By Pete Ruden
What started as a hopeful weekend for the Iowa baseball team turned into disaster.
While the Hawkeyes had a huge win in the first game against Northwestern, their winning streak was snapped on April 8 at eight, and a two-game losing streak started on Sunday.But before Iowa lost its streak, it had a game to remember. On April 7, the Hawkeye bats exploded for 14 runs in a 14-2 victory over the Wildcats.
Seven Hawkeyes drove in runs, with shortstop Mason McCoy leading the way, going 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs and 3 runs scored. The Washington, Illinois, native hit the only home run of the game with a solo shot in the fifth.
In addition to McCoy’s performance, free bases were a big part of Iowa’s win; the Hawkeyes scored 5 runs in the second inning on just 1 hit.
Northwestern starting pitcher Tommy Bordignon used walks and a hit by pitch to allow Iowa to cross the plate for the first time. Soon after, a wild pitch on ball four scored two more before Jake Adams brought a couple more in with a double to left center.
By the time it was all over, Northwestern pitchers had given up 13 hits and 12 free bases.
“The free bases were the story of this game,” head coach Rick Heller said in a release. “In the second inning, we scored 5 runs on only 1 hit and gave Nick Gallagher a nice lead.”
The win was Gallagher’s fourth of the season. The sophomore from Iowa City notched his fifth quality start of the season, giving up just 3 hits in seven scoreless innings.
However, that was the end of Iowa’s winning streak. The Wildcats, who entered the game with an 8-19 record, 0-3 in Big Ten play, picked up their first conference win as they bested the Hawkeyes, 7-5.
There were two innings in particular that came back to haunt the Hawkeyes. Iowa gave up 5 early runs in the third, then allowed 2 more in the sixth.
Iowa was able to tie the game in the fifth, but two separate RBI singles in the sixth gave the Wildcats the lead for good.
Northwestern pitcher Sam Lawrence was dealing on April 8, giving up just 2 hits and no runs after entering the game in the fifth.
“I was impressed with [Lawrence],” Heller said in a release. “He came in and was pretty filthy on the mound.”
The final game of the series was a heartbreaker for the Hawkeyes. Over the first five innings, Iowa built a 5-0 lead.
After giving up 6 unanswered runs, Iowa had a chance to come back in the ninth, as it has done so many times before. As soon as Adams and Robert Neustrom hit back-to-back singles, it seemed as if the heroics would come through yet again.
But after a fly out and a strike out, the Hawkeyes ran out of chances. When a team loses a nearly surefire win, it’s always hard, and the team has learned that.
“It was a rough day today,” Heller said in a release.
Iowa will try to get back to its winning ways when it takes on Western Illinois at Banks Field on Tuesday.