Iowa baseball team runs away from Maryland with eight-run sixth inning, wins its third game of the weekend
The Hawkeyes improved to 7-8 on the season with three-straight victories to end the weekend, including an 11-2 romp of the Terrapins on Sunday.
Iowa first baseman Peyton Williams watches where the ball is while racing to third base during a baseball game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Kansas Jayhawks on Tuesday, March 10, at Duane Banks Field. The Hawkeyes defeated the Jayhawks, 8-0.
March 28, 2021
Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller noted after the team’s 8-2 loss to Ohio State on Friday that “nothing went right” for the Hawkeyes in their third straight loss. Well, plenty went right for Iowa in the final three games of the weekend.
An eight-run sixth inning propelled the Iowa baseball team to an 11-2 victory over Maryland in Columbus, Ohio, at Bill Davis Stadium on Sunday.
“Top to bottom, it was another errorless game,” Heller said in a release, “and I couldn’t be happier with how we bounced back from a rough Friday night and followed it up with a great win on Sunday.”
After falling to Ohio State in its first of four games this weekend, Iowa (7-8 overall) won two games on Saturday — one against the Buckeyes and another against the Terrapins — before Sunday’s series-ending victory in cloudy, breezy conditions.
Iowa is on a season-best three-game winning streak. The team outscored opponents 24-15 over the weekend.
“Today was a big step for us,” Heller said in a release. “We had 18 innings [Saturday], everything went great, and we played hard, but we followed it up with a quick turnaround on a cold, blustery day with the wind blowing. We showed a lot of toughness in all facets of the game.”
Clinging to a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning Sunday, eight of Iowa’s first nine batters reached base to blow the game open.
Redshirt freshman outfielder Brayden Frazier singled home redshirt junior Izaya Fullard and redshirt freshman Tyler Snep for Frazier’s second and third RBIs of the day to extend Iowa’s lead to 4-1.
By the time first baseman Peyton Williams hit a three-run home run in the same half of the inning, Iowa led 10-1. The home run was Williams’ second in as many days, and Iowa blasted seven home runs in four games over the weekend. The redshirt freshman brought another runner home with a single in the bottom of the eight.
Starting pitcher Duncan Davitt went six innings and allowed only three hits and one run for the Hawkeyes.
After walking a batter and hitting another with a pitch, Maryland scored its only run of the day in the top of the second inning. But the right-hander settled in after that, retiring nine straight batters in the middle of his start and striking out five.
“Today started with another quality start from Duncan,” Heller said. “He had to fight through a little command issue in the second and we didn’t get the shutdown inning, but we were able to go out and score again and Duncan shut the door after that.
“He was solid through six and we were going to send him back out in the seventh, but we had the long inning where we scored a bunch of runs and decided to go to the bullpen and they shut the door.”
Ty Langenberg, Ben Probst, and Grant Leonard combined for three scoreless innings pitched in relief of Davitt to secure the victory.
Iowa stays on the road next weekend. The Hawkeyes head to West Lafayette, Indiana, for a three-game series against Purdue at Alexander Field. The series opener is set for Friday at 3 p.m.
