By Adam Hensley
For the second-consecutive day, Iowa (13-9) baseball thrived in the eighth inning and took a victory against Purdue (12-10), closing out the weekend with a 2-1 series win.
In the Hawkeyes’ 7-2 win on Sunday, the Hawkeye batters exploded for 5 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
With the bases loaded and one out, Robert Neustrom connected on a single that went right at Purdue pitcher Nick Wojtysiak, and Corbin Woods scored.
The hit took an odd roll, and Wojtysiak mishandled the ball, allowing Woods to reach home.
“That loss on [March 24] was kind of a tough one,” Neustrom said. “We wanted to come out in front of the home crowd, first Big Ten game, and get the win, and we didn’t. We bounced back Saturday and we bounced back [Sunday].”
Ben Norman took the plate right after Neustrom, and he singled down the infield line. Jake Adams and Mason McCoy crossed home.
Grant Judkins kept the hot hitting going, singling to center in the same inning. Norman and Neustrom both scored, broadening Iowa’s lead.
“We knew we just needed to get guys on base,” Norman said. “Once that happened, then the tables had turned, and we started getting base hits and [driving] guys in.”
Both March 25 (a 5-1 win) and Sunday proved to be a much-needed improvement compared with the March 24 2-0 loss against the Boilermakers.
In that game, Iowa went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 1-for-15 with runners on base.
Head coach Rick Heller challenged his guys after the loss, knowing his team is capable of unloading with runners on bases, just as in Sunday’s win, a game in which Iowa finished with 10 hits and 7 RBIs.
“We addressed Friday in our approach quite a bit after the game and then in batting practice before the game on Saturday,” he said. “We just weren’t executing our plan and what we practice every single day.”
In both wins against Purdue, clutch hitting came out on top. Sunday’s game featured a tie game (2-2) until the bottom of the eighth inning, while the March 25 play featured a 1-1 tie before Iowa knocked in 4 unanswered runs in the eighth.
In Iowa’s 2-0 loss, a rain delay stopped play right after the start of the eighth inning. After more than an hour of waiting, Purdue came out with back-to-back hits, scoring 2 runs that Iowa couldn’t match.
The Hawkeyes’ bats didn’t connect as they would have liked in that game, but despite the loss, the pitching looked sharp, and that carried into March 25 and Sunday.
The Hawkeyes faced an injury scare when a line drive smacked into pitcher Cole McDonald, dropping him to the ground in pain. Drake Robison came in to pitch for him, and McDonald did not return to the game.
Heller initially believed he had broken a bone because of McDonald’s reaction, but further X-rays are needed. He did note, however, that since this happened to McDonald’s non-throwing hand, he would be able to manipulate it so that he could still pitch.
“To go to the bullpen that early is not easy to do,” Heller said. “I’m really proud of our guys, they came in and did a good job.”
Next up for Iowa, Grand View travels to Banks Field for a 4:05 p.m. game on Wednesday.