What defense?
Iowa and Missouri combined for 33 runs and 40 hits in the Tigers’ 17-16 extra-inning win over the Hawkeyes on Tuesday evening at Banks Field.
“The ending sucked. But I guess you could say it was a fun game, playing throughout all 11 innings of whatever,” Hawkeye Robert Neustrom said. “But it just sucks to come out on this end, especially to a team like Missouri … we came in as the underdog — big time — played really well until the end.”
Two runs in the 11th sealed the deal for Missouri; Iowa scored 1 of its own but couldn’t answer with more.
Iowa seemed to have the game at hand entering the eighth inning, with a 13-6 lead, but Missouri said, show me. The Tigers erupted for 7 runs in the eighth and added 2 more in the ninth to take a 1-run lead before the Hawkeyes tied things up in the bottom of the ninth.
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t pitch very well at all, especially the guys in the middle innings,” head coach Rick Heller said. “Once [Missouri] got hot, it was just a bunch of ground balls finding holes, and we couldn’t stop it.”
RELATED: Cropley shining bright as offensive star
Right out of the gate, Tyler Cropley picked up right where he left off in Iowa’s series finale against Michigan. In that game, Cropley hit a walk-off home run that propelled Iowa to the series win, and then in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against Missouri, the junior smacked a pitch over the left-field wall, giving Iowa 1-0 advantage.
And the second inning opened things up for the Hawkeyes.
Matt Hoeg started things with a 2-run homer, a sacrifice fly from Mitchell Boe added another run, followed by Cropley’s 2-RBI single. A Neustrom RBI double added the final run in the inning.
Iowa added another run in the following inning, as Boe singled up the middle, scoring Kyle Crowl.
After three, the Hawkeyes led the SEC foe, 8-0, and it seemed as though everything was going their way. That is, until Missouri went on a run, scoring 6 runs in a three-inning stretch.
“It’s not demoralizing,” Cropley said. “It’s more our pitchers just got hit today. They didn’t walk a lot of guys, which is good to see, but they just got hit around a little more than they usually do.”
Trenton Wallace gave Iowa a quality start; he pitched the first 3 innings, holding the Tigers scoreless and only giving up 3 hits, striking out 3.
But he exited the game early with forearm soreness, something that was his call.
Heller said the issue has been on-and-off for Wallace.
“It started tightening up in the third … he didn’t want to take any chances and came out,” Heller said. “We’re trying to be smart with him. We’re going to need him.”
But once Wallace left, Iowa rotated through seven more arms, leaving the Hawkeyes with question marks for pitchers in today’s game against Western Illinois.
Heller said Jack Dreyer would get the start and go as long as he could, because he did not pitch Tuesday, but the bullpen was still in question for the game.