Doesn’t matter if it’s by ten runs or one run, impressive or ugly, it all counts the same in the win column and that was true of tonight’s 6-2 win for Iowa over Maryland.
Trenton Wallace battled on the mound all night, but for the second straight week, consistent command of his pitches just was not quite there.
“I think pitcher’s go through things as the season goes on. It’s just not happening as easy and I think Trenton sometimes puts a lot of pressure on himself, when things go downhill.” Coach Rick Heller said following the victory.
Wallace allowed two base runners or more in four of the five innings he pitched in and walked/hit eight Maryland batters. However, he only allowed one run, despite the constant traffic on the base paths and Coach Heller did not let that go unnoticed, “He fought. He battled for us, he worked out of jams.”
Wallace got back-to-back strikeouts to strand bases loaded in the first inning, but then in the third inning a Matthew Shaw sacrifice fly would put the Terrapins on top 1-0. Wallace would use strikeouts in third and fourth inning to keep Maryland at just one run. Trace Hoffman came in relief, with bases loaded and got a 6-4-3 inning to end the fifth inning, but the Terrapins would add a second run on an RBI single from Matthew Shaw in the sixth.
On the other side, Sean Burke struggled with his command, as well, walking five, but struck out nine over five innings to shut down the Iowa bats. Over two starts vs Iowa this year Sean Burke accumulated 20 strikeouts and Brendan Sher said Coach Sutherland kept them on track when going up to bat.
“Marty (Sutherland) tells us ‘Stay the course’… ‘Whatever happens in your first at bat, your second at bat…stay the course.”
Burke began to run out of steam in the sixth inning, as he allowed a couple base runners on, including a Zeb Adreon single, which was just Iowa’s second of the game. A wild pitch would score Austin Martin, who had walked, and cut the lead to 2-1. Brayden Frazier would walk to put runners on the corners for Brendan Sher. Maryland would elect to keep Burke in the game and Sher would come up clutch with a laser double in the gap to score both Sosa and Frazier, giving Iowa the lead 3-2.
“He came with a curve ball and I was just on time for it. It was a great couple of at bats that we put together and I was glad to be the one in that spot,” said Sher.
Iowa would get walk and a Peyton Williams double to put in a great position to score in the seventh and then Hellerball struck. Dylan Nedved and Zeb Adreon would both lay down squeeze bunts and both times runners were safe at home. The small ball approach got the Hawkeyes two runs and extended the lead to 5-2.
Then in the eighth, a Peyton Williams single would score Ben Norman and add yet another insurance run to the board, making it 6-2.
Dylan Nedved came in to pitch with a runner on in seventh, looking to bounce back from his last appearance, and he got a 6-4-3 double play. He would end up finishing the game on the mound, getting the last nine outs of the game to finish off a 6-2 Hawkeye win.
Iowa was able to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss to Rutgers soured a good weekend series win and Coach Heller spoke about the importance of winning tonight and not letting things snowball. “It was really important that we kept fighting. I thought we had a really good week of practice…we got better this week…I could tell the guys were really dialed in.”
The Hawkeyes are back in action tomorrow at 1:05pm vs Maryland, as they look to sweep the season series vs the Terrapins.
Notables
- Matthew Sosa was hit by pitch for the 15th time this season
- Ben Norman extended his on base streak to 14 games
- Coming into the game Iowa was 1-9 when not scoring first, Maryland led 2-0
- Iowa is now 12-1 when leading after six innings
- Trenton Wallace allowed just one run, despite allowing 11 base runners
