only 1 hit in five shutout innings — the same can’t be said about Iowa.
Sunday starter Shane Ritter had a rough season début, allowing 3 runs in just one inning.
“Not a lot to be happy about today,” Heller said. “On the mound, we weren’t very good early … Offensively, we weren’t very good today. Don’t want to take away from how their pitchers threw; they did a nice job. Just didn’t seem like we were very locked in.”
On the bright side for the Hawkeyes, it’s still early in the season. They’ll have a chance to redeem themselves on Wednesday when they come back to Iowa City to take on Loras before heading to the Hoover Classic in Alabama.
“[We’ll] go back home, hopefully get some things fixed, clean some things up, play a home game on Wednesday, and then head back down to Hoover, Alabama, for a tournament,” Heller said.