OMAHA — With an offense seemingly left behind in the wilds of Banks Field, Hawkeye baseball turned to its rock on the mound.

Nick Allgeyer played an instrumental role in ending Michigan’s 20-game winning streak on April 27, and on May 23, he put up an almost identical stat line.

The only difference was a loss.

“We wasted a great outing by Nick Allgeyer,” head coach Rick Heller said.

Iowa’s lack of offense spoiled any hopes of an opening-round victory in the Big Ten Tournament, plain and simple.

Aside from a home run, Allgeyer kept Michigan batters guessing. The redshirt junior pitched 7 innings, striking out 9 and allowing 1 run on 4 hits. On April 27, when the Hawkeyes beat the Wolverines for the first time this season, he threw 7 innings, registering 8 strikeouts and giving up 1 run on 5 hits.

Allgeyer’s 9 K’s (tied for a career-high) pushed his season total to 95 — the second-most season strikeouts in Hawkeye history.

Despite not allowing a run until the fourth inning, Allgeyer said that he struggled with his command in the game’s early innings.

“The first three innings, I don’t think I threw a breaking ball for a strike,” he said. “I battled out there; I had fastballs, change-ups — the first three innings, pretty much change-ups were the only secondary pitches I could get over.”

Allgeyer said that after giving up a home run to Jesse Franklin, he settled into his rhythm. That’s what Iowa desperately needed — a performance from Allgeyer that had the Hawkeyes in a prime position to break through and take control of the game. But the hits never came.

At one point, it looked as though Michigan was poised to break a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth. Allgeyer struck out the first Wolverine batter, but Michigan’s Jesse Franklin (who had hit a home run off Allgeyer earlier in the game) sent a ball deep into left field.

Ben Norman retreated to the wall and had excellent position, but he dropped what would have been the second out of the inning. Instead, Franklin made his way to second. Allegeyer walked the next batter, putting runners on first and second.

The pitcher got out of the jam, tossing a ball in a perfect place for poor contact, resulting in a double play and keeping the score tied at 1 — another defensive play that stifled a solid Michigan shot at scoring, leaving the door wide open for Iowa to counter with its own bats.

B6 | Big-time inning ending 1-4-3 double play from the #Hawkeyes… Heading to the 7th tied 1-1… pic.twitter.com/LhNsMeJvxx

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) May 23, 2018

Even when Allgeyer’s day ended, the strong pitching continued. Zach Daniels followed, picking up right where he left off, but his game fell apart in the 10th inning.

“Zach had good stuff,” Heller said. “Unfortunately, when it went, it went fast.”

Daniels pitched 2.1 innings, striking out 3, but he gave up 2 quick walks in extras that proved to be too much.

However, the blame can’t be placed on the late pitching miscues by Daniels; the bats didn’t connect as they had previously for Iowa. The 1 hit was a season-low for the Hawkeyes, but there were plenty of spectacular plays made by Michigan’s infield that could have easily gone differently.

“We made some big defensive plays,” Michigan head coach Erik Bakich said. “The key to preventing [Iowa’s] offense from getting going was all those web-gem plays. There were four or five hits that normally are hits, and on a turf field, maybe a hit.”

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