The wind was blowing out at Duane Banks Field and it led to a high scoring affair Saturday afternoon. Drew Irvine was on the mound for the Hawkeyes and a rough 3rd inning, bounced him from the game early. After two hits and an error, Cam Chick blasted a grand slam to left center field, to give the Huskers a 4-0 advantage and they rode that to a 10-8 victory over Iowa.
Max Anderson followed it up with a home run of his own, to extend it to 5-0. Irvine would depart after a walk, but it didn’t matter. Jack Steil would homer to left field off of Ben Beutel to make it a 7-0 lead.
Coach Heller commented on the start from Drew Irvine saying, “Drew just kind of lost control of himself…they took advantage of some free bases and (Drew) just wasn’t sharp today.”
Nebraska starter Chance Hroch got through three clean innings, but Zeb Adreon would homer off of Hroch in the 4th to cut the lead to 7-1.
In the 5th, Luke Roskam would get the Husker lead back to seven, when he singled to left field to score Max Anderson, but the Hawkeyes would respond in the bottom of the inning. Tyler Snep led off the frame with a homer of his own, to right field, to cut the lead to 8-2.
Then with one out, Paul Vossen doubled to left field, which was then followed up with a Ben Norman triple off the left field wall to cut the lead to 8-3. Next in line, was Matthew Sosa and he would get hit by a pitch for the seventh time this season. Chance Hroch would depart for Sayer Diederich, but the Hawks kept rolling.
A Peyton Williams double would score two and cut the Husker lead to just 8-5. Back to back walks set the table for Austin Martin and he would single to right field off of pitcher Braxton Bragg. When it was all said and done, the Huskers would lead just 8-7 through 5 innings.
“It was a good sign that we were fighting the whole game and continuing to push and claw,” said OF Ben Norman, when asked about coming back from down seven runs.
Jackson Payne came in to pitch the 6th for the Hawkeyes, but Cam Chick stayed hot and hit his second home run of the day. This one of the two-run variety and the Huskers extended their lead back to 10-7.
The Hawkeyes would get sacrifice fly from Austin Martin in the 7th to cut the lead to 10-8 and then in the 8th, back to back hits gave the Hawkeyes runners on second and third with just 1 out. However, the Hawks struggles with runners in scoring position kicked in and they could not take advantage of the opportunity. Spencer Schwellenbach pitched out the jam in the 8th and finished it off in the 9th to preserve a 10-8 Huskers win in a wild one.
While, the Hawkeyes lost on the scoreboard, they showed excellent fight and did not give up despite trailing 7-0 and 8-1. Coach Heller echoed that in the press conference saying, “I was really happy with how we approached things all day…showed a lot of fight coming back.” Coach Heller did mention the opportunities squandered late in the game and said that was really the reason why they couldn’t complete the comeback in full.
The Hawkeyes will battle the Huskers for the third and final time tomorrow at 1:05pm. There is wind in forecast again, so I asked Coach Heller about the changes to a game plan when wind is expected.
“Better locate and not miss (pitches) up.”
If you start missing pitches up, batters can elevate the ball off the bat, which leads to fly balls that carry out of the park. Another interesting point Coach Heller made was that free bases (walks/errors) get magnified because a home run is more likely, so it’s not necessarily the home run that beats you, but the walk and/or error that got other runners on.
Will be interesting to watch tomorrow, as the wind certainly played a part in today's contests.
Notes
- Matthew Sosa was hit by a pitch for the seventh time in 10 games
- Ben Norman has gotten a hit in six straight games and reached base in the last eight games
- Today’s game featured six home runs and 18 total runs
- Sunday’s game will be the final game of the season vs Nebraska and will decide the season series (currently tied 2-2)
