After a disappointing series vs Illinois last week, Iowa needed to come out strong this week and show they are still an NCAA regional contender.

Trenton Wallace was locked in on the mound and helped lead Iowa to a 6-1 series opening win vs Northwestern in Evanston.

Wallace started the game off by striking out the side in the top of the first and continued to have success for his whole outing. He allowed just three hits and just two baserunners over his first five innings. Trenton ran into some trouble in the sixth, but got a groundout to leave two baserunners stranded. The final line showed 6 innings, allowing six baserunners, while striking out eight.

“He was in command and was in control of himself. He was able to locate all of his pitches and was consistently ahead in the count and he did it against a good offense,” said Coach Heller on the performance of his Friday ace.

Meanwhile, the Hawkeye offense did enough to win the game. Mike Doherty had the Iowa bats silenced through three innings, but a Dylan Nedved RBI double brought in the games first run in the fourth. Then in the fifth, Peyton Williams got on-base with a ground-rule double and Austin Martin followed with a two-run home run to left field, giving Iowa a 3-0 lead.

Izaya Fullard added to the Iowa lead in the seventh with a solo home run, his fifth of the season, but that was not all for the Hawkeye bats. Ben Norman would show his speed, stretching out an RBI triple and then came across the plate on a Peyton Williams single. Iowa led 6-0 going into the bottom of the eighth. Despite, the offense taking a little bit of time to get going, Coach Heller was happy the overall performance of the bats.

“It was a steady offense and that was great to see. It was a professional effort and that’s what we need the rest of the way.”

Anthony Calarco got the Cats on the board, with a solo home run off of reliever Trace Hoffman. Hoffman ran into some trouble, allowing a couple of hits, but cut the Northwestern rally short when he got Vincent Bianchina to ground out.

Grant Leonard came on for the ninth inning and retired the side in order, to give Iowa the series opening 6-1 win.

Iowa moves to 23-16 on the season and with not a lot of room for error on the NCAA bubble, the win is as big as any all season. The Hawkeyes are chasing Maryland in the Big Ten standings for the #4 spot, as the Terps take on Michigan this weekend.

The Hawkeyes will look to clinch a series win tomorrow, as they take on the Wildcats at 1:00pm on BTN+.

Notes

- Iowa has won eight straight Friday games.

- Izaya Fullard has reached base in 22 straight games.

- The Hawkeyes are 3-0 vs Northwestern this season, clinching the season series