Iowa baseball’s 12-4 win over Milwaukee at Banks Field on Wednesday was, to put it mildly, an offensive explosion for the Hawkeyes.

Despite giving up 2 runs in the first inning, the Hawkeyes went above and beyond in their counterattack, scoring 11 runs against four pitchers in the first three frames to put the game away early.

“Just coming out and being focused [was key],” left fielder Tyler Cropley said. “We knew that they were going to throw a lot of guys at us, and we just had the confidence that no matter what guy came in, we were going to be able to do what we did and just hit it around the ballpark.”

Iowa scored 2 in the first and 1 in the second, but the third inning was the biggest of them all — the Hawkeyes scored 8.

A good chunk of runs came from Panther fielding errors. Milwaukee committed 5 errors, 3 of them in the third. Iowa took advantage of the miscues, scoring half of its runs in the inning on errors.

It started when Kyle Crowl reached first on a sacrifice bunt that scored Robert Neustrom, thanks to a throwing error on the Milwaukee pitcher.

Tanner Wetrich then continued the damage with a 2-run double, plating Lorenzo Elion and Crowl.

After Wetrich scored on a sacrifice fly by Justin Jenkins, Cropley brought Grant Judkins in on a single to left field.

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Iowa batted around, bringing Neustrom to the plate for the second time of the inning; he reached and advanced to second on a dropped ball by the left fielder, scoring 2 more.

Elion finished the inning with a single to right field, and Neustrom scored again when Matt Quartel couldn’t handle the ball.

The Hawkeyes kept it simple to get the big lead early, sticking to the basics.

“Don’t try to do too much, don’t try to pull, don’t play a big game today,” Elion said. “The wind was blowing in, so we weren’t trying to do too much. Just play small ball.”

Iowa kept the scoring going with another run in the fourth, and the Hawkeyes scored in every inning until the fifth.

Elion kept his hot streak going, reaching the 4-hit milestone by the fifth inning. He finished 4-for-5 and coupled that with 2 RBIs and a run scored.

The Hawkeye pitching was different from the last midweek battle, however. Against Northern Illinois on April 17, seven Iowa pitchers combined to throw a 1-hitter in an extremely impressive showing that highlighted the progress the staff has made.

Against Milwaukee, the no-hit bid ended as soon as it started when freshman left-hander Trenton Wallace gave up a leadoff single to Devin Rybacki.

Ben Chally and Colin Kreiter both knocked 2-out singles to the outfield later in the inning to bring the two runs in.

The pitching staff stiffened up after that inning, allowing only 2 runs on 7 hits for the rest of the game, though Trevor Schwecke smacked a 2-run shot over the left field fence with two outs in the ninth. Shane Ritter, Jack Dreyer, Cam Baumann, Ben Probst, and Grant Leonard all saw action on the mound.

“We knew coming in that Milwaukee could swing the bats, and in a midweek situation, that’s always a concern — getting into a slugfest with your young pitchers,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said. “They started out hot, found a couple holes, got a couple runs right away, and then it was good to see Trenton work through that.”