Iowa 5, North Carolina 4: Survive and Advance

Iowa had to survive some intense late game drama -- and a furious comeback effort by North Carolina -- but the Hawkeyes held off the "Diamond Heels" to earn a 5-4 win and stay in the winner's side of the draw in the Terre Haute regional.

Marcus Morgan gave Iowa a solid start and the Iowa bats staked Iowa to an early lead, but the game came down to a pair of eighth-inning runs by Iowa -- and a nerve-wracking ninth inning.

The Hawkeyes will play regional host Indiana State in the next round, with first pitch set for 5 PM CT on Saturday, June 3.

Marcus Morgan ended up giving Iowa five solid innings, but his night started on a rocky note, with a leadoff hit by pitch, followed by a wild pitch and a walk two batters later. Morgan got a pair of outs to get out of that jam, which became a bit of a trend for his outing.

He gave up a leadoff single in the second, but induced three straight outs after that to avoid any danger. The third inning was Morgan's easiest of the game, a simple 1-2-3 inning that featured a ground out, a strikeout, and a pop out.

The fourth was another hairy inning, as Morgan allowed a leadoff double and a pair of walks around a strikeout. UNC managed to score their first run of the game on a sacrifice fly, but Morgan still got out of further danger (despite another hit batter), thanks to a ground out.

Morgan gave up another walk in in the fifth, but he also got a pair of strikeouts and UNC's Jackson Van De Brake was caught stealing as well, ending an inning that had the potential to get away from Morgan and wrapping his night up at 5 IP. While Morgan allowed more traffic on the base paths than Hawkeye fans desired, he (and the Iowa defense) did manage to hold the Heels to just one run.

Morgan's final line: 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 wild pitches, 2 hit batters

Meanwhile, the Iowa bats started hot, with a single from Sam Petersen and a walk from Brennen Dorighi giving Iowa an immediate scoring opportunity. Two batters later, Sam Hojnar slapped a double into left field to score both Petersen and Hojnar to give Iowa a quick 2-0 lead.

Iowa made it 3-0 in the second inning thanks to back-to-back-to-back hits from Brayden Frazier (single), Cade Moss (double), and Ben Wilmes (single), with the final hit scoring Frazier. Raider Tello grounded out to end a bases loaded threat for Iowa, but the Hawks still had an early 3-0 lead.

The Hawkeys got baserunners in four of the next five innings, but couldn't generate any further scoring chances until Iowa's bats found their mojo again in the eighth inning.

Michael Seegers drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on a single by Kyle Huckstorf. Seegers then scored on a single from Frazier, before Huckstorf scored on a sacrifice bunt from Moss. Iowa loaded the bases again, but couldn't score any more runs as Tello hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

Those two Iowa insurance runs turned into game-winning runs during a white-knuckle ninth as the usually airtight Iowa bullpen sprung a few leaks.

Jack Whitlock took over for Morgan and was just about flawless, aside from a small hiccup in the sixth when he gave up a single and a walk on consecutive at-bats. He retired six consecutive batters across the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings and allowed Iowa to enter the ninth with a 5-1 lead.

Will Christopherson replaced Whitlock, and while he was one of Iowa's top relievers this season, he couldn't get outs tonight. Twice he started a batter on an 0-2 count only to end up allowing a walk. His first walk put UNC's leadoff hitter on base -- at least until the next UNC hitter, Alberto Osuna, crushed a home run to center-left to cut Iowa's lead to 5-3.

UNC got two of its next three batters on base, and all of a sudden the tying run was standing on first. That was the (merciful) end of the night for Christopherson, with Luke Llewellyn coming in to replace him.

After allowing a double to the first batter he faced, scoring UNC's Casey Cook, Llewellyn settled down and got a pair of strikeouts to end the game and make sure North Carolina's comeback bid fell just short.

For eight innings, this was was looking like a very solid performance for the Hawkeyes. The hitters strung together enough hits in the first, second, and eighth innings to allow Iowa to plate five runs. Marcus Morgan was a bit wild at times -- four walks, a pair of HBPs, and two more wild pitches -- but he was able to pitch himself out of trouble (with an assist from his defense, too) and limited any UNC damage to just a single run.

Then Whitlock gave Iowa three very solid innings out of the bullpen on 42 total pitches, and it looked like Iowa might be able to get a win in their NCAA regional opener without taxing any arms. The stressful ninth inning ended that dream a bit, with Christopherson throwing 26 pitches and Llewellyn tossing 13 of his own to end the game.

Still, Iowa got the win they needed to stay on the right side of the bracket, and the bullpen arms should still be in pretty good shape heading into the weekend.

Iowa didn't exactly crush it in the clutch hitting department in this game, but compared to North Carolina, the Hawkeyes were the the Houston Astros in the playoffs. Iowa finished a pedestrian .250 (5/20) with runners on, and .273 (3/11) with runners in scoring position. The two innings where Iowa left the bases loaded stung, but the Hawkeyes still plated runners in both those frames, and every run was crucial tonight.

North Carolina, by comparison, went .118 (2/17) with runners on in this game and just .083 (1/12) with runners in scoring position. Iowa pitched themselves into more than a few sticky situations in this game, but the Heels weren't able to make them pay.

Seven Iowa hitters had at least one hit in the game, led by Huckstorf (2/3) and Frazier (2/4). Hojnar led Iowa with 2 RBIs, while he and Moss had Iowa's only extra-base hits of the game (both doubles).

The win keeps Iowa on the winner's side of the bracket and sets up a showdown with regional host Indiana State. The Sycamores needed a late comeback to earn a 6-5 win and avoid an upset bid by Wright State in the regional opener. Iowa-Indiana State is set for Saturday, June 3rd at 5:00 PM CT.

ESPN+ will have television/streaming coverage of the game.

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