The Hawkeyes exciting 4-0 start to the season has quickly turned into a 5-4 start.

The Hawkeyes fell to Wichita State, for the second time of the season, by a final score of 6-4. With the road ahead, Coach Rick Heller and his team can’t afford to keep turning in uneven performances.

“It just wasn’t winning baseball,” said Heller. “We play sloppy like that; we aren’t going to beat anybody.”

For the first half of the game, things were going exactly how you’d plan it out. Adam Mazur was through five innings on 59 pitches and had retired 15/16 batters faced. It looked like he was well on his way to another brilliant start for the Hawkeyes.

On the offensive end, Iowa jumped on Wichita State starter Jace Kaminska and got on the board right away in the first inning. Singles from Michael Seegers and Peyton Williams set the table for Keaton Anthony and Sam Hojnar. An Anthony double and Hojnar sacrifice fly gave the Hawkeyes an early 2-0 lead.

The Hawkeyes added on the third inning with a solo home run from Peyton Williams to make it 3-0. Later in the inning, a Brayden Frazier RBI double scored Keaton Anthony to make it 4-0.

“The way we started out, I felt good about where we were at,” said Heller. “Had good energy and I thought we did a really good job on Kaminska early. Got some runs and had him on the ropes.”

Mazur retired the first batter of the sixth inning, but Andrew Stewart reached on an infield single. Sam Hojnar bobbled the ball at SS and while it was ruled a hit, it was a play that could have been made. Things began to unravel from there.

Jack Sigrist, Brock Rodden and Sawyre Thornhill singled, to bring in their first run of the game and also load the bases. With two outs, Payton Tolle lifted a fly ball to deep left field, forcing Brayden Frazier to the warning track. Frazier’s glove, the ball and the netting surrounding the outfield scoreboard met at the same time, causing the ball to come free. All three baserunners scored to the tie the game at four and while it was ruled a double, it was another play that should have been made.

Will Christophersen came out of the bullpen for Iowa and got through 1.2 innings of work unscathed, but ran into trouble in the eighth inning. Brock Rodden tripled to right field to get a rally going and it was another instance of a play that should have been made. The slicing line drive was a tough play, but it hit off the glove of Keaton Anthony in right field.

Sawyre Thornhill gave the Shockers the lead in the next at-bat with an RBI single, but they were not done taking advantage of Iowa mistakes. A Payton Tolle ground ball to Williams at first looked to have Iowa out of the inning, but Christophersen did not cover the base and it allowed Tolle to reach, extending the inning one more batter.

They cashed in with an RBI single from Chuck Ingram to make it 6-4 Wichita State in the late stages of the game.

Meanwhile, Jace Kaminska battle through the early runs he allowed and kept Wichita State in striking distance. On the day, Jace threw 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits but allowed just two hits in his last 2.1 innings. Cameron Bye was first out of the bullpen, and he was excellent. Bye threw 2.2 innings, while striking out five and allowing just one hit. That allowed the Shockers offense to find their way and get out in front.

Iowa tried to rally in the ninth, getting a single from Will Mulflur, as well as an infield single from Kyle Huckstorf, but they couldn’t get the job done. Keaton Anthony has been a hot bat so far this year, but his fly out to centerfield ended the game and the Hawkeye rally.

Last week against Wichita State, the story of the game was free bases by the pitching staff. Today it was the defensive miscues and not scoring after the third inning. Over the last six games, the Hawkeyes have scored just four of their 24 runs in the sixth inning or later.

“That’s the story of the game. Plays we normally make, and they weren’t easy plays, but we didn’t make them,” said Heller. “We didn’t score after the third (inning)…Kind of a similar game that we played with them last Sunday. We squandered a four-run lead early and just came up short with a rally.”

The Hawkeyes have no time to hang their head, as they take on the Texas A&M Aggies tomorrow night. Micah Dallas has been off to a great start of the mound of A&M and will be a challenge for the Iowa bats. Coach Heller will be looking for better defensive play and it will be much needed if they are going to pick up a victory. The game is at 6:00pm and will be streamed on FloBaseball.