The Iowa baseball team lost two of three games this weekend against No. 10 Oregon State at Principal Park in Des Moines, Iowa.
After losing on Friday and Saturday by a combined seven runs, the Hawkeyes and Beavers ended up with a 6-6 tie on Sunday. This was due to a travel curfew placed on Oregon State to get back home to Corvallis.
So Iowa moves to 32-17-1 on the season and remains 21-6 in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes still sit on top of the conference standings with UCLA and Oregon trailing by only a handful of games.
Errors cost the Hawkeyes in game one
To say Iowa would be tied with Oregon State, 6-6, heading into the eighth inning after Cade Obermueller had his worst start of the season would be unbelievable. On Friday night, though, Obermueller simply didn’t have his best stuff against a sizzling Beaver offense.
He finished the night with just over three innings pitched and three runs given up. While two of the runs were unearned, the error came from Obermueller himself on a fielding mistake.
The Hawkeyes found themselves down, 6-0, then after relief pitcher Sam Hart entered the game and gave up a three-run home run in the fourth inning.
All hope seemed to be lost.
But over the next four innings, Iowa scratched and clawed its way back into the game. It was eventually tied after a two-run home run by shortstop Gable Mitchell sent the entire crowd into a frenzy. But this buzz lasted very shortly.
Season-long middle reliever Anthony Watts entered the eighth inning with the responsibility of keeping the game tied at six. Watts, unlike himself, started the frame with a walk and hit by pitch, immediately putting the Beavers in a position to retake the lead.
Following a mound visit by Iowa pitching coach Sean Kenny, Watts dialed in and forced the next two batters to pop up — in need of just one more out to escape the jam.
After walking the next batter, Watts drew a grounder from Oregon State’s Wilson Weber. Watts fielded the dribbler back to the mound, glanced to third base, and rifled the ball over Caleb Wulf’s head, scoring all three runners on base.
Four of Iowa’s nine runs allowed came from errors and mental mistakes. If the Hawkeyes executed just one of these plays, the outcome could have drastically shifted.
Ben DeTaeye shines in first start
After Saturday’s 5-1 loss, Heller announced to the media that typical Sunday starter Reese Beuter wouldn’t be available for this weekend due to a nerve injury.
Relief pitcher Ben DeTaeye got the nod to start the game for the Hawkeyes in his place. In what was his first start of the season, DeTaeye rose to the occasion, giving Iowa a chance to win the game with a stellar stat line.
DeTaeye threw five innings of no-hit baseball, giving up one earned run in the sixth frame after walking his fourth batter. While this effort wasn’t in an eventual Hawkeye win, a start like this from DeTaeye can only bring positivity to Heller and his coaching staff.
In case Beuter remains hurt to finish the season, Iowa has more than one option to turn to for that exact emergency.