By Adam Hensley
Regular-season awards don’t mean much come postseason play.
Just ask Iowa’s Jake Adams, the Big Ten Player of the Year, who finished 0-for-5 at the plate in Iowa’s 9-8 thriller against Maryland.
Or, better yet, ask Maryland’s Brian Shaffer, the Big Ten’s Pitcher of the Year, who gave up 8 runs on 10 hits in his 6.1 innings of action.
The game was anything but ordinary, fitting the regular-season narrative of wild Hawkeye baseball.
Just days after the conference tabbed Adams as the best player, he wound up with a goose egg in his Hawkeye postseason début, yet Iowa never backed down from a Maryland team projected to be the Big Ten’s best squad in the preseason.
Mason McCoy and Robert Neustrom joined Adams in a tough day hitting (or not), combining for 1-of-13. Iowa’s top-three hitters struggled all game long, aside from Neustrom’s home run.
“I felt really good about how things were going,” head coach Rick Heller said. “I kept thinking that one of those guys in the middle was going to break it open. We usually get a lot of production from [McCoy, Adams, and Neustrom].”
As it turned out, the bottom of the batting order – Tyler Cropley, Grant Judkins, Matt Hoeg, Ben Norman, and Mitchell Boe – led the Hawkeye charge in survive-and-advance season.
Iowa’s bottom half accounted for 8 of the Hawkeyes’ 12 hits, 6 of the 9 runs, and 6 of the 9 RBIs, including the game-winning run.
A Terrapin outfielder caught Hoeg’s fly ball to right field, but it was deep enough to drive in Cropley for the game-deciding score.
“It was a great at bat by [Cropley] just to get on base,” Hoeg said. “Judkins’ big hit was huge to get him over to third, and I knew I just had to get a pop fly. [Cropley] was fast enough to get [the score].”
Most observers expected Adams to do most Iowa’s scoring damage, but the bottom of the hitting order feasted on the Big Ten’s top pitcher.
Nick Gallagher, voted a second-team All-Big Ten pitcher, struggled mightily with the Terrapins. While Shaffer struggled for Maryland, Gallagher had an even tougher time on the mound.
The junior gave up a season-high 8 runs on 14 hits in 6 innings – anything but a typical outing for one of the conference’s best pitchers.
Kyle Shimp relieved Gallagher and allowed only a single hit through his 1.1 innings, but the biggest exclamation point on Iowa’s win came from Josh Martsching.
“Josh came in and did what he’s done all year,” Heller said.
Martsching earned the win, pitching 1.2 scoreless innings. He did not allow a single hit and only walked one while striking out 3.
With only one out and the bases loaded, the senior proved to be Iowa’s best defensive weapon in a game decided by a single run. Martsching made quick work of the next two batters to smother an inning primed for a Terrapin turnaround.
“For me, I want to be in those situations,” Martsching said. “I [want] the ball in my hands more than anyone else’s hands.”
His presence in the ninth suffocated any comeback left in Maryland’s tank. Back-to-back strikeouts concluded the game, advancing Iowa to the May 26 contest against Nebraska.
Iowa managed to pull off a win despite uncharacteristic performances from the go-to Hawkeyes. In a game the featured 27 hits, offense and defense came from often-overshadowed contributors.
Iowa controls its destiny; to make it to the NCAA Tournament, the Hawkeyes need to win the Big Ten Tournament. That next-man-up mentality and resiliency is what Iowa needs to make a postseason run.