Iowa baseball faces an elimination game after falling to Mulvane in the 12th to drop its National Baseball Congress World Series record to 0-2.
By Jordan Zuniga
The Hawkeye baseball team lost its second game in the National Baseball Congress World Series to the Mulvane Patriots, 5-4, in a 12-inning game on Tuesday.
Iowa, representing the USA National Team, needs to win its game Thursday in order to stay alive.
Tuesday’s game took place at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kansas, and on the bump for the Hawkeyes was recent Juco transfer Brady Schanuel.
For him, and the Hawkeyes, the game started out great. After he shut down the Patriots in the top half of the first, the Hawkeyes scored in the bottom half on a RBI triple by Robert Neustrom to put them up 1-0.
But the lead didn’t last long — the Patriots took the lead on a 2-run double by Adam Brown to give them a 2-1 lead.
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The game remained that way for a while, as both pitchers settled down. Schanuel did not allow a hit after the second inning, and he came out after four innings, having given up 2 hits and 2 runs while striking out 5.
After four innings without a hit, the Hawkeyes were finally able to break through against Patriot starting pitcher Noah Draper in the sixth, when Tyler Croply knocked a one-out single, later scoring on a two-out double by Matt Hoeg that tied the game at 2.
Iowa untied the score in the bottom of the seventh, when Neustrom drove in his second run of the game with a two-out double that scored Kyle Crowl, giving the Hawkeyes a 3-2 advantage.
The Hawkeyes had not yielded a run since the second inning, but with two outs in the top of the ninth, the Patriots broke their scoreless streak on a Hawkeye error to tie the game at 3 and send the game to extra innings.
The Hawkeyes got off to a rough start in the 10th — the Patriots were able to push a run across to make it 4-3.
But Iowa remained resilient, and Grant Judkins was able to drive in Crowl after he doubled to lead off the inning.
After neither team scored in the 11th, the Patriots led off the 12th with a double that later scored to put the Pats on top 5-4.
In the bottom of the 12th, the Hawkeyes had an opportunity to tie and potentially win the game when they loaded the bases with one out.
Judkins and Hoeg had chances to tie the game, but both were unable to do so, sealing the win for the Patriots.
For Iowa, it’s do or drive time. After losing Sunday and Tuesday, one more loss will eliminate them from the Series.
Iowa’s opponent and the time of the game have yet to be announced.