Loras College is a DIII school out of Dubuque, Iowa, with an enrollment of just 1,404 students.

Tonight, their baseball team was better than the University of Iowa Baseball team and Brendan Sher put it bluntly in the postgame.

“That can’t happen…no excuses for that. We can’t be doing that. That’s just not the team we are,” said the redshirt junior infielder.

“We weren’t very good tonight and Loras played really well tonight,” said Coach Rick Heller.

The result was a stunning 3-1 loss to Loras.

Missouri transfer Jared Simpson started on the mound for the Hawkeyes and the DuHawks were able to get the runs they needed off of the junior from Clinton. A lead-off walk issued to Dakota Church came back to haunt Simpson, as weak singles in the 3B/SS hole from Luke Fennelly and Daniel Rogers moved Church around the bases for the first run of the game.

Simpson threw a clean second inning, but Loras got back on the board in the third inning. Church singled to start the inning and then was moved to third base on an errant throw from C Brett McCleary.

A Max Cullen double scored Church and made it 2-0 DuHawks. Dylan Pardoe followed with a single, while an errant throw from CF Kyle Huckstorf allowed Cullen to score from third to make it 3-0.

The bullpen for Iowa held strong and gave the Hawkeyes every chance to comeback. Luke Llewellyn and Ben Beutel each threw two scoreless innings, while Jacob Henderson and Casey Day each had a scoreless inning.

However, the Iowa bats were nowhere to be found. Credit some of that to Loras starting pitcher Davis Pasco. His low 80s fastball and mid 60s off-speed had the Hawkeyes off balance all afternoon, but it felt like the Hawkeye batters never adjusted to the lower velocity.

“Pasco did a great job of sinking the ball down in the bottom of the zone and we just beat it into the ground all night. We didn’t drive any gaps,” said Heller.

Pasco went 6.2 innings, struck out three, walked two and allowed just five hits. Ethan Peters came on in relief and the Hawkeyes attempted to rally, but to no avail.

Keaton Anthony led off the eighth inning with a single and a Brendan Sher walk gave Iowa two runners on with just one out. Sam Petersen followed with a single, but Sher headed towards third base thinking Anthony was going to score. Keaton was held at third base and Sher was caught in no mans land. A crazy 7-6-4-5-4-3-8 play resulted in Petersen being tagged out for the second out.

The base running mistake took Iowa out of a bases loaded, one out situation and Kyle Huckstorf struck out to end the threat altogether.

The Hawkeyes got on the board in the ninth, with an RBI infield single from Peyton Williams. However, Ethan Peters slammed the door on an Iowa rally with strikeouts of Keaton Anthony and Sam Link to end the game.

“End of the day, we just didn’t play very well,” said Heller. “A lot of (D3) teams come in and play scared. They did not, so tip your hat to those guys.”

On the day, Iowa batted was just 4/21 (.190) with runners on base and just 2/11 (.182) with runners in scoring position. With the loss, the Hawkeyes fall to 4-3 on the season and have lost three in a row.

Allow me to calm everyone down. The sky is not falling. The season is not over. This game does not even count for the RPI. Should this ever happen? No. Should Heller and the rest of the team pack up and start preparing for 2023? No.

Going forward, Iowa will just have to be better and there is reason to believe they will be with all of the talent they have in the batting order and on the pitching staff. Last season, Iowa started 4-7 and rebounded to finish 26-18. 48 games still remain this season, plus the Big Ten Tournament.

Coming up, the Hawkeyes have plenty of opportunities to pick up resume building wins, starting in Frisco this weekend. Weekend series against UC Irvine, Texas Tech and Central Michigan will be huge as well.

Rick Heller and the Hawkeyes will be back in action tomorrow at Duane Banks Field for a game against Cornell College. First pitch is at 4:05pm and it will be streamed on BTN+.