By Adam Hensley
Border-foes Iowa (6-4) and Minnesota faced off for the first time this season in the final game of the DQ Classic on Sunday.
The Gophers came out on top, 6-3.
The Hawkeyes scored 3 runs in the first inning on Robert Neustrom’s home run to right field, but Iowa failed to mount any real momentum after that.
Minnesota’s Toby Anderson gave up Iowa’s only runs of the game but limited the Hawkeyes to 4 hits. He also struck out 4 while pitching five scoreless innings.
Only Chris Whelan, Mason McCoy, Neustrom, and Jake Adams garnered hits.
Drake Robison started for Iowa, pitching for 3.2 innings and allowing 4 runs and 5 hits, while striking out 3.
The Gophers pulled away in the third and fourth innings, scoring 3 in the third and 1 in the fourth.
Zach Daniels pitched 2.1 innings, and he looked arguably the best of the four pitchers Iowa used.
The sophomore from Robins, Iowa, shut out the Gophers in his brief stint, allowing only 2 hits and striking out 2.
Sunday’s game proved to be quite different than Iowa’s previous two games in the DQ Classic, in which hitting wasn’t hard to come by.
The Hawkeyes’ second win of the tournament came against Oral Roberts on March 4, thanks in part to three home runs.
Adams, Matt Hoeg, and Ben Norman continued their strong start in Minnesota, each going yard once.
Adam’s homer in the first inning gave Iowa its first lead of the game.
“Jake is swinging the bat really well,” said head coach Rick Heller in a release. “Up and down the lineup, our guys were doing a good job and giving us great at-bats.”
Hoeg’s home run was his first of the season, and Norman’s shot was the first of his career.
Cole McDonald got the win for Iowa, his second of the season; in five innings, the sophomore allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, striking out 4.
“Cole battled for us,” Heller said in a release. “He did a good job of logging some innings on a day where he didn’t have great command.”
Iowa’s opponent in the first game of the DQ Classic on March 3, Hawaii, didn’t go down without a fight.
Prior to the ninth inning, the Hawkeyes recorded a season-high 17 hits (Whelan, Adams, and Norman each had 3-hit outings).
Both Whelan and Adams drilled home runs. Whelan’s deep shot in the bottom of the seventh inning was during four-consecutive innings in which Iowa scored a run.
“We had a great approach at the plate today,” said Heller in a release. “Up and down the lineup, we stayed in the middle of the field. We had clutch hits today with two outs all day long.”
However, Hawaii’s bats came alive in the ninth; the Rainbow Warriors scored 3 runs and narrowed the Hawkeye deficit to only 1 run before Zach Daniels closed out the game.
Iowa’s next game will be Tuesday against Northern Illinois at 3:05 p.m. at Banks Field.
This will be Iowa’s third home game of the 2017 season, but hopefully for Hawkeye fans, the second full game of the year at home. The Hawkeyes played only two innings against Cornell on Feb. 28 before lousy weather resulted in a cancellation.