The Iowa baseball team fell to Illinois State, 3-2, on Tuesday night at Duane Banks Field.

The Hawkeyes scored both of their runs in the first three innings of the game — one in the first and another in the third.

The Redbirds hung two runs on the Hawkeyes in the third frame.

Tuesday’s contest remained tied until the seventh inning. Then, the Redbirds scored a deciding run on a throwing error Hawkeye shortstop Michael Seegers made.

“Unfortunately, the winning run scored on a ball we have to be able to knock down at first base,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said. “That can’t happen, and it was really the only miscue of the game, defensively, but it was still costly.” 

Heller played six pitchers on Tuesday. Junior Duncan Davitt drew the start. He surrendered four hits and two earned runs in three innings pitched. 

True freshman Brody Brecht and senior Ben Beutel tossed the last three frames of Tuesday’s game for Iowa. Brecht let up two hits and one run in two innings of work. Beutel gave up no hits in the ninth inning. He threw just eight pitches.

“I thought our pitching staff did a really good job against a good offensive team,” Heller said. “If you would have told me we would hold Illinois State to three runs tonight, I thought we would have gotten a win.”

Illinois State shut the door on Iowa in the ninth inning, calling in its closer Jared Hart, who boasts a 1.70 ERA this season. Hart threw 14 pitches in the final frame of Tuesday’s game.

Iowa went 2-of-19 with men on base Tuesday, stranding a whopping nine runners on the contest.

“We were super undisciplined on offense, we chased a lot of pitches,” Heller said. “They had six walks in the first five innings and we really didn’t make them pay for that.”

Big Picture

Counting Tuesday’s contest, Iowa has played nine midweek games this season. The Hawkeyes have gone 7-2 in such contests.

Loras College dealt Iowa its other midweek loss on March 1.

Up Next

Iowa will play a three-game series against Purdue this weekend in Iowa City. The Boilermakers are 25-14 on the year. Purdue is currently in ninth place in the Big Ten Conference standings.

The first game of the series will begin on Friday at 4:05 p.m. and stream live on BTN+.