By Pete Ruden | [email protected]
Iowa’s midweek baseball game against NAIA opponent Grand View started out less than ideal for the Hawkeyes. The Vikings notched 3 runs in the second inning, making things look bleak early.
But that didn’t last long. The Hawkeyes picked up 4 runs in the third, giving themselves a lead, and eventually won, 6-5.
Starting pitcher Grant Judkins had a rough outing, hitting two batters and giving up the 3 second-inning runs, but left fielder Robert Neustrom came to Iowa’s rescue.
With runners on first and third, Grand View elected to intentionally walk Big Ten home-run leader Jake Adams, loading the bases. That came back to haunt the Vikings.
Neustrom made them pay with a perfectly placed double in the right-center gap, scoring 3 runs.
“When I saw they were doing that to [Adams], I just say ‘Oh that’s a big slap to my face,’ ” Neustrom said. “It just gives me all the more motivation to go up there and get a great hit, so I was kind of honestly excited for that at-bat.”
After center fielder Ben Norman brought Neustrom in, Austin Guzzo sent a ball that barely made its way over the left field fence to give the Hawkeyes a 5-3 lead.
However, the Vikings made it close again. They used a seventh-inning single and fielder’s choice to plate 2 runs to tie the game.
But that didn’t last long, either. The next time the Hawkeyes came to the plate, Adams sent a blast to left center that hit a light pole and bounced back into the outfield as the Hawkeyes took the lead for good.
“I knew I hit it pretty well, but right when it hit something, I thought it hit off the wall, and I was like ‘Whoa, what happened there?’ ” Adams said. “Luckily enough, it got out and scored that run.”
With Grand View being an NAIA opponent, it was closer than everyone in the Iowa program would’ve liked. But in the end, it wasn’t the final score that mattered, it was the victory.
Still, Grand View is not a bad team. The Vikings entered the game with a 12-8 record and a four-game winning streak.
With a few errors in the field and some sloppy play on the mound, Iowa learned a lot of important things in a game that was closer than it looked on paper.
“There were a lot of lessons today,” head coach Rick Heller said. “One is, you better show up, no matter who you’re playing. Grand View showed up, and they played really well.
“Thank goodness that Neustrom had the big 3-RBI double and Jake Adams hits the home run late to give us the win, and Guzzo had a nice at-bat and backside home run. Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about offensively.”
With the win, Iowa moved to 4-0 in midweek games, 14-9 overall. It will continue its home stand this weekend when it takes on UNLV in a three-game series, starting at 4:05 p.m. Friday.