It was a chilly night at Duane Banks Field on Friday night, but it had a different feel with nearly 1,200 fans in attendance. The Hawkeyes would send their supporters home happy following a 7-1 victory over the Gophers.

Minnesota had righthander Sam Ireland on the mound vs the Iowa ace Trenton Wallace.

The first four innings of the ballgame went in favor of Sam Ireland, who allowed just one Hawkeye baserunner that span. Iowa had no hits through the first four innings, while Minnesota had six singles in the box score. Trenton Wallace was able to work around all of the traffic on the basepaths, most notably the third inning. With one on and one out, LF Dylan Nedved made an excellent diving play to rob Chase Stanke of a hit, but the field umpire inexplicably said it hit the outfield turf. The Gophers had runners on first and second, with just one out after the missed call, but Wallace was able to roll a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.

“Our guys are prepared to just keep playing….The most important thing is that you keep pitching and playing defense, so you can give yourself a chance,” said Coach Heller with regards to working through some adversity early in the game.

The fifth inning came, and the script flipped. After the Gophers had tallied seven hits to the Hawkeyes zero, they finally got it going. Dylan Nedved would reach on an error to begin the inning, followed by a Zeb Adreon single to right field. Ireland would later hit Andy Nelson and Ben Norman with pitches to load the bases and then bring in the games first run. Iowa would extend the lead to 2-0 when Izaya Fullard drew a bases loaded walk. Minnesota elected to keep the struggling Sam Ireland in the game and Peyton Williams made them pay with a 430-foot moonshot grand slam to right field.

“I was just looking for a slider I could hit because we knew he liked to go to that and I got the hanging slider I was looking for,” said Peyton Williams on the game changing home run. Iowa extended their lead to 6-0 on the blast and the atmosphere at Duane Banks was electric.

In the sixth inning, Trenton Wallace would allow a couple hits and a walk to load the bases, but was able to strike out Brett Bateman to get out of yet another jam. Wallace would go six innings, striking out six and despite allowing 11 baserunners he did not allow a run. Every time the Gophers looked like they were going to score, Trenton got out of it.

Then in the 7th inning, Minnesota relief pitcher Danny Kapala helped the Hawkeyes when he walked three straight batters to begin the inning. Drake Davis would come into pitch, but Austin Martin would manufacture a run when he grounded into a fielder’s choice. Although, Iowa wasn’t able to capitalize with more runs, they took a 7-0 lead into the late innings.

Grant Leonard came in for the 9th inning and the Gophers were able to get a run across the plate, but that would be all, and Iowa would take the series opener 7-1. Another, noteworthy thing to add was how the defense backed up the Hawkeye pitchers all game. A big double play turn ended a Gopher scoring chance in the third inning and a Dylan Nedved diving play in the eighth inning kept two runs off the board.

“It makes you relaxed more, it settles you in and allows to pound the strike zone right off the bat”- Trenton Wallace on the advantages to knowing your defense can make all of the plays behind you.

With the win Iowa moves to 10-9 on the season and even though they got over .500 for the first time this season, the players aren’t thinking about their record.

Trenton Wallace spoke about the significance, if any, to getting over .500, “I don’t think we really focus on our record right now, we are just trying to play the game that we can play.”

The Hawkeyes will be back in action on Saturday at 2:05pm, but there is some rain in the forecast.

Notes

- Ben Norman was hit by a pitch twice

- Izaya Fullard reached base in four out of five at bats. All walks.

- Peyton Williams grand slam was measured at 430 feet.

- Iowa scored seven runs on just three hits.

- First time over .500 all season.

- Iowa has won six of their last seven games.