By Jess Westendorf
The Iowa baseball team (22-14) started off hot but fizzled out as the evening went along in the second game against Rutgers (14-21), falling, 5-3, at Banks Field. The loss evened the series at 1-1.
“Rutgers played really well,” head coach Rick Heller said. “We knew we would have to swing the bats tonight, and we struggled to get lead-off guys on offensively. Most of our rallies came with one or two outs, and we didn’t get the clutch hits tonight.”
During the first three innings, Iowa looked sharp on defense, and some of the bats were hot.
Redshirt sophomore Chris Whelan got the Hawkeyes on the board first with a solo homer in the bottom of the third. It turned out to be the only time the Hawkeyes led in the game.
Rutgers responded in the top of the fourth inning, scoring 2 runs.
When Ryan Erickson walked Rutgers’ Mike Martinez, things started to fall apart for Iowa. After a bobbled throw and wild throw to first base, Rutgers had two runners on base and one out. Christian Campbell hit a sacrifice fly for one run, the next batter dropped one into center field to bring home the second.
From this point on, the Hawkeyes struggled on defense, with Erickson striking out only 3 batters while allowing 6 hits and 4 runs in seven innings.
“Ryan had command of his off-speed,” Heller said. “He was throwing his changeup and curve ball for strikes. As the game went on, his breaking stuff started to disappear, and he couldn’t hit with it.”
At times, the Hawkeyes had trouble making a simple throw to first. Iowa gave up 2 unearned runs on errors, and that might have cost them the game.
In the top of the fifth, Iowa allowed two runners on base due to throwing errors with one runner scoring. Rutgers increased its lead to 3.
The Hawkeyes just couldn’t get anything started offensively, leaving nine runners on base.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the ninth that Iowa tried to turn things around — Whelan’s home run made things interesting late.
“The first at bat, I was really hoping for a fastball up in the zone,” Whelan said. “He came at me with a breaking ball, and I had a good idea he was coming back with a fastball. Luckily, he elevated it, and I was able to get to it. The second one was the same. He elevated his fastball, and I was lucky enough to be sitting on it.”
Heading into the third game, Iowa needs to sharpen up and stay more disciplined. The goal is to avoid handing Rutgers any “freebies,” Heller said.
The third game will start April 23 at 12:05 p.m. at Banks Field.