The Iowa baseball team lost two of the three games against the Maryland Terrapins from Friday to Sunday at Duane Banks Field to open the Big Ten season.

Maryland defeated Iowa on Friday and Saturday, and the Hawkeyes took the last game of the series on Sunday. 

Iowa now stands at 20-6 on the season.

Friday afternoon

Iowa fell in its Big Ten opener against Maryland, 10-9, on Friday afternoon.

The Hawkeyes started the game well, putting up five runs in the first inning on a grand slam from sophomore Keaton Anthony, and a solo shot from sophomore Sam Petersen. 

On the mound, sophomore Brody Brecht dealt 13 strikeouts in the first five innings of the game.

Iowa led, 5-0, after four innings, but in the fifth, Maryland scored three runs to cut the lead to 5-3, and Brecht’s outing was through. 

In the bottom of the fifth,  Hawkeye sophomore Raider Tello smashed a solo homer to give the Hawkeyes a 6-3 advantage. 

The Terrapins took the lead, 7-6, on a grand slam of their own in the next inning from junior Matt Shaw. Later in the seventh, Anthony reached home when junior Cade Moss was hit by a pitch, which tied the game, 7-7.

In the eighth, the Terrapins took the lead again with three solo home runs from Elijah Lambros, Nick Lorusso, and Shaw. The Hawkeyes put up two of their own in the eighth, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Hawkeyes fell, 10-9. 

“Obviously a tough loss, especially when you lose a lead like that,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said postgame. “But, I felt like our guys came out and executed.” 

Saturday

The Hawkeyes lost another close one to the Terrapins on Saturday afternoon. 

Maryland started the game strong with a lead-off home run from catcher Luke Shliger and would add two more runs, one more in the first and one in the second to jump to an early 3-0 advantage. 

Iowa’s batters were held without a hit until the fifth inning and the Hawkeyes scored their first run of the game in the sixth, coming from an RBI double by Anthony. Then in the seventh, graduate student Brennan Dorighi blasted a three-run shot to right field to give the Hawkeyes a 4-3 lead. 

But the rest of the game was all Maryland, as the Terrapins scored three more runs in the next two innings to take home the win, 7-4. 

“Tough loss today,” Heller said in a release postgame. “Especially when you fight back and take the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Went out and gave a bunch of free bases and gave up the lead. Ended up losing the game late”

Heller mentioned the bullpen struggles were a big factor in the loss. 

“At the end of the day we have to get some things figured out in our bullpen,” Heller said. “We have some guys that aren’t going well right now. But there were positives. Marcus Morgan came in and did a good job today, Luke Lewellyn came in for the second day in a row, Chas Wheatley did a nice job in the top of the ninth. The free bases did us in, way too many.”

Sunday

Iowa fought out a tough win to avoid the sweep against Maryland on Sunday. 

Shliger started the Terrapins off hot once again with a lead-off homerun for the second straight day, but Iowa tied it later in the first inning with an RBI double from junior Kyle Huckstorf.

Junior Ty Langenberg provided solid pitching in the first three innings, only giving up one run, but gave up five more in the fourth and fifth inning combined,

The Hawkeyes’ offense switched into gear in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring eight runs before any outs. 

The scoring started on an error from the Maryland second baseman, which scored Moss and junior Michael Seegers and also advanced sophomore Ben Wilmes to third. 

With runners on the corners, Dorighi dropped a single into center field which drove in Wilmes. Huckstorf then had a single which drove in Dorighi and Anthony. 

Tello joined the action with a single of his own which scored Huckstorf. To end the scoring in the fifth, junior Sam Hojnar hit a deep three-run home run to center field to make the lead 10-6. 

Maryland cut the lead to 10-8 in the next inning, but the Hawkeyes closed out the game strong behind effective pitching from freshman Cade Obermueller, who pitched the last four innings of the game.

Heller was happy with how Obermueller overcame letting up two runs in his first inning of work to guide the Hawkeyes to victory. 

“He got out of that with only two, settled in, and pitched great,” Heller said of Obermueller. “Really proud he was able to overcome that and go back out against some really good hitters.”

The Hawkeyes avoided the sweep, winning the game, 12-8.

Up next

Iowa will play a mid-week contest at Bradley on Wednesday, April 5 at 6 p.m., then travels to Bloomington to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in a three-game series from April 7-9.